Two dead after crowds rush UN aid warehouse amid Gaza hunger crisis

Al Jazeera

4 days ago

At least two people have died after crowds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations aid warehouse in central Gaza, as humanitarian supplies slowly trickle into the besieged territory on the brink of famine.
The World Food Programme said late on Wednesday that 'hordes of hungry people' broke into the al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, looking for food supplies.
'Initial reports indicate two people died and several were injured in the tragic incident,' WFP said in a statement on X, adding that it was still confirming details.
'Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve. WFP urgently calls for safe, unimpeded humanitarian access to enable orderly food distribution across Gaza immediately,' it added.
After ending an 11-week blockade last week following growing international pressure, Israel has allowed limited humanitarian supplies to be delivered, but aid groups have warned that the amount is not nearly enough.
Sigrid Kaag, the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Security Council that the amount of aid Israel had so far allowed the UN to deliver was 'comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk' when everyone in Gaza was facing the risk of famine.
Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told the Security Council that Israel would allow aid deliveries 'for the immediate future' via both the UN and the private United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Danon said the UN should 'put their ego aside and cooperate with the new mechanism'.
However, the UN and other aid groups have said the private aid plan is not neutral.
'This new scheme is surveillance-based rationing that legitimises a policy of deprivation by design,' senior UN aid official for the occupied Palestinian territories, Jonathan Whittall, told reporters in Jerusalem.
'The UN has refused to participate in this scheme, warning that it is logistically unworkable and violates humanitarian principles by using aid as a tool in Israel's broader efforts to depopulate areas of Gaza,' he said.
At least 10 people were killed when Israeli forces shot at Palestinians seeking aid at the GHF site in southern Gaza in separate incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday, Gaza's Government Media Office said.
Dozens of people were injured when thousands of hungry Palestinians rushed the GHF site on Tuesday.
According to the foundation, it handed out the equivalent of 840,262 meals on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Gaza, Israeli attacks on Thursday killed at least 30 people, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
Among those killed were seven people sheltering at a kindergarten in Jabalia, northern Gaza, medical sources said.
Gaza's Ministry of Health said at least 19 people were killed in a series of Israeli attacks on residential buildings in the Bureij refugee camp.