At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday during a stampede at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. The incident has sparked outrage and conflicting narratives over what led to the deadly chaos.

The GHF, a U.S.-backed organization that operates with Israeli support, said the crowd surge was triggered by “armed agitators” allegedly affiliated with Hamas. According to the group, 19 people were trampled and one person was fatally stabbed amid the panic.
“We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd, armed and affiliated with Hamas, deliberately fomented the unrest,” GHF said in a statement.

Hamas quickly rejected the claim, calling it “false and misleading,” and instead blamed both the GHF and the Israeli military for the fatal incident.
Eyewitness accounts paint a chaotic picture. Mahmoud Fojo, a 21-year-old who survived the crush, told Reuters that security guards at the center locked the gates, trapping people between the entry and a perimeter fence. “People kept gathering and pressuring each other,” he said.

“When people pushed each other, those who couldn’t stand fell under the people and were crushed.”
Other witnesses said guards used pepper spray to control the crowd, exacerbating the panic.

Local Palestinian health officials reported that 21 people died, most from suffocation and trampling. One medic on site described the area as severely overcrowded, with little room for movement or ventilation.
The United Nations has expressed growing concern over the increasing number of civilian casualties near aid centers in Gaza. On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva reported at least 875 deaths near food distribution points in Gaza over the past six weeks, many of them close to GHF-operated sites.

While locals have blamed many of those deaths on Israeli gunfire, the Israeli military has admitted to civilian casualties and said it has issued revised instructions based on “lessons learned.”

The GHF has become a focal point in the debate over humanitarian access in Gaza. The group uses U.S. private contractors to deliver aid, largely bypassing the UN-led aid system, which Israel alleges has been exploited by Hamas militants. Hamas denies those claims.

The UN and several humanitarian agencies have criticized the GHF’s methods, calling them unsafe and a violation of established humanitarian neutrality. The GHF has denied wrongdoing, defending its operations as necessary and effective.
Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, accused the GHF of “gross mismanagement,” citing a lack of organization, limited aid, and unsafe crowd control practices. “People who flock in their thousands are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places,” he said.

As Gaza continues to face one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, Wednesday’s tragedy underscores the deadly consequences of mismanaged aid distribution and the urgent need for coordination, safety, and accountability.

A man has been arrested by Indian authorities following a fatal hit-and-run that claimed the life of Fauja Singh, widely recognized as the world’s oldest marathon participant.

Law enforcement officials stated that the suspect, identified as Amritpal Singh Dhillon, was behind the wheel of a high-speed SUV that struck the 114-year-old athlete. Singh was severely injured and succumbed shortly after being admitted to a hospital.

The collision happened on Monday in Punjab, a northern region of India, while Singh was taking his routine afternoon walk.

Celebrated across the world, Singh broke multiple marathon records in older age brackets. Remarkably, he didn’t start running until he was 89 and went on to complete nine full marathons between 2000 and 2013—when he officially retired from the sport.

The vehicle linked to the hit-and-run, described as a white SUV, has been located and taken into custody by police.

The incident unfolded near Beas Pind, the village where Singh was born, not far from the city of Jalandhar.

Authorities said he was crossing the street when the SUV hit him. Local residents rushed him to medical care, but he could not be saved.

An Indian media report referencing the official complaint suggested that Singh might have survived if the 26-year-old driver had taken immediate action to get him help.

Singh’s running legacy is marked by numerous milestones.

“In 2011, he reportedly became the first person over 100 to finish a full marathon, in Toronto. He also carried the Olympic torch at the 2012 London Olympics.”

However, despite these feats, his name never made it into the Guinness World Records as the oldest marathon runner, since he lacked a formal birth certificate from 1911.

“The BBC earlier reported that Singh’s British passport showed his date of birth as being 1 April 1911, and that he had a letter from the Queen congratulating him on his 100th birthday.”

“Guinness said they wanted to give him the record but could only accept official documents from the year of birth.”

His longtime trainer once explained that official birth documents were simply not issued in rural India during that period.

His Ilford-based running group and charity, Sikhs In The City, announced that their upcoming events in East London—where Singh had lived since the early ’90s—would honor his remarkable journey and legacy.

As a child growing up in rural Punjab, Singh was mocked due to his fragile legs. He struggled to walk until around age five.

“But the same boy, once mocked for his weakness, went on to make history,” he told BBC Punjabi in June.

He didn’t receive formal education or engage in athletics in his early years. He worked as a farmer and lived through the upheavals of both World Wars and India’s partition.

“In my youth, I didn’t even know the word ‘marathon’ existed,” he said.

Singh took up running much later in life, following immense personal tragedy.

In the early 1990s, he lost his wife and relocated to London to live with his eldest son. During a later trip to India, he witnessed his younger son Kuldeep’s tragic death in an accident, a moment that deeply impacted him.

While grieving in the UK, he sought solace during a visit to a gurdwara in Ilford. There, he met a group of older men who regularly ran together. Among them was Harmander Singh—who would become his coach and help launch his late-in-life running career.

Singh became internationally recognized when he was featured in a 2004 global advertising campaign by Adidas titled Impossible is Nothing, alongside iconic figures like Muhammad Ali.