Gaza Ministry Says Israel Kills More Than 30 Aid Seekers, Israel Denies
Obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS
Palestinians gather at an aid distribution center in Deir Al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, May 28, 2025, in this picture obtained by Reuters.
CAIRO/GAZA June 1 (Reuters) – More than 30 Palestinians were killed and nearly 170 injured on Sunday in south Gaza near a food distribution site, the health ministry said, as witnesses reported Israeli soldiers fired on people trying to collect aid and Israel denied it.
The U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said food was handed out without incident on Sunday at the distribution point in Rafah and there were no deaths or injuries.
GHF released undated video to support its statement that showed dozens of people gathering around piles of boxes. Reuters could not independently verify the video or what took place.
Witnesses said the Israeli military opened fire as thousands of Palestinians gathered to receive food aid. Israel's military said that an initial inquiry found soldiers had not fired on civilians while they were near or within the distribution site.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said 31 people were killed with a single gunshot wound to the head or chest from Israeli fire as they were gathered in the Al-Alam district aid distribution area in Rafah. It said 169 were injured.
In addition to Israeli gunshots, residents and medics said an Israeli tank had opened fire at thousands of people en route to the Rafah site.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah received 179 casualties, most with gunshot or shrapnel wounds.
'All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site. This is the highest number of weapon-wounded in a single incident since the establishment of the field hospital over a year ago,' ICRC said.
The United Nations has said most of Gaza's 2 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid entering the strip.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its first distribution sites last week and said it would launch more. The Israeli military has said GHF had established four sites so far.
The organization's aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations which say GHF does not follow humanitarian principles.
There were chaotic scenes as hungry Gazans rushed its sites last last week. Hamas reported deaths and injuries in the tumult, and Israel said its troops fired warning shots.
Because the GHF distribution points are few and all in south Gaza, U.N. officials have said its plans force Palestinians, especially in the north, to relocate and face unsafe conditions.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's Palestinian relief agency, condemned Sunday's deaths and said in a statement on X that 'aid distribution has become a death trap'.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office accused Israel of using aid as a weapon, 'employed to exploit starving civilians and forcibly gather them at exposed killing zones, which are managed and monitored by the Israeli military'.
At Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis city where some casualties were brought, Gaza paramedic Abu Tareq said there was 'a tragic situation in this place. I advise them that nobody goes to aid delivery points.'
Israel denies that people in Gaza are starving because of its actions, saying it is facilitating aid deliveries and pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centres and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that a lot of people in Gaza were 'starving'.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza. Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
Reda Abu Jazar said her brother was killed as he waited to collect food near the Rafah aid distribution centre. 'Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us,' she said, as Palestinian men gathered for funeral prayers.
The Red Crescent reported that 14 Palestinians were injured on Sunday near a separate GHF aid site in central Gaza.
CEASEFIRE TALKS FALTER
Israel and Hamas meanwhile traded blame for the faltering of a new Arab and U.S. mediation bid to secure a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, but Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff rejected the group's response as 'totally unacceptable'.
Egypt and Qatar said in a joint statement that they are continuing efforts to overcome disagreements and reach a ceasefire.
Hamas on Sunday welcomed those efforts and expressed its readiness to start a round of indirect negotiations immediately to reach an agreement, the group said on Sunday in a statement.
Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza.
Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians and destroying most buildings. Much of the population now lives in shelters in makeshift camps.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
At least 27 Palestinians killed near Gaza aid site; U.N. demands investigation
By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Crispian Balmer At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said, in a third day running of chaos and bloodshed to blight the aid operation. The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of people who had left designated access routes near the distribution centre in Rafah and approached their positions. It added it was still investigating what had happened. The deaths came hours after Israel said three of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, as its forces pushed ahead with a months-long offensive against Hamas militants that has laid waste to much of the enclave. Reuters could not independently verify the reports in northern and southern Gaza. A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters that its field hospital in Rafah had received 184 casualties, adding that 19 of those were declared dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after. Video showed injured people, including at least one woman, being rushed to a medical centre on carts drawn by donkeys, before being transferred onto stretchers or into ambulances. The United Nations human rights office in Geneva said on Tuesday the impediment of access to food relief for civilians in Gaza might constitute a war crime and described attacks on people trying to access food aid as "unconscionable". The head of the U.N. agency, Volker Turk, urged a prompt and impartial investigation into the killings. "Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law, and a war crime," he said in a statement. The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its first distribution sites last week in an effort to alleviate widespread hunger amongst Gaza's war-battered population, most of whom have been forced to abandon their homes to flee fighting. The Foundation's operation, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and established charities which say it does not follow humanitarian principles. The private group, which is endorsed by Israel, said it had distributed 21 truckloads of food early on Tuesday and stressed that the reported violence had not happened within its site. "This was an area well beyond our secure distribution site and control. We recognize the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when traveling to our distribution sites." Palestinians who collected food boxes on Tuesday described scenes of pandemonium, with no-one overseeing the handover of supplies or checking IDs, as the crowds jostled for provisions. "It is complete chaos and humiliation, and people have no choice but to keep coming because there is no food in Gaza," said one Palestinian, who declined to be named, adding that he was lucky to have survived the shootings outside the aid centre. MASS EVACUATIONS There have been reports of repeated killings over the past three days near Rafah as crowds gather before dawn. On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials said at least 31 people were killed and dozens more injured. On Monday, three Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire. The Israeli military has denied targeting civilians and called reports of deaths during Sunday's distribution "fabrications" by Hamas. On Tuesday, it said IDF forces had identified "a number of suspects" moving towards them while deviating from the access routes. "The forces fired evasive shots, and after they did not move away, additional shots were fired near the individual suspects who were advancing towards the forces," it said. The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents of several districts in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip late on Monday, warning that the army would act forcefully against militants operating in those areas. The military told residents to head west towards the Mawasi humanitarian area. Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave, and that most of its 2.3 million population has become internally displaced. The territory's health ministry said on Tuesday that the new evacuation orders could halt work at the Nasser Hospital, the largest, still-functioning medical facility in the south, endangering the lives of those being treated there. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 assault in which Hamas-led gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies. In the subsequent fighting, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, local health authorities say. Meanwhile, recent efforts to secure a ceasefire appear to have stalled. Israel has said it accepts a U.S.-backed temporary truce to release hostages, while Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
More than 4 million refugees have fled Sudan civil war, U.N. says
FILE PHOTO: A Sudanese woman, who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, talks to her relative through a fence next to makeshift shelters, in Adre, Chad August 5, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo By Emma Farge The number of people who have fled Sudan since the beginning of its civil war in 2023 has surpassed four million, U.N. refugee agency officials said on Tuesday, adding that many survivors faced inadequate shelter due to funding shortages. "Now in its third year, the 4 million people is a devastating milestone in what is the world's most damaging displacement crisis at the moment," U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Eujin Byun told a Geneva press briefing. "If the conflict continues in Sudan, thousands more people, we expect thousands more people will continue to flee, putting regional and global stability at stake," she said. Sudan, which erupted in violence in April 2023, shares borders with seven countries: Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Libya. More than 800,000 of the refugees have arrived in Chad, where their shelter conditions are dire due to funding shortages, with only 14% of funding appeals met, UNHCR's Dossou Patrice Ahouansou told the same briefing. "This is an unprecedented crisis that we are facing. This is a crisis of humanity. This is a crisis of ... protection based on the violence that refugees are reporting," he said. Many of those fleeing reported surviving terror and violence, he added, describing meeting a seven-year-old girl in Chad who was hurt in an attack on her home in Sudan's Zamzam displacement camp that killed her father and two brothers and had to have her leg amputated during her escape. Her mother had been killed in an earlier attack, he said. Other refugees told stories of armed groups taking their horses and donkeys and forcing adults to draw their own family members by cart as they fled, he said. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Israeli forces open fire a kilometer away from Gaza aid site, killing 3
Palestinians pray during the funeral of a person who was killed while heading to a Gaza aid hub, along with three others who were killed during an Israeli strike, as they gather at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) By MOHAMMAD JAHJOUH, WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip opened fire early Monday as people headed toward an aid distribution site a kilometer away, killing at least three and wounding dozens, health officials and a witness said. The military said it fired warning shots at 'suspects' who approached its forces. The shooting occurred at the same location where witnesses say Israeli forces fired a day earlier on crowds heading toward the aid hub in southern Gaza run by the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots on Monday toward 'several suspects who advanced toward the troops and posed a threat to them,' around a kilometer away from the aid distribution site at a time when it was closed. The army denied it was preventing people from reaching the site. The United Nations and major aid groups have rejected the foundation's new system for aid distribution. They say it violates humanitarian principles and cannot meet mounting needs in the territory of roughly 2 million people, where experts have warned of famine because of an Israeli blockade that was only slightly eased last month. In a separate incident Monday, an Israeli strike on a residential building in northern Gaza killed 14 people, according to health officials. The Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, saying five women and seven children were among those killed. The military said it had struck 'terror targets' across northern Gaza, without elaborating. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group is entrenched in populated areas. Also Monday, the Palestinian Authority said a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in the Palestinian village of Sinjil. In a statement, the Israeli military said troops in the Sinjil area had opened fire and 'neutralized' someone who threw two bottles containing a dangerous substance at them. A Red Cross field hospital received 50 wounded people, including two declared dead on arrival, after the shooting in southern Gaza, according to Hisham Mhanna, a Red Cross spokesperson. He said most had gunfire and shrapnel wounds. Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis said it received a third body. Moataz al-Feirani, 21, who was being treated at Nasser Hospital, said he was shot in his leg as he walked with a crowd of thousands toward the aid distribution site. He said Israeli forces opened fire as they neared the Flag Roundabout at around 5:30 a.m. 'We had nothing, and they (military) were watching us," he said, adding that drones were filming them. On Sunday, at least 31 people were killed and over 170 wounded at the Flag Roundabout as large crowds headed toward the aid site, according to local health officials, aid groups and several eyewitnesses. The witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire on the crowds at around 3 a.m. after ordering them to disperse and come back when the distribution site opens. Israel's military on Sunday denied its forces fired at civilians near the aid site in the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah, a military zone off limits to independent media. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with procedure, said troops fired warning shots at several suspects advancing toward them overnight. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, said it had delivered aid on both days without incident. On Sunday night, the foundation issued a statement, saying aid recipients must stay on the designated route to reach the hub Monday, and that Israeli troops are positioned along the way to ensure their security. 'Leaving the road is extremely dangerous,' the statement said. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was 'appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza' on Sunday. 'It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food.' He called for an independent investigation into what happened. Israel and the United States say they helped establish the new aid system to circumvent Hamas, which they accuse of siphoning off assistance. U.N. agencies deny there is any systemic diversion of aid and say the new system violates humanitarian principles by allowing Israel to control who receives aid and by forcing Palestinians to travel long distances to receive it. Palestinians must pass close to Israeli forces and cross military lines to reach the GHF hubs, in contrast to the U.N. aid network, which delivers aid to where Palestinians are located. The Israel-Hamas war began when Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive. Israel's military campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned, and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. It has said it will maintain control of Gaza indefinitely and facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population. Palestinians and most of the international community have rejected the resettlement plans, viewing them as forcible expulsion. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
