Thousands of Palestinians rushed into a new aid distribution centre run by an Israel-backed group in southern Gaza on Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, leading to chaotic scenes as Israel implemented a new distribution system.
The incident in Rafah came days after Israel began allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza, partially lifting a suffocating 11-week blockade on the territory that has left hundreds of thousands of people facing starvation.
Hamas’s government media office said three Palestinians were killed and 46 others wounded when Israeli troops began firing amid the chaos.
Ayman Abu Zaid, a displaced Gazan, told AFP he was standing in line at the centre when “suddenly a large number of people started pushing and entering randomly”.
“It was because of the lack of aid and the delay in distribution, so they tried to get in to take whatever they could,” he said.
At one point, “the Israeli forces started shooting, and the sound was very frightening, and people began to scatter, but some still kept trying to take the aid despite the danger”, he added.
The Israeli military later said its “troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound”, and that it had re-established “control over the situation”.
GHF said in a statement that there was a point at which the “volume of people at the SDS (distribution centre) was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate”.
“Normal operations have resumed,” it added.
AFP footage showed crowds of people streaming out of the area on Tuesday carrying supplies, including in boxes marked “GHF”.
Hamas’s government media office said Israel’s new efforts to distribute aid in Gaza had “failed miserably”.
“This failure occurred after thousands of hungry people, who have been besieged by the occupation and deprived of food and medicine for about 90 days, rushed toward these areas in a tragic and painful scene,” the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later acknowledged a “loss of control momentarily” at the centre.
Despite the chaos, senior military official claimed the distribution was “a success”.
In its statement on Tuesday, the GHF said around “8,000 food boxes have been distributed so far… totalling 462,000 meals”. It previously said it had commenced operations the day before.
‘Heartbreaking’ scenes
GHF and the Israeli aid distribution system it is helping to implement has been condemned by the UN and aid agencies, who say it has been designed to help Israel achieve its military objectives and facilitate the mass displacement of Palestinians.
Its former executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying it was impossible to do his job in line with humanitarian principles.
A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres called Tuesday’s scenes “heartbreaking”, adding that “we and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by Member States to get aid to a desperate population”.
Registered in Geneva in February, GHF has no known offices or representatives in the unofficial capital of the humanitarian world.
In an article published on 24 May, The New York Times, citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that the aid plan for Gaza had been “conceived and largely developed by Israelis as a way to undermine Hamas”.
The UN has ruled out involvement in GHF’s plan, with a spokesperson saying that it “does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence”.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said “95 trucks belonging to the UN and the international community carrying humanitarian aid” were allowed into Gaza on Tuesday.
(AFP and TNA staff)
