At least 31 people were killed and more than 170 were injured on Sunday while they are on the road to receive food in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials and multiple witnesses. The witnesses said that Israeli forces have shot crowds around a kilometer (1,000 yards) from a new aid site led by a foundation supported by the Israeli.
The army of Israel said in a statement that its forces did not draw on civilians or inside the site, citing an initial investigation.
The foundation – promoted by Israel and the United States – said in a statement that it had delivered “without incident” aid. He denied previous accounts of chaos and shots around his sites, which are in Israeli military areas where the independent media do not have access.
“The distribution of aid has become a death trap,” said the head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini.
A new help system spoiled by chaos
The distribution of assistant from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was marred by chaos during its first week of operations, and several witnesses said that Israeli troops fired on crowds near its sites. Before Sunday, 17 people were killed while trying to reach the sites, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Department of Files of the Ministry of Health.
The Foundation indicates that private security entrepreneurs keeping its sites did not shoot the crowd. The Israeli army admitted to having shot warning on previous occasions.
The Foundation said in a statement that he had distributed 16 aid trucks early Sunday “without incident” and rejected what he described as “false reports on deaths, mass injuries and chaos”.
‘The scene was horrible’
Thousands of people went to the distribution site in the south of Gaza for hours before dawn. As approaching, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowd reached the flag roundabout, around 1 kilometer, around 3 am, Israeli forces opened fire, witnesses said.
“There was fire of all directions, naval warships, tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.
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He said he saw at least 10 bodies with ball wounds and several other injured, including women. People used trolleys to transport the dead and injured in a field hospital. “The scene was horrible,” he said.
Most people have been killed “in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest,” said Dr. Marwan al-Hams, a head of the Ministry of Health at Nasser Hospital, where many injured were transferred from the Red Cross field hospital.
He said that 24 people were treated in the Nasser Hospital Intensive Care Unit. A colleague, surgeon Khaled al-Ser, said later that 150 injured had arrived, with 28 bodies.
Ibrahim Abu Saoud, another witness, said the soldiers had fired around 300 meters (yards). He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died on the scene. “We couldn’t help him,” he said.
Mohammed Abu Teima, 33, said he saw Israeli forces open fire and kill his cousin and a woman while they were heading for the distribution site. He said that his cousin had been shot in his chest and that his brother-in-law was among the injured.
“They opened heavy fire directly to us,” he said.
An AP journalist arrived at Field Hospital around 6 a.m. and saw dozens of injured, including women and children. The journalist also saw crowds of people returning from the distribution point. Some wore boxes of help, but most seemed to be empty -handed.
Officials at Field Hospital said that at least 21 people had been killed and that 175 others had been injured, without saying who had opened fire. The officials spoke under the guise of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to journalists. The Ministry of Health provided the same toll and then updated it.
“It’s a safe blow, enough with humiliation. They humiliated us for food,” said Ilham Jarghon while the Palestinian compatriots cried and prayed for the dead.
The help system violates humanitarian principles: the UN
Israel and the United States say that the new system aims to prevent Hamas from siphoning aid. Israel did not provide evidence of systematic diversion and the UN denies that it has occurred.
The United Nations agencies and large aid groups have refused to work with the new system, claiming that it violates the humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives help and obliges people to move to the distribution sites, risking even more mass movement in the coastal territory.
“It is essentially a rarity,” said Jonathan Whittall, temporary chief in Gaza last week of the United Nations Humanitarian Office.
The United Nations system has struggled to help after Israel slightly attenuated its blockade almost three months from the territory last month. The groups say that Israeli restrictions, the rupture of the law and the order and the widespread looting make it extremely difficult to provide aid to around 2 million Palestinians from Gaza.
Experts have warned that the territory risks famine if no more aid is not brought.
The last chapter of the conflict began when activists led by Hamas broke into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians and kidnapped 251. They still hold 58 hostages, about a third considered alive, after most of the others were released in transfer agreements or other agreements.
The military campaign of Israel killed more than 54,000 people, mainly women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not say how many deaths were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed large areas, moved around 90% of the population and left people who depend almost completely on international aid.
The latest cease-fire efforts seemed to trip on Saturday when Hamas said he had asked for amendments to an American cease-fire proposal that Israel had approved, and the American envoy called this “unacceptable”.