Hamas’s civil defense agency reported 44 people killed by the Israel Defense Forces while waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gaza early Tuesday.
Responding to the reported deaths, the IDF later said that a gathering overnight had been identified in an area “adjacent” to its troops in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid group is known to hand out food. Reports of individuals injured by military fire in the area were “under review,” the IDF said.
It is unclear when precisely the reported shooting near the aid sites took place. Earlier this month, the IDF warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing those roads as closed military zones. However, the GHF has indicated it may be open during those hours.
In central Gaza, three witnesses told The Associated Press that the army opened fire as people advanced east toward aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza.
“It was a massacre,” said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, “even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or wounded.”
Hossam Abu Shahada said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward. He described a “chaotic and bloody” scene as people tried to escape.
He said he saw at least three people lying motionless and many others wounded.
The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, confirmed 25 deaths and said 146 others were wounded. It said 62 were in critical condition and transferred to other hospitals.
In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people from the same incident.
In the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as crowds tried to reach another food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
At least 19 were killed and 50 others wounded, according to Nasser hospital and Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Two witnesses said Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed at the Shakoush area, several hundred meters (yards) from the distribution site.
Footage from an AFP journalist from the scene of the gunfire in central Gaza showed wounded residents being carried to a nearby hospital, with some appearing to be unconscious and pale.
“How long will this situation go on? How long will people have to endure this? We want a solution for these victims who are dying,” Rabhi al-Qassas, an eyewitness, told AFP.
According to figures issued on Saturday by the Hamas health ministry, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire while seeking aid since late May. Many of the incidents have occurred near sites operated by the GHF, according to rescuers.
The US- and Israeli-backed organization, which was established to circumvent Hamas in the distribution of aid, issued a complaint Tuesday to the Israeli military over “possible harassment by Israeli soldiers directed at our convoys” heading to the Wadi Gaza site.
The GHF opened three sites Tuesday — two in southern Gaza, and the Wadi Gaza site in the central Strip — and distributed 34,500 boxes of food, which contain enough food for 5.5 people for 3.5 days according to the organization’s own figures.
The organization has said the contents — consisting of dry food products — need to be prepared elsewhere in war-ravaged Gaza, where community kitchens and cooking supplies are limited.
Israel, which said that 79 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, has acknowledged firing warning shots at suspicious people near distribution sites, but denies targeting civilians or using starvation as a weapon of war, and has accused Hamas of hijacking aid deliveries and embedding itself among civilians.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, UN human rights spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan slammed “Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism,” even as he conceded that his office had yet to verify the figures reported by Hamas and non-governmental organizations.
Asked if Israel was guilty of weaponizing the distribution of food, he said: “The legal qualification needs to be made by a court of law.”
In his office’s strongest remarks yet on the GHF, Al-Kheetan said: “Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food.”
“The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law,” he said.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees also hit out at the GHF system.
“The newly created so-called aid mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said at a press conference in Berlin. “It is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.”
“The humanitarian community, including UNRWA, has the expertise and must be allowed to do their job and provide assistance with respect and dignity,” said Lazzarini. “There is no other alternative to address the challenges of spreading hunger in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas terrorists and, earlier this year, banned the agency from operating on Israeli soil or contacting officials.
The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
The GHF began operating in Gaza after a nearly three-month blockade Israel placed on the Strip following the collapse of the last ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas in early March.
Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 2,033 trucks have entered the Strip.
Israel has accused Hamas of hoarding aid and selling it at exorbitant rates amid the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when the terror group stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Lazar Berman and Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.