GAZA, (PIC)
Humanitarian aid trucks in the Gaza Strip no longer transport only food and medicine, but they have come to carry the possibility of death with them on every journey. The drivers who leave their homes before dawn, hoping to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of hungry people, have themselves become direct targets of Israeli gunfire, in a scene that worsens the humanitarian crisis and threatens one of the most important lifelines of relief in the Strip.
While warnings of the collapse of aid transport operations increase, new testimonies reveal shocking details about the martyrdom of the driver Ahmad Islim, whom witness accounts say was field-executed while performing his work within an aid convoy coordinated with international organizations.
Execution on the aid road
The British newspaper The Guardian documented, based on the testimonies of three drivers, the details of the martyrdom of the Palestinian driver Ahmad Islim, 30 years old, a resident of Deir al-Balah, while he was working to transport food aid for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) organization.
According to the testimonies, the aid convoy stopped after one of the trucks broke down following its entry into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, while the drivers were waiting for permission to undergo inspection, considering that the convoy was moving within prior coordination with the Israeli army.
During their wait, an Israeli military force arrived at the site, and ordered the drivers to get down from their trucks, before forcing some of them to take off their clothes and sit under the sun, then led Ahmad Islim away from his colleagues.
Eyewitnesses confirm that one of the soldiers shot directly at Islim’s head while he was raising his hands, to fall as a martyr on the spot.
Testimonies of the drivers, “they did not understand our language so they shot.”
The driver Diya Mansour, who was part of the convoy, relates that the soldiers tried to inquire about the reason the trucks stopped, but Ahmad Islim did not speak Hebrew, and no communication succeeded between the two parties.
Mansour says that the soldiers did not give the drivers a chance to explain the situation, before one of them suddenly shot Islim, adding that what happened took place without any clash or threat from the drivers’ side.
The witnesses also reported that the soldiers assaulted the drivers by beating and insulting them, and detained them for hours before allowing them to leave.
A fully coordinated convoy
For his part, Jihad Islim, vice president of the Transport Company Owners Association in Gaza, confirmed that the convoy was 100% coordinated through the World Food Program and the World Central Kitchen organization, and entered the Strip according to the approved procedures.
He explained that Ahmad Islim was wearing the safety vest for aid transport workers, and carried all the necessary permits, considering that what happened represents a field execution and deliberate killing of a civilian driver who complied with all instructions.
He added that the Israeli army later returned to claim that the convoy’s route was not coordinated, which the association categorically denied.
"مع السلامة يخو".. وداع مؤثر من أحد أقارب الشهيد أحمد اسليم، سائق شاحنة المساعدات، الذي قتله الاحتلال في رفح أثناء عمله في نقل البضائع والمساعدات عبر معبر كرم أبو سالم #فيديو pic.twitter.com/ZNFiSwf9IO
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 8, 2026
A family that lost its breadwinner
Ahmad Islim was married and a father of two children, one of whom is an infant not exceeding one month old.
Iyad Qamari for Trading and Public Transport Company, for which he worked, confirmed that the driver was killed by a bullet fired by one of the soldiers from close range after taking the drivers down from their trucks.
The owner of the company said that the drivers go out daily to transport food to the residents of Gaza while they realize that they might not return to their homes, pointing out that five of the company’s drivers submitted their resignations following the incident, while others continue to work only because of their need to support their families.
Repeated targeting of relief drivers
The report points out that the incident of Ahmad Islim is not the first of its kind, as the two drivers, Muhammad al-Hila and Mahmoud Awad, had previously been martyred last May after being detained and shot following their release, according to local accounts.
Two drivers working with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) were also martyred while filling water trucks at a distribution point in the northern Gaza Strip, while the report reminded of the Israeli raid that targeted a convoy belonging to the World Central Kitchen organization in April 2024, which resulted in the martyrdom of seven of the organization’s employees.
These incidents indicate, according to the report, the escalation of risks facing humanitarian workers, despite their work within announced coordination with international bodies.
Threat to suspend aid transport
Following the incident, the Private Transport Company Owners Association in the Gaza Strip threatened to suspend aid transport operations through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in protest against the continuous targeting of drivers.
Jihad Islim confirmed that drivers are repeatedly subjected to beating, humiliation, and detention for long hours, pointing out that the soldier who shot Ahmad Islim threatened the other drivers that they would meet the same fate.
He warned that the cessation of the drivers’ work would lead to disrupting one of the most important routes for entering food and medicine into the Strip, at a time when the residents of Gaza are living through one of the worst humanitarian crises, with hundreds of thousands of families depending on daily aid to survive.