More than a dozen Palestinians killed at aid hub just hours after U.S. officials' visit
At least 13 people were killed while trying to get aid in Gaza, hours after one of the distribution centres was visited by two high-ranking U.S. officials.
On Friday, Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, and Mike Huckabee, Washington's ambassador to Israel, toured a site run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city.
It's the first visit to Gaza by a high-profile U.S. official since the war began in October 2023. The visit comes amid international outrage over starvation, shortages and deadly chaos near aid distribution sites.
Witkoff said the purpose of the visit was to put together a new aid plan for the war-torn territory, where food is scarce and parcels are being airdropped.
All four of the GHF sites are in zones controlled by the Israeli military and have become flashpoints of desperation during their months of operation, with starving people scrambling for scarce aid. The UN says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive assistance in Gaza since the GHF began operating there in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
WATCH | Witkoff visits as international pressure mounts on Israel:
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The Israeli military claims it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.
Witkoff's visit also comes a week after U.S. officials walked away from ceasefire talks in Qatar, blaming Hamas and pledging to seek other ways to rescue Israeli hostages and make Gaza safe.
At least 25 Palestinians killed Friday
Officials at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said Friday they have received the bodies of 25 people, including those killed near the site of the U.S. official visit. GHF denied that anyone was killed at their sites on Friday and said most recent incidents had taken place near UN aid convoys.
The remaining 12 were killed in airstrikes, the officials said. Israel's military did not immediately comment.
Salman Al-Faqawi, 49, says his 12-year-old nephew Rayan had nothing to eat so he went to the GHF aid site in Rafah in hopes of getting his hands on some food when he was shot and killed.
"Nothing changed at all. The U.S. is participating with [Israel] in the massacres that are happening," Al-Faqawi told a CBC News freelance videographer at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Friday, hours after the U.S. visit.
"Leave us alone with these empty words," he added. He was referring to Witkoff's and Huckabee's visit, which a spokesperson said intends to reflect U.S. President Donald Trump's understanding of the stakes and that "feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority."
Abdullah Asfour says he was also on his way to the same aid site when tanks began to shoot at them.
"Stop the bloodbaths. Protect the aid entering," Asfour said, saying border crossings need to be opened and an immediate ceasefire implemented. "We want to live."
The Israeli military said it was still looking into the incident, in which soldiers had fired warning shots at what it described as a "gathering of suspects" approaching its troops, hundreds of meters from the aid site.
Medics to screen children for severe malnutrition
Meanwhile, medics in Gaza said they were working to step up screening of young children for severe malnutrition amid fears that hunger is spreading as people flee to new areas.
Aid group International Medical Corps (IMC) and its partners are planning to reach more than 200,000 children under age five in the coming months, one of its doctors, Munawwar Said, told Reuters by phone.
"With the displacement, communities are settling in new locations that do not have access to clean water, or there is not adequate access to food," he said. "We fear there are more cases being missed."
Over the weekend, families were already coming to an IMC clinic in the central city of Deir al-Balah, opened after the agency said it had to shut down two centres in Rafah due to insecurity.
WATCH | 'Worst-case scenario' of famine is now unfolding in Gaza:
Seven-year-old Jana Ayad had weighed less than 20 pounds when she arrived, suffering from diarrhea and vomiting, said nutrition officer Raghda Ibrahim Qeshta as she carefully held the child.
"My daughter was dying in front of me," said Nasma Ayad as she sat next to the bed. "I didn't know what to do."
Jana started putting on some weight after treatment, medics said, but she was still painfully thin with her ribs showing as she lay listlessly in her bunny pyjamas.
Staff can gauge nutrition levels by measuring the circumference of children's arms. During the short visit by a Reuters cameraman, at least two of the measurements indicated a risk of malnutrition. IMC data so far shows that the most vulnerable are babies and infants up to age two
A group of UN-led aid agencies estimates that around seven per cent of Gazan children may be acutely malnourished, compared with 0.8 per cent before the Israel-Hamas conflict began on Oct. 7.
Until now, the worst of severe hunger has been in the north, with a UN-backed report warning of imminent famine in March.
But aid workers worry it could spread to central and southern areas due to the upheaval around Rafah that has displaced more than one million people and constrained supply flows through southern corridors.
Regular 'bloodbaths': new report
International organizations have said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for the past two years. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on food crises, said recent developments, including a complete blockade on aid for more than two months, mean the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza."
Though the flow of aid has resumed, including via airdrops, the amount getting into Gaza remains far lower than what aid organizations say is needed. A security breakdown in the territory has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, and much of the limited aid entering is hoarded and later sold at exorbitant prices.
WATCH | 'It's a good day' if family gets a single meal to share:
Dinner in Gaza: A meal for one, split among seven
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A father of five living in a tent west of Gaza City says 'it's a good day' if his family eats one meal. According to a global hunger monitor, a 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out' in the region. CBC News followed the Abu Amsha family to show you what it's like to search for and buy food in Gaza after months of an Israeli imposed blockade and two years of war.
In a report issued Friday, Human Rights Watch called the current setup "a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths."
"It would be near impossible for Palestinians to follow the instructions issued by GHF, stay safe, and receive aid, particularly in the context of ongoing military operations, Israeli military sanctioned curfews, and frequent GHF messages saying that people should not travel to the sites before the distribution window opens," said report, which cited doctors, aid seekers and at least one security contractor.
Israel has now killed more than 60,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
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