Israeli military kills 5 more Palestinians near aid distribution site in Gaza

Gulf Today

7 hours ago

Five people were killed and others injured by Israeli forces on Sunday as Palestinians making their way to an aid distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip came under fire, according to Palestinian paramedics.
The Israeli military said in a statement that troops had opened fire in southern Gaza but said that it had directed warning shots at a group that was moving towards soldiers and deemed a threat to them.
It was the latest bout of shooting near aid distribution points in Gaza's south since a controversial Israeli- and US-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began handing out aid late last month.
Mourners react during the funeral of a Palestinian killed by Israeli fire near a distribution centre in Rafah. Reuters
Palestinian paramedics said they had evacuated the bodies of four people who were killed early on Sunday near an aid distribution venue in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Media affiliated with Gaza's dominant Hamas group reported that the Israeli military had opened fire near a distribution site in Rafah operated by the GHF.
The Israeli military statement said the people towards whom warning shots were fired before dawn on Sunday had been verbally warned to leave the area, which was considered an active military zone at the time.
People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Gaza. AFP
The military has said people should only move to and from the GHF distribution centres between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., with non-daylight hours considered a closed military period.
The military acknowledged reports of injuries but did not specify how many people it believed had been hurt or shot.
Sanaa Doghmah said her husband, Khaled, 36, was fatally shot in the head while trying to reach a distribution site in Rafah to collect food for their five children.
People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Gaza. AFP
"He was going to get food for his children and himself, to make them live, feed them because they don't have a pinch of flour at home," Khaled's aunt, Salwah, said at his funeral.
The GHF, which is handing out aid under an Israeli initiative that is bypassing traditional relief agencies who say their deliveries into Israeli-blockaded Gaza have been restricted, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
GHF: AID HANDED OUT
The US-based organisation earlier said in a Facebook post that aid was distributed in central and southern Gaza on Sunday.
It had handed out no aid on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats that "made it impossible" to operate in the enclave, which the Islamist group denied.
The GHF uses private American military contractors to operate its sites and has been accused of a lack of neutrality and independence by UN and other international humanitarian agencies. It has denied such accusations.
Reuters