GAZA: An Israeli attack near an aid distribution point run by a private United States-based group killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday (Jun 1), local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel exchanged blame over a faltering effort to secure a ceasefire.
The incident in Rafah in the south of the enclave was the latest in a series highlighting the volatile security situation complicating aid delivery to Gaza, following the easing of an almost three-month Israeli blockade last month.
“There are martyrs and injuries. Many injuries. It is a tragic situation in this place. I advise them that nobody goes to aid delivery points. Enough,” paramedic Abu Tareq said at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis city.
The local Palestinian Red Crescent, affiliated with the international Red Cross, said its medical teams had recovered the bodies of 23 Palestinians and treated another 23 injured near an aid collection site in Rafah.
The US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates the aid distribution sites in Rafah.
The Red Crescent also reported that 14 more Palestinians were injured near a separate site in central Gaza. GHF also operates the aid distribution site in central Gaza.
Earlier, the Palestinian news agency WAFA and Hamas-affiliated media put the number of deaths at 30. Local health authorities said at least 31 bodies had so far arrived at Nasser Hospital.
Israel’s military said in a statement it was looking into reports that Palestinians had been shot at an aid distribution site but that it was unaware of injuries caused by military fire. GHF denied anyone had been killed or injured near their site in Rafah and that all of its distribution had taken place without incident.
The US company accused Hamas of fabricating “fake reports”.
Residents and medics said Israeli soldiers fired from the ground at a crane nearby that overlooks the area, and a tank opened fire at thousands of people who were en route to get aid from the site in Rafah. Reuters footage showed ambulance vehicles carrying injured people to Nasser Hospital.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israel has turned the distribution sites into “death traps” for people desperate to get some aid.
“We affirm to the world that what is taking place is a deliberate and malicious use of aid as a ‘weapon of war’, employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military,” it said.
GHF is a US-based entity backed by the US and Israeli governments that provides humanitarian aid in Gaza, bypassing traditional relief groups. It began work in Gaza last month and has three sites from where thousands have collected aid.
GHF has been widely criticised by the international community and its executive director resigned in May, citing what he said was the entity’s lack of independence and neutrality. It is not clear who is funding the company.
Israeli officials have said that Palestinians collecting aid would be screened to exclude anyone linked to Hamas.
