3 days ago
'This is an ambush': Gazans walk into gunfire at US-backed food banks
Ibrahim Abu Taima is among the hungry Gazans who set out early in the morning in search of food, arriving shortly after dawn at a US -backed aid centre in Rafah.
The 34-year-old was "hoping to get food before the rush", he told The National. 'But people were already packed in. Everyone is hungry, no food, no water, for months.'
Then, soon after sunrise, gunfire erupted. 'People were shot at without warning. Chaos broke out," said Ibrahim. His cousin Mahmoud was killed, and a young nephew was shot in the leg.
Over the past week at least 39 Palestinians have been killed and more than 220 wounded while trying to collect food from the new aid centres in Gaza, which are staffed by US private security guards. Officials and survivors say Israel is drawing starving civilians into a trap under the guise of humanitarian aid.
The bloodiest scenes unfolded on Sunday morning after civilians had gathered in the early hours. Palestinian news agency Wafa said at least 30 people were killed and dozens wounded when Israeli troops opened fire at one of the distribution points in Rafah.
"This is not aid. It's an ambush,' Ismail Al-Thawabti, director of the Government Media Office in Gaza, told The National.
He alleged that 'Israel and the US administration are orchestrating these massacres under the pretence of humanitarian relief, killing civilians in cold blood without any legal or international deterrent."
Mohammed Al-Ghareeb, a journalist from southern Gaza, also witnessed the scene. 'Thousands of people were there, mothers, children, elderly. The army started firing directly at people's heads and chests. It was deliberate.' He told The National
He noted that many people had travelled through the night from Gaza city and northern areas to reach the centre. 'They left empty-handed, fleeing bullets instead of receiving aid.'
Adding to the horror, looters reportedly waited near the centres to rob aid recipients. 'They snatched parcels from people who made it out alive,' he said. 'The situation is catastrophic. Famine is claiming lives, and the world remains silent.'
Israel said it was unaware of any injuries caused by its troops at the Rafah site on Sunday. It says the new system of food distribution is a way of bypassing Hamas, which it accuses of pilfering aid.
Controversial plan
The UN has criticised the plan, which also cuts usual aid providers such as Palestinian relief agency UNRWA out of the loop. Little is known about the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and aid groups say it endangers rather than helps civilians by delivering food through narrow, militarised corridors.
After a two-month ceasefire boosted Gaza's food stocks, Israel blocked all aid from entering the strip from March until mid-May. The entire population is thought to be at risk of famine and Gaza's farmland has been destroyed, with barely any land remaining arable.
Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, condemned the new aid operations as a facade for military targeting.
'Civilians who came to feed their children returned in coffins,' he said. 'These are not humanitarian efforts. They are Israeli-American military zones designed to humiliate and kill.'
Mr Al Shawa urged immediate international intervention. 'We are living through the worst humanitarian catastrophe in our history. There is no access to the basic elements of life. This can no longer be ignored.'
As starvation and bombardments continue to devastate the population, calls for a ceasefire grow more desperate by the day. Hamas neither accepted nor rejected the latest US ceasefire proposal on Saturday, saying it was willing to release hostages but demanding that Israel should ultimately withdraw.
Ibrahim Abu Taima said there were screams, blood and "bodies everywhere" in the aftermath of the Rafah gunfire as he carried his cousin and nephew to the nearest hospital.
Mahmoud had been married for four years, a father of two. 'He went out to get food for his kids and returned home in a shroud. That's our reality now,' Ibrahim said.
'There are countless safer ways to distribute food,' Ibrahim Abu Taima said. 'But they chose the one that kills us.'
