More than 700 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, according to new figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, arousing the renewed conviction of a controversial regime of the United States and Israeli aid.
The Ministry of Health said on Saturday that at least 743 Palestinians had been killed and that more than 4,891 others were injured when they asked for help from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites.
The GHF, which began to operate in the Palestinian enclave bombed at the end of May, aroused many criticisms in the midst of multiple reports according to which its entrepreneurs as well as the Israeli forces opened fire on the aid seekers.
“The tragedy is that it is still a conservative reading of victims who were at these distribution points, pending food packages,” said Hani Mahmoud of Tel Aviv Tribune about the latest figures of the ministry.
Reporting from Gaza City, Mahmoud said that attacks on help seekers come while Palestinian families were desperate to feed their families in the midst of disastrous shortages caused by the Israeli Gaza blockade.
“People are hungry. People ration supplies. Many families do not eat. Mothers here jump meals to provide for their children, “he said.
Earlier this week, a report by the Associated Press news agency cited American entrepreneurs who said that live ammunition and Stun Grenades were dismissed on Palestinian civilians looking for GHF distribution points.
Two anonymous American entrepreneurs told AP that highly armed staff seemed to do what they wanted.
The GHF denied the report of the news agency as “categorically false” and said that it was taking “the security and security of (its) sites very seriously”.
The administration of American president Donald Trump also supported the GHF, a spokesman for the State Department told journalists on Wednesday that the group is “an entity which obtained food and aid to the Gaza Strip”.
At the end of June, the Trump administration promised $ 30 million in direct funding for the organization.
On Saturday, the GHF said that two American workers from one of its sites in southern Khan Younis in Gaza were injured when grenades were thrown to them at the end of the food distribution. “The injured Americans receive medical treatment and are in stable condition,” said the group.
He was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
The main humanitarian groups and human rights have required the immediate closure of the GHF, which they have accused of “forcing two million people in overcrowded and militarized areas where they face daily shots and mass victims”.
Amnesty International described the group’s operations as a “inhuman and deadly militarized scheme”.
“All the evidence collected, including the testimonies that Amnesty International receives victims and witnesses, suggest that the GHF has been designed to appease international concerns while constituting another tool of the genocide of Israel,” said Amnesty.
However, confronted with disastrous shortages of food, water and other humanitarian supplies under the blockade of Israel, many Palestinians from Gaza say they have no choice but to ask for the group’s help, despite the risks.
“I was forced to go to the aid distribution center simply because my children had not eaten for three days in a row,” a Palestinian told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We are trying to deceive our children by all means, but they are hungry,” said Abu Laban.
“So I decided to risk my life and head to (a point of aid distribution) in Netzarim,” he said, referring to an Israeli corridor established south of Gaza City.
“I hit the road at midnight hoping to get food. As the crowds rushed, the Israeli forces have drawn artillery shells over us. In chaos, everyone was trying to survive. ”
