At least 32 Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs have been killed after Israeli troops opened fire towards crowds, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
The shooting occurred near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which launched operations in May, it said.
The US and Israel-backed group seeks to replace the traditional UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, asserting that Hamas militants siphon off supplies. The UN denies that allegation.
While the GHF claims it has given millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, witnesses and local health officials say Israeli army fire has killed hundreds trying to reach the hubs.
Reports of Palestinians being killed by Israeli gunfire while queuing for food have become a near daily occurrence since the GHF started operations in late May.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which is not at the sites but secures them from a distance, says it only fires warning shots if crowds get too close to its forces.
It said warning shots were fired at suspects who approached its troops after they did not heed calls to stop, about a kilometre away from an aid distribution site that was not active at the time.
Gaza resident Mohammed al-Khalidi said he was in the group approaching the site and heard no warnings before the firing began.
‘We thought they came out to organise us so we can get aid, suddenly (I) saw the jeeps coming from one side, and the tanks from the other and started shooting at us,’ he told Reuters.
‘If they wanted to organise us, they would have, but they meant to kill us.’
Mahmoud Mokeimar said he was walking with masses of people, mostly young men, toward the hub.
‘The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,’ he said, describing seeing at least three motionless bodies on the ground and many wounded people fleeing.
Another witness, Akram Aker, said troops fired machine guns mounted on tanks and drones.
He said the shooting happened between 5am and 6am.
The GHF had called on people not to approach before 6am Saturday, citing potential military activities.
Sanaa al-Jaberi said there was shooting after the site opened as people seeking aid broke into a run.
‘Is this food or death? Why? They don’t talk with us, they only shoot us,’ she said, showing off her empty bag.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received 25 bodies.
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Seven other people, including one woman, were killed in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters (yards) north of another GHF hub in Rafah, the hospital said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry confirmed the toll.
Dr Mohamed Saker, head of Nasser’s nursing department, said it received 70 wounded people.
He told The Associated Press that most people were shot in the head and chest.
‘The situation is difficult and tragic,’ he said, adding that the facility lacks medical supplies.
Some of the wounded, including a child, were treated on the floor.
One boy stood patiently, holding up a blood bag for someone on a stretcher.
On Tuesday, the UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza – the majority of them close to GHF distribution points.
Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military.
The military has acknowledged that civilians were harmed, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with ‘lessons learned’.
At least 50 more people were killed in other Israeli attacks across Gaza on Saturday, health officials said, including one strike that killed the head of the Hamas-run police force in Nuseirat in central Gaza and 11 of his family members.
The Israeli military said that it had struck militants’ weapon depots and sniping posts in a few locations in the enclave.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed around 58,000 Palestinians – most of them civilians, according to health officials.
The ministry does not say how many militants are among the dead, but it says over half were women and children.
Almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced, with the enclave plunged into a humanitarian crisis, leaving much of the territory in ruins.
Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Doha aimed at reaching a US-proposed 60-day ceasefire and a hostage deal mediated by Egypt and Qatar, though there has been no sign of any imminent breakthrough.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are believed to still be alive.
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