The Israeli forces killed at least 27 Palestinians and injured 90 others when they opened fire near a Rafah aid distribution site, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The last murders came early Tuesday at the Flag roundabout, near a help center operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
It was the third incident of this type around Rafah Hub in as many days. The Gaza authorities report that more than 100 help seekers have been killed since the GHF, supported by the United States and Israel, began to operate in the enclave on May 27, with reports of violence, looting and chaos.
The Israeli army said it had fired when “a certain number of suspects” erected regulated roads, on which a crowd was heading for the GHF distribution complex.
The “suspects” were about 500 meters (about 550 yards) from the site, the army said in a statement on Telegram, adding that it was considering victims.
The number of deaths was confirmed by Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Department of Files of the Gaza Ministry of Health.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hisham Mhanna said that 184 injured had been taken to his country hospital in Rafah, 19 of which were found dead when they arrived, and eight others died later their injuries.
The video checked by the Tel Aviv Tribune Sanad fact checking agency has shown the arrival of dozens of people injured in the hospital.
Attracted
The Gaza Government Media Office accused Israel of “a horrible and intentionally repeated crime”, saying that this attracted hungry Palestinians to the GHF centers – opened in a controversial way following a total blockade of 11 weeks to use most of the distribution of help from the United Nations and other aid agencies – then opening fire.
He said that Tuesday’s deaths had caused the number of assistance applicants killed on Rafah’s governorate and the so-called Netzarim corridor since GHF has launched operations at 102, 490 others injured.
The United Nations demanded on Monday an independent survey on the repeated mass shootings for assistance applicants in Gaza.
“It is unacceptable that the Palestinians risk their lives for food,” said Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “I call an immediate and independent investigation into these events and that the authors must be held responsible.”
“We have heard witnesses that there were chaos,” said Khoudary Hind Al de Jazeera, reporting the murders of Deir El-Balah Tuesday in the center of Gaza. “Israeli forces have opened fire at random, pulling Palestinians … using quadcopters and living ammunition.”
Officials and doctors from the Ministry of Health said most of the injured had been affected in their chest and their heads, she added.
The bloodshed, she continued, had taken place in the same way as the previous two days, in the middle of the chaos in progress in the aid distribution centers.
“There is no process. There is no system, ”she said. “You just have to run first to get food.”
‘Anyway, we will die’
Rasha al-Nahal told the Associated Press news agency that “there were shots of all directions”, and that she saw more than a dozen dead and several injured on the road.
When she finally arrived at the distribution center, there was no help, said al-Nahal, adding that Israeli troops “pulled us on us”.
Another witness, Neima al-Aaraj, from Khan Younis, described the shooting as “blind”.
“I will not come back,” she said. “Anyway, we will die.”
The Israeli army, in its declaration on Telegram, said that the troops had shot warning when people were deviating “designated access routes” and that “after the suspects are withdrawn, additional blows were directed near a few individual suspects that advanced to the troops”.
However, he denied having shot civilians or preventing them from access to help.
This account echoes declarations on similar incidents on Sunday, when 31 applicants were killed, and on Monday, when three others were killed.