Speaking from a hospital bed in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, an intravenous drop attached to his hand and bandages taking his right leg, Khaled Ellaham said that Israeli soldiers had shot the crowd of hungry Palestinians while they were approaching a Rafah help site on Monday.
“They opened fire directly on us,” he said on Monday. “Many people have been injured – and many people have been killed.”
Ellaham, 39, was one of the thousands of people who have traveled a lot of kilometers, to reach the distribution center early that morning, desperate to go there in time to collect some of the limited supplies distributed.
“Today, you throw yourself to death to eat,” said Ellaham.
In the video shared on Sunday on social networks and verified by NBC News, a crowd of people can be seen to run like what sounds like shots sound. A strip of light on the horizon points out the sunrise that is approaching.
“We came across the ground and when the shooting stopped for a moment, I got up – to be struck by an explosive ball,” Naji Al -Nahal, 30, from Rafah, in NBC News on Monday when he had received care at Nasser hospital.
“Fortunately, I had an empty bag of flour with me,” he said. “People around me used it to wrap my injury.”
Images captured by NBC News showed the bloody bodies of dead and injured while they were transported urgently to Nasser Hospital on Sunday.
Sunday, at least 31 people were killed near the Rafah help site, Mohammed Zaqout, director of Gaza hospitals, said.
Nasser Hospital has treated some 200 people, dozens in critical condition, he said. Many of these injuries were “direct” injuries in the head, chest, abdomen, “added Zaqout.
Vigorous refusal
On Sunday, the Israeli army denied that its forces had drawn to the Palestinians “in the region of the humanitarian aid distribution site”, citing an initial investigation. The GHF said that he had not yet seen “concrete evidence” of the alleged attack.
In addition, an Israeli military official told NBC News that there had been an incident during which soldiers had fired “to several suspects” at about half a million aid distribution center – but they argued that there was no connection between this and what they described as “false affirmations” formulated against the army.
In a statement on Monday, the GHF said: “There had been no injury, death or incident” during their operations on Sunday.
“We have not yet seen a concrete evidence that there was an attack in or near our establishment yesterday and that reports based on evidence should be at least the minimum requirement for the media,” said GHF.
In its statement on Tuesday, the FDI said it has authorized GHF to operate independently in order to allow the distribution of aid to Palestinian residents of Gaza “and not in Hamas”.
Israeli officials have long said that Hamas diverts the help of civilians, which is one of the main reasons for the new Help system managed by GHF.
Help groups, including the United Nations Bureau for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said they had not seen cases of helping being diverted to Hamas during the war.
Israel launched his war in Gaza after October 7, 2023, Terrorist attacks led by Hamas in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 took hostage. Israel has since killed more than 54,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.