At least three Palestinians were killed in Gaza after the Israeli army opened fire on crowds of people who rushed to a point of aid distribution set up by a controversial organization supported by Israel and the United States.
The fatal incident in the southern city of Rafah left 46 other injured on Tuesday and seven missing, according to the authorities of Gaza.
The aid group behind the initiative, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) denied the report, while the Israeli army said that its troops had drawn warning fire outside the distribution site and that this control had been restored.
The incident sparked criticism from the United Nations and aid groups, but Israel and the United States have continued to defend GHF.
Here is an overview of the reaction:
The United Nations
A spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the images and videos of the aid points established by GHF were “to say the least.”
“We and our partners have a detailed sound plan and on principles on principles, supported by the Member States to obtain aid to a desperate population,” Stéphane Dujarric told journalists.
“Humanitarian aid needs to be distributed in a way that is safe principles of independence (and) impartiality – in the way we’ve always done it… we saw the that they are (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) published and that they presented to us, and it is not That we feel match for principles, which we apply the board, from Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar, To AnyWhere You Want To Talk About.
Palestine
The government’s media office in Gaza condemned the actions of the Israeli army to Rafah.
“The occupation forces, positioned in or around these regions, opened fire live on hungry civilians who have been attracted to these places under the pretext of receiving help,” the office said in a statement.
“What happened today in Rafah is a deliberate massacre and a war crime in its own right, committed in cold blood against weakened civilians by more than 90 days of famine induced by the seat.”
The office added: “This incident provides undeniable proof of the total failure of the Israeli occupation in the management of the humanitarian disaster that it has deliberately created.”
Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognized chaos on the GHF website, but said the disturbance was brief.
“We have developed a plan with our American friends to have controlled distribution sites where an American company would distribute food to Palestinian families,” he said. “There was a loss of control momentarily. Fortunately, we brought it under control.”
He also said that there was no evidence of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, saying: “You cannot see, not an emaciated (person) from the start of the war to this.”
UNITED STATES
The US State Department has also minimized the rush to the GHF site and rejected criticism from the aid program as “complaints concerning style”.
“Hamas opposed this dynamic (help). They tried to stop the aid movement through Gaza in these distribution centers, but they failed,” said Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the State Department.
“In this kind of environment, it is not surprising that there are some problems involved. But the good news is that those who seek to obtain help from the inhabitants of Gaza, who is not Hamas, have succeeded.”
She added: “The real story is that help and food move to Gaza on a large scale. We look at 8,000 boxes … It is a complicated environment, and history is the fact that it works.”
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
“The needs in the field are excellent. At a time from the end of the afternoon, the volume of people on the (distribution site) was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take help in complete safety and dissipate,” the group said in a statement.
The operations have now returned to normal, said the group, adding that it has distributed around 8,000 food boxes, which, according to him, will feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days and increase around 462,000 meals.
International refugees
Hardin Lang, vice-president of the group for policies and programs, said that the United States aid initiative is managed by military logic rather than humanitarian.
“This is not the way you try to feed a population, even less a population on the verge of famine,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune, speaking of Washington, DC.
“The type of operation that is necessary to prevent famine or stop it if it is already underway, is an extremely important and complex logistics operation. And it’s not just food. You should have access to medical facilities, access to acute malnutrition centers … which have not been taken into account in this plan. ”
He added: “It is not set up to meet the needs of people. It seems that it is designed to locate people in the south of Gaza – in an area designated by Israelis as” a humanitarian zone “, as opposed to trying to meet the needs of a very desperate population.”
Norwegian refugee council
Ahmed Bayram, CNRC spokesperson, called on Israel and the United States to cancel their initiative and let the humanitarian organizations do their job.
“What we see is indeed a summary of the tragedy experienced by the inhabitants of Gaza,” he said.
“This is not how the aid is done; This is not how the aid should be distributed, in particular an occupant who does this – a country that has destroyed and flattened Rafah, asking people to return to Rafah, who has moved people from Rafah, and now tells them to come back and receive what they can get. “