One Dead and 48 Injured After Gunfire at Gaza Aid Hub
Thousands of Palestinians collect aid from a hub in Rafah set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on May 27. Credit - Hani Alshaer - Getty Images
At least one Palestinian was killed and 48 others wounded while collecting aid from a distribution hub in Rafah, Gaza's Health Ministry said Wednesday.
Crowds of Palestinians had broken through chain fences on Tuesday where thousands massed in an attempt to reach aid distributed under a controversial new U.S. and Israeli-backed organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Read More: $25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza
Adjith Sunghay, head of the U.N. Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, said it appeared that the casualties were a result of Israeli gunfire. An Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gun fire, the news agency reported.
The Israel Defense Forces have not yet responded to TIME's request for comment.
Israel has said it helped set up GHF to stop Hamas from stealing aid, but has provided no evidence of the systematic siphoning of aid. The U.N. and other agencies have rejected GHF's aid distribution system, which uses U.S. security contractors, as unethical and unworkable.
'We warned against the militarized & politicized aid hubs that today ended in chaos and aid stolen & diverted from families in need. This fiasco could have been averted if our normal humanitarian system had not been blocked for months by Israel,' Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, wrote on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday 'there was some loss of control momentarily' at the GHF distribution hub but that 'happily, we brought it under control.'
Food security experts and aid groups have warned of an 'imminent risk of famine' since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire on March 2 and launched a total blockade of Gaza. Israel said the measures were to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
A statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu's office on May 19 said Israel would ease the blockade and let in a 'basic' amount of food to Gaza. The statement came hours after the IDF began a major ground offensive dubbed Gideon's Chariots that would 'take control of all areas' of the Strip.
On Sunday, the head of GHF, Jake Wood, stepped down citing concerns over the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality and urged Israel to allow more aid into the Strip. The resignation came a day before GHF was due to begin distribution.
In a statement on Wednesday, the head of the U.N.'s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jonathan Whittall, said that the 'new distribution model cannot possibly meet Gaza's needs.'
GHF said on Sunday that 1 million Palestinians, just under half of those living in Gaza, would be given supplies by the end of the week.
Amid a lack of access to food and supplies, Israel has issued displacement orders as part of the expanded ground offensive. OCHA said Tuesday that an estimated 632,000 people have been displaced since Operation Gideon's Chariots began earlier this month.
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