PNS|Rafah (Gaza Strip)
At least 31 people were killed and over 170 were wounded Sunday while on their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, health officials and witnesses said. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds around a kilometre from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation.
It was the deadliest incident yet around the new aid distribution system, which has operated for less than a week.
Israel’s military said in a statement its forces did not fire at civilians near or within the site. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with procedure, said troops fired warning shots at several suspects advancing toward them a kilometer from the site.
The foundation — promoted by Israel and the United States — said in a statement it delivered aid “without incident”. It has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent media has no access.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement its field hospital in the southern city of Rafah received 179 casualties including women and children, 21 of them declared dead upon arrival, the majority with gunshot or shrapnel wounds.
“All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site,” the ICRC said, calling it the highest number of “weapon-wounded” people in a single incident since the hospital was set up over a year ago.
“Aid distribution has become a death trap,” the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement.
In a separate statement, Israeli military chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir ordered that more aid sites be established — and that troops’ ground operation be expanded in unspecified parts of northern and southern Gaza.
A new aid system marred by chaos
Multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s sites. Before Sunday, 17 people were killed while trying to reach them, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.
The foundation says private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on crowds. Israel’s military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions.
The foundation said in a statement it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday “without incident,” and dismissed what it described as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos.”
