‘I saw death’: Palestinians recall Israeli massacre of nearly 100 aid seekers
Palestinians killed in the Israel attack on civilians on 20 July 2025 in north Gaza
Mohammed al-Hajjar and Mera Aladam report in Middle East Eye on 22 July 2025:
Piles of dead bodies and wounded people. That is all 18 year-old Mohammad al-Ewadi could see around him. He was among thousands of starving Palestinians heading towards the al-Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza City on Sunday morning.
There, trucks from the World Food Programme (WFP) were expected to arrive, offering a rare chance to access long-denied essential supplies.
But as people gathered near the truck, Israeli troops surrounded relief-seekers, directly and indiscriminately shooting towards them, according to eyewitnesses, among them Ewadi.
“They [the Israeli army] fired heavily at us from the tanks,” he told Middle East Eye, describing how military vehicles moved through the crowd, at times passing within inches of civilians. “There are now piles of martyrs. It was chaos… the scenes were grotesque, truly grotesque. People were being shot from all directions. If someone next to you was hit, you couldn’t help them. You just wanted to hide, in that moment, saving yourself becomes the only thing that matters.”
Ewadi estimated that tens of thousands people had gathered in the area in the hope of receiving humanitarian aid, the largest crowd he had seen since the beginning of the war. His brother, Abdullah al-Ewadi, was among those wounded in the attack.
Health officials reported that at least 99 people were killed in the attack, with over 650 others wounded. The attack brought the total death toll of humanitarian aid seekers since the end of May to more than 1,021, with over 6,511 Palestinians wounded.
Among those wounded was Farah Hisham al-Sheesh, who made his way to the area at around 10am, following rumours of a new delivery of aid. There, he was hit in the head during the Israeli shelling. “God is sufficient, that’s all we can say,” he told MEE.
Nafez Hana al-Najjar, from Jabalia, another eyewitness, described a similar experience. “We were surrounded, and I was wounded in the ear and arm. I saw men martyred in front of me, and wounded people all around. May God heal them,” he said.
Najjar told MEE it was his first time attempting to reach the area in search of aid and was shocked when Israeli tanks, soldiers, and drones began firing at the crowd. As bullets struck him, he recalled his cousin rushing over to help, only to be shot in the heart and killed instantly. “It was all indiscriminate and without warning… God help us,” Najjar said, his eyes welling with tears.