Aid distribution centres in Gaza closed today after Israel declares access roads 'combat zones'
AID DISTRIBUTION CENTRES in Gaza are closed today after the Israeli army declared the roads leading to them 'combat zones'.
Israeli soldiers have fired on crowds multiple times in the areas near centres run by the highly controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since it began operating in the Palestinian territory last week.
Twenty-seven people were killed in southern Gaza yesterday near one of the centres.
The UN and NGOs in Gaza have refused to deal with the GFH, officially a private effort with opaque funding and backing from the US and Israel, saying the project does not align with humanitarian principles and aids Israel's war efforts by weaponising aid.
Israel recently eased its blockade of the Palestinian enclave, but the UN has said the entire population remains at risk of famine.
The GHF said its 'distribution centres will be closed for renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work' on Wednesday and would resume operations on Thursday.
The Israeli army, which confirmed the temporary closure, warned against travelling 'on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones'.
Following yesterday's massacre near one of GHF's centres, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres decried the killing of Palestinians seeking food aid as 'unacceptable'.
Israeli authorities and the GHF – which uses contracted US security – have denied allegations that the Israeli army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages at GHF sites.
The Israeli army said it fired on 'suspects' who were moving towards its troops and that the incident is under investigation.
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This morning, Gaza's civil defence agency said that at least 16 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
'At least 12 people were killed, including several children and women, in a strike by an Israeli drone this morning on a tent for displaced persons' near Khan Younis, the agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that four more people had been killed in other strikes.
Since Israel violated a ceasefire with Hamas on 18 March, its renewed offensive has killed at least 4,4240 people, taking the overall recorded death toll to 54,510, most of whom were civilians.
'It's a trap'
At a hospital in southern Gaza, the family of Reem al-Akhras, who was killed in the shooting at Rafah's Al-Alam roundabout near GHF's facility, were beside themselves with grief.
'She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her,' her son Zain Zidan said, his face streaked with tears.
Akhras's husband, Mohamed Zidan, said 'every day unarmed people' were being killed.
'This is not humanitarian aid – it's a trap.'
UN human rights chief Volker Turk called such attacks against civilians 'unconscionable' and said they 'constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime'.
The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile said 'Gazans face an 'unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents'.
The UN Security Council will vote today on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza, a measure expected to be vetoed by the United States.
With reporting from AFP
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