Israeli forces and drones have killed at least 86 Palestinians from Dawn, including 56 distribution centers close to aid, in the latest attacks against desperate people who are looking for aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, according to medical sources in hospitals.
In Rafah only, in the south of the enclave, 27 aid seekers were killed Tuesday by the Israeli army.
The overall number of deaths of the War of Israel has increased to more than 56,000 killed and 131,848 injuries since October 7, 2023.
The murders are the last of a wave of daily distribution points close to the aid established at the end of last month by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), that the head of the United Nations Agency for Reliefs and Works for Palestinian Refugees (Undra) called “trap to death”.
Medical sources have indicated that at least 25 people had been killed during an incident on rue Salah al-Din south of Wadi Gaza in the center of Gaza, according to the Associated Press news agency. More than 140 other people were injured, including 62 of them.
Images published on the Instagram social media site and verified by the Sanad agency in Tel Aviv Tribune have shown bodies brought to the Al-Awda hospital in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp.
Similar scenes have been reported in the Nasser medical complex south of Khan Younis, following unaccounts that the Israeli army had targeted people while waiting for help on al-Tina street.
People approaching an aid point in Gaza City were also killed, Hani Mahmoud of Tel Aviv Tribune reported in the city in the north of the territory, as well as Rafah in the south.
“Losses have been brought to various health establishments, including the Al-Shifa Hospital (in Gaza City),” he said. “The emergency district has turned into a blood bath and many have died while waiting for medical care.”
Witnesses told AP that Israeli forces had opened fire while people were approaching aid trucks.
“It was a massacre,” said Ahmed Halawa, reporting that tanks and drones had fired “even if we flee”.
The Israeli army said that it examined reports from fire victims by its troops after a group of people approached soldiers in an area near the militarized corridor of Netzarim.
Israel said previous shots near the GHF aid sites had been caused by the “suspect” approach to soldiers.
Witnesses and humanitarian groups said that many shots had taken place without warning.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, told a press conference that the number of Palestinian deaths on the sites testified to “the horrors of what is happening in Gaza”.
“People are killed just for trying to have food because of a militarized humanitarian distribution system that does not encounter any of the functional, fair, independent and impartial humanitarian conditions,” he said.
Dujarric added: “It is high time that the leaders on both sides find the political courage to put an end to this carnage”.
‘Trap of death’
The murder of aid seekers has become an almost daily event since the GHF resumed the distribution of food and other vital supplies.
The Foundation launched its aid distribution program at the end of May after Israel has completely cut the Gaza supplies for more than two months, which prompted warnings from mass famine.
The United Nations refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns that it favors Israeli military objectives on humanitarian needs and condemned it for its “armament” of aid.
GHF distribution sites were prey to chaos and carnage scenes. More than 400 people have been killed and 1,000 injured by Israeli soldiers since the start of the deployment of GHF aid.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Tuesday that the Gaza aid distribution system was “abomination”.
“The so-called aid mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people,” said Lazzarini at a press conference in Berlin. “It is a death trap that costs more lives than it saves.”
In a letter published on Monday, the International Commission of Jurists – a human rights NGO of eminent lawyers and judges – joined 14 other groups to condemn the GHF and call for “the end of private militarized humanitarian operations in Gaza”.
Philip Grant, Executive Director of the NGO Trial International, based in Geneva, said that the GHF militarized and privatized assistance service model “violates the basic humanitarian principles”.
He added that those who allowed or took advantage of the GHF work faced a “real risk of prosecution for complicity in war crimes, including the forced transfer of civilians and the famine of civilians as a method of war”.
Meanwhile, the United States has engaged $ 30 million in the GFH despite growing criticism of its role in the murderous ambuscades of the Israeli army aid site, according to Reuters.
While Washington, DC previously offered diplomatic support to GHF, would mark its first known financial contribution to the group, which contracts private military and logistics companies to provide assistance to the besieged enclave.