Israel killed at least 32 Palestinians while waiting to get food on two aid distribution sites in Gaza, leaving more than 200 other injured.
Israeli tanks opened fire on thousands of civilians gathered on a Southern Gaza Rafah distribution site on Sunday morning, killing at least 31 people, according to the Gaza government media office.
Shortly after, another person was killed during a shooting on a similar distribution point south of the Netzarim corridor in Gaza City, the office declared on Telegram said.
The aid is distributed by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial group supported by Israel and the United States, which ended a first week of chaotic operations in the enclave.
The United Nations and other aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, accusing it of lacking neutrality and suggesting that the group was trained to allow Israel to achieve its declared military objective of taking control of Gaza.
“ Killed for looking for a meal for children ”
Ibrahim Abu Saoud, who witnessed the attack on Assistant Aid to Rafah, told the Associated Press news agency that Israeli forces opened fire on people while they were heading for the distribution point.
Abu Saoud, 40, said the crowd was about 300 meters (328 yards) of the army. He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died on the scene.
“We couldn’t help him,” he said.
The Khoudary Hinding of Tel Aviv Tribune, postponing Deir El-Balah, in the center of Gaza, said that the Palestinians were killed while trying to get “a meal for their children”.
“This is why the Palestinians went to these distribution points, despite the fact that they know that they are controversial. They (distribution points) are supported by the United States and Israel, but they have no other option,” she said.
“(Even) the food plots that have been distributed to the Palestinians are barely sufficient. We are talking about a kilo of flour, a few bags of pasta, some beans of beans – and it is not nutritious. It is not enough for a family in Gaza today. ”
The GHF told AP that Israeli soldiers had pulled “warning shots” while the Palestinians gathered to receive food. The group denied information that dozens of people have been killed, describing them as “false reports on deaths, mass injuries and chaos”.
The Israeli army said in a statement on the Telegram messaging application that it was “currently ignored by injuries caused by fires (Israelis) on the humanitarian aid distribution site” and that the incident was still being evaluated.
The government’s media office in Gaza condemned attacks, describing GHF distribution points as “mass death traps, not humanitarian aid points”.
“We confirm to the whole world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a war tool, used to blackmail hungry civilians and gather them by force in the killing points exposed, managed and monitored by the Occupation Army and funded and funded politically by … the American administration,” he said in a press release.
Speaking of Gaza City, Bassam Zaqout of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said that the current aid distribution mechanism had replaced 400 old distribution points by only four.
“I think there are various hidden programs in this aid distribution mechanism,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “The mechanism does not meet the needs of people, such as the elderly and people with disabilities.”
The Palestinian group Hamas, which leads the enclave government, published a statement, saying that Israeli shooting was a “flagrant confirmation of the premeditated intention” because it held Israel and the United States entirely responsible for the killings.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that murders were a “full -fledged war crime” and required international intervention to “stop this massacre in progress and impose strict responsibility mechanisms”.
The murders on Sunday crowned a first deadly week for the project operations, on the back of two shots before two distribution points in the south – the first in Rafah, the second to the west of the city – which saw a total combined of nine Palestinians killed.
In Gaza, the crucial aid only flows after Asrael has partially raised a total blockade of more than two months, which brought more than two million of its hungry residents to the edge of a famine.
