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DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops opened fire Saturday toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a U.S. and Israeli-backed group in southern Gaza, killing at least 32 people, according to witnesses and hospital officials.
The shootings occurred near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which launched operations in May. The U.S. and Israel seek to replace the traditional U.N.-led aid distribution system in Gaza, asserting that Hamas militants siphon off supplies. The U.N. denies the allegation.
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While the GHF says it has distributed millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, local health officials and witnesses say that Israeli army fire has killed hundreds of people as they try to reach the hubs. GHF’s four sites are in military-controlled zones.
Israel’s army, which is not at the sites but secures them from a distance, says it only fires warning shots if crowds get too close to its forces. The military on Saturday said it fired warning shots near Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah after a group of suspects approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance. It said the incident occurred overnight when the distribution site was closed.
In a statement, the GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites and added, “we have repeatedly warned aid seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours.”
Witnesses allege indiscriminate fire
Most of Saturday’s deaths occurred as Palestinians massed in the Teina area, around 3 kilometres from a GHF aid distribution center near the southern city of Khan Younis.
Mahmoud Mokeimar said he was walking with masses of people, mostly young men, toward the hub. Troops fired warning shots, then opened fire.
“The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,” he said. He said he saw at least three motionless bodies on the ground, and many wounded people fleeing.
Akram Aker, another witness, said troops fired machine guns mounted on tanks and drones. He said the shooting happened between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. The GHF had called on people not to approach before 6 a.m. Saturday, citing potential military activities.
“They encircled us and started firing directly at us,” Aker said. He said he saw many casualties on the ground.
Sanaa al-Jaberi said there was shooting after the site opened as people seeking aid broke into a run.
“Is this food or death? Why? They don’t talk with us, they only shoot us,” she said, and showed off her empty bag.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received 25 bodies. Seven other people, including one woman, were killed in the Shakoush area, hundreds of metres north of another GHF hub in Rafah, the hospital said. Gaza’s Health Ministry confirmed the toll.
Dr. Mohamed Saker, head of Nasser’s nursing department, said it received 70 wounded people. He told The Associated Press that most people were shot in the head and chest.
“The situation is difficult and tragic,” he said, adding that the facility lacks medical supplies. Some of the wounded, including a child, were treated on the floor. One boy stood patiently, holding up a blood bag for someone on a stretcher.
Meanwhile, Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service in northern Gaza, said two people were killed in Gaza City when an airstrike hit a tent in a camp sheltering displaced families.
In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said 12 people were killed in an airstrike. The hospital and Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Omar Aqel, a local police official, was killed. Two children, including an infant, and five women — all relatives of Aqel — were among the dead.
Al-Awda Hospital said it also received two people killed by an Israeli strike on a group of people in Bureij. Another strike on a house in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan killed at least four, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. A strike that hit a cart in Tal al-Hawa in northern Gaza killed four people, the service said.
Israel’s army had no comment on specific strikes but said it had struck some 90 targets throughout Gaza over the past day and killed militants and targeted “terror infrastructure” in northern Gaza and Gaza City.
Humanitarian crisis continues
Gaza’s more than two million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Distribution at the GHF sites is often chaotic. Boxes of food are stacked on the ground and crowds surge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF.
In videos obtained recently by the AP, GHF contractors are seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds behind metal fences or force them to disperse. Gunshots can be heard.
Hamas triggered the 21-month war when it stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
Israel’s military offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displaced nearly all of Gaza’s and caused widespread destruction. The ministry does not say how many militants are among the dead, but it says over half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.
In the occupied West Bank, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the Palestinian Christian village, Taybeh, where residents say extremist Israeli settlers set fire to the Church of St. George on July 9.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who is normally strongly supportive of Israel, condemned the attack.
“To commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship — it’s an act of terror and it’s a crime,” he said.
The West Bank has experienced a surge in settler violence since the war in Gaza began. Palestinians say Israeli security forces have done little to stop the violence, and few settlers have been punished.
— by Wafaa Shurafa And Samy Magdy in Deir el-Balah
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