Officials and witnesses say 31 people were killed while traveling to Gaza aid hub – National
At least 31 people were killed on Sunday, more than 170 were injured, and according to health officials and multiple witnesses, they were injured on the way to receive food in the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire at a crowd of about a kilometer (1,000 yards) in the new aid site run by the Israeli-backed foundation.
Israel's army said in a statement that its troops did not open fire on civilians nearby or in the ruins, citing preliminary inquiries.
The foundation was promoted by Israel and the United States – in a statement it provided assistance “nothing happened.” It denied previous records of chaos and gunfire in its site, located in the Israeli military zone, without access to independent media.
“Aid distribution has become a death trap,” Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.
New aid system for chaos damage
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid allocation was damaged by chaos in the first week of its operations, with multiple witnesses saying Israeli troops fired fire in crowds nearby. Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Ministry of Health Records Department, said 17 people were killed when they tried to arrive at the scene before Sunday.
The foundation said the private security contractor guarding its site has not been fired from the crowd. Israel's army admitted to warnings on the front occasion.
Earlier Sunday, it distributed 16 trucks of aid in a statement and dismissed what it called “false reports of death, mass and chaos.” The foundation said in a statement.
“The scene is scary”
A few hours before dawn, thousands of people headed to distribution locations in southern Gaza. Witnesses said that when they approached, Israeli troops ordered them to disperse and come back later. Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire when the crowd reached the flag roundabout about 1 km away (about 3 a.m.).
“From all directions, there are fires in naval warships, tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba in the crowd.
Get the daily national news
Get news, politics, economics and current events titles delivered to your inbox every day.
He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other injured people, including women. People used trolleys to ferry the deceased and were injured to a field hospital. “The scene is terrible,” he said.
Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, a health official at Nasser Hospital, said most people are on the upper part of the body, including the head, neck and chest.
He said 24 people were treated in the intensive care unit of Nasser Hospital. A colleague, surgeon Khaled Al-Ser, said 150 injured people and 28 bodies arrived.
Another witness, Ibrahim Abu Saoud, said the military opened fire from about 300 meters (code). He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died at the scene. “We can't help him,” he said.
Mohammed Abuteima, 33, said he saw Israeli troops open fire and killed his cousin and a woman who headed to the distribution site. He said his cousin was shot in front of his chest and his brother-in-law was injured.
“They opened fire directly at us,” he said.
An Associated Press reporter arrived at a field hospital around 6 a.m. and saw dozens of people injured, including women and children. The reporter also saw that groups of people returned from the distribution point. Some carry aid boxes, but most appear to be empty-handed.
At least 21 people were killed and 175 others were injured, and no one was said to open the fire, officials from the field hospital said. Officials spoke on anonymous because they had no right to speak with reporters. The Ministry of Health provided the same loss and then updated it.
“It is guilty, to humiliation. They humiliated us for food,” Ilham Jarghon cried and prayed for the dead.
Aid system violates humanitarian principles: United Nations
Israel and the United States say the new regime is designed to prevent Hamas from withdrawing aid. Israel has provided no systematic evidence of transfer, nor has it been denied that it happened.
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites and risk more massive displacement in coastal territories.
“It's essentially scarce,” Jonathan Whittall, interim director of Gaza, the United Nations Office for Humanitarianism, said last week.
The UN system has been working to provide assistance after Israel eased a little nearly three-month lockdown last month. The group said that Israel’s restrictions, the collapse of law and order, and widespread robbery made it extremely difficult to provide assistance to approximately 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Experts warn that without more aid, the territory is at risk of famine.
The latest chapter in the conflict began with Hamas-led militants storming into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 people. They still hold 58 hostages, about one-third of them alive, and most of the rest are released in a ceasefire agreement or other transactions.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel's military campaign killed more than 54,000 people, mainly women and children, which does not say how many are civilians or combatants. The offensive destroyed a vast area, with about 90% of the population displaced, relying almost exclusively on international aid.
The latest efforts in the Ceasefire negotiations seemed to stumble upon Saturday when Hamas said it had sought an amendment to the Israeli-approved U.S. ceasefire proposal, which the U.S. envoy said was “unacceptable.”
