Bodies of Palestinians killed waiting for aid at a US aid distribution point in the western part of Rafah, are brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photo / Getty Images
Palestinians trying to secure food were shot and killed in the Gaza Strip in two separate episodes in the past two days when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds.
Yesterday NZT, the soldiers shot Palestinians near a food distribution site in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Today, they fired at crowds who had gathered near a border crossing used by aid trucks to enter the enclave.
Palestinian health officials said that more than 60 people were killed in today’s episode. Yesterday, near an aid distribution site run by American contractors and backed by Israel and the United States, at least 32 people were killed, according to local health officials.
The violence added to the mounting death toll for hungry Palestinians killed while seeking food since late May, when Israel lifted a blockade, in place for roughly 80 days, on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group backed by Israel, began operations delivering aid to Gaza in May.
Since then, thousands of desperate Palestinians have come to its four aid sites early each morning hoping to obtain food.
About 700 people have been killed while trying to get aid from those sites, according to data provided last week by the United Nations.
Eyewitnesses and Gaza health officials have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of shooting into crowds.
The shooting today took place near a border crossing, not outside one of the aid group’s new sites, but both episodes highlighted the extreme danger Gaza residents are facing as Israel tries to replace the system for distributing food in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has faced widespread international condemnation for restricting aid to the two million people in Gaza, bringing the enclave to the brink of famine.
Here is what to know about the situation:
What happened this weekend?
The Israeli military said that soldiers had fired “warning shots” after crowds of thousands had gathered in northern Gaza to “remove an immediate threat posed to them”. It said that the number of reported casualties did not “align” with its initial review.
More than 60 people were killed in the incident near the Zikim crossing between Gaza and Israel, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
A field hospital operated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society in northern Gaza was flooded with gunshot victims, including two dead and more than 100 wounded, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent Society.
The deaths in northern Gaza followed violence near an aid distribution site in Rafah, in the south of the enclave.
The Israeli military said in a statement that troops about 915m from an aid site had fired “warning shots” in the morning, before the hub opened, as people approached them and did not comply with an order to halt.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said there were “no incidents at or near any of our aid distribution sites today”. But it acknowledged that deadly violence had “occurred hours before our sites opened”.
Though the foundation has told civilians to avoid the sites before they open, many people often head to the locations early, sometimes walking for hours to get there, because food is so scarce in Gaza and the aid runs out quickly.
“This has become my terrifying daily routine,” said Luay Abu Oda, 24, who described in an interview how he had survived the violence yesterday. “I dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead just to survive. I couldn’t even reach for my phone to check the time.”
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
The group, which was conceived by Israel and has diplomatic and financial support from the US, is staffed by American private contractors with Israeli troops positioned nearby as guards.
Israeli officials have said that the foundation was established to allow aid delivery that does not benefit Hamas, accusing the group of systematically seizing humanitarian assistance and restricting supplies for ordinary Gaza residents.
Human rights organisations say the new foundation’s approach flies in the face of internationally established methods to protect people in need.
Its “militarised model, coupled with its close collaboration with Israeli authorities, undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence”, 15 rights groups from various countries said in a statement last month.
At a United Nations Security Council meeting this month called by Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, and Slovenia to address the alarm about the situation in Gaza, the US defended the new system and accused aid groups that have rejected it of shirking their duty.
What happened previously?
There have been several deadly incidents at and near the new aid sites. Witnesses have repeatedly reported that Israeli troops have opened fire on people near the new hubs. The Israeli military has said that it had fired “warning shots” when people approached soldiers.
— Earlier in July, at least 20 people died in a stampede near an aid distribution centre, and an Israeli airstrike near a health clinic run by an American aid group killed more than a dozen people, according to Palestinian and aid officials.
— In June, more than 100 Palestinians seeking aid were killed by Israeli troops in at least four violent incidents, according to Gaza health officials.
Is any other aid getting into Gaza?
In a separate aid effort that has also become engulfed in chaos, the UN and other international organisations have been delivering a trickle of food handouts to northern Gaza.
Desperate crowds have been ransacking trucks carrying flour and other goods minutes after they enter the enclave, according to witnesses.
UN officials say that distribution to warehouses and bakeries inside Gaza has been hampered by the lack of secure routes, and that negligible quantities of food are reaching the people who need it.
Tom Fletcher, who leads the UN humanitarian agency, said at the UN Security Council meeting about the dire situation in Gaza that assistance entering the enclave was “a drop in the ocean of needs” for civilians. “Gaza’s soaring humanitarian needs must be met without drawing people into a firing line,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Aaron Boxerman, Ephrat Livni and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad
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