UPDATED: Israeli gunfire kills at least 30 Palestinians near US-Israeli aid hub in Gaza - War on Gaza

Al-Ahram Weekly

6 days ago

Israeli gunfire killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded scores on Sunday near a US-Israeli-backed aid distribution site east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said.
Thousands of people headed toward the distribution site hours before dawn, congregating at the Flag Roundabout, about a kilometre (1,000 yards) away, as they waited for the site to open, witnesses told AP. They said Israeli forces ordered people to disperse and come back later, before opening fire.
Officials at the field hospital confirmed that at least 30 people were killed and another 150 people were wounded.
In an earlier toll, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 21 Palestinians were killed and more than 175 others were wounded due to gunfire from Israeli vehicles towards thousands of citizens approaching the US-Israeli aid site west of Rafah.
He said the casualties were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
'There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,' said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.
He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded to the field hospital. 'The scene was horrible," he told AP.
Ibrahim Abu Saoud, another eyewitness, provided a nearly identical account. He said the military fired around 300 metres (yards) away.
Abu Saoud said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who he said had died at the scene. 'We weren't able to help him,' he said.
Mohammed Abu Teaima, 33, said he saw Israeli forces open fire and kill his cousin and another woman as they were heading toward the distribution site.
He said his cousin was shot in his chest and died at the scene. Many others were wounded, including his brother-in-law, he added.
'They opened heavy fire directly toward us,' he said as he was waiting outside the Red Cross field hospital for word on his wounded relative.
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas accused Israeli forces operating in Rafah of committing "a new massacre against hungry civilians who had gathered at the so-called 'humanitarian aid' distribution sites", calling them "mass death traps to lure the innocent hungry, not humanitarian relief points."
Hamas held "the Zionist occupation, along with the American administration, fully responsible for the massacres committed at the sites of the occupation's aid distribution mechanism, and for using starvation as a weapon of war against our people."
It called on the United Nations and its institutions, foremost among them the Security Council, to "take urgent and binding decisions that compel the occupation to stop this bloody mechanism, to immediately open the Gaza crossings, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid through recognized UN institutions."
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's distribution of aid has been marred by chaos, as Israeli troops fired on crowds near the delivery sites.
Before Sunday, at least six people had been killed and more than 50 wounded, according to local health officials.
The foundation said in a statement that it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday 'without incident' and dismissed what it claimed as false reporting about deaths, mass injuries, and chaos.
Israel and the United States claim the new system is aimed at preventing Hamas from siphoning off assistance.
Israel has not provided any evidence of systematic diversion, and the UN denies it has occurred.
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the territory.
The UN system has struggled to bring in aid after Israel slightly eased its total blockade of the territory last month. Those groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza's roughly two million Palestinians.
Experts have warned that the territory is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in.
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