Death and injuries in gunfire and chaos as crowds overrun Gaza aid hub

Deir al-balah, Gaza Strip: At least one Palestinian was killed and 48 others wounded when a crowd was fired upon while they overran a new food aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip, set up by a foundation backed by the United States and Israel, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.

Crowds of Palestinians on Tuesday broke through fences around the distribution site on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), where hundreds of thousands of people had massed. An Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gun fire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares.

It was not yet known whether the death and injuries were caused by Israeli forces, private contractors or others. The foundation said its military contractors had not fired on the crowd but “fell back” before resuming aid operations. Israel said its troops nearby had fired warning shots.

Earlier on Wednesday, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, Ajith Sunghay, said, it appeared that Israeli army fire had caused most of the injuries at the aid distribtion centre.

The hub was set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and began operations on Monday, distributing food in southern Gaza after an 11-week Israeli blockade on food and supplies that was enacted to pressure militant group Hamas, and which left Gaza’s population of 2.3 million on the brink of famine.

Hundreds of thousands of people had made their way to centre by Tuesday afternoon and when they overran it, nearby Israeli troops fired what they said were warning shots, sending people fleeing in panic.

The Israeli military said its troops fired the warning shots in the area outside the centre and that “control over the situation was established”.

At least three injured Palestinians were seen by AP being taken from the scene, one of them bleeding from his leg.

The distribution hub outside Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah – which is under full Israeli army control – had been opened the day before by the GHF, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations.

The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of the population and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies.

Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of an Israeli blockade that has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.

Palestinians at the scene told AP that small numbers of people made their way to the GHF centre on Tuesday morning and received food boxes. As word spread, large numbers of men, women and children walked for several kilometres from the sprawling tent camps along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. To reach the hub, they had to pass through nearby Israeli military positions.

By the afternoon, hundreds of thousands were massed at the hub. Videos seen by Reuters – some of which could not immediately be verified – showed lines of people walking through a wired-off corridor and into a large open field where aid was stacked. Later, images shared on social media showed large parts of the fence torn down as people jostled their way onto the site.

Two people said each person was searched and had their faces scanned for identification before being allowed to receive the boxes. Crowds swelled and turmoil erupted, with people tearing down fences and grabbing boxes. The staff at the site were forced to flee, they said.

The AP journalist positioned some distance away heard gunfire and rounds of tank fire. Smoke could be seen rising from where one round impacted. He saw a military helicopter overhead firing flares.

“There was no order, the people rushed to take, there was shooting, and we fled,” Hosni Abu Amra, who had been waiting to receive aid, said. “We fled without taking anything that would help us get through this hunger.”

“It was chaos,” Ahmed Abu Taha said, adding he heard gunfire and saw Israeli military aircraft overhead. “People were panicked.”

Crowds were seen running from the site. A few managed to secure aid boxes – containing basic items like sugar, flour, pasta and tahini – but the vast majority left empty-handed. A UN spokesperson called images of the incident “heartbreaking”.

Palestinians heading to receive food and humanitarian aid packages in Rafah on Tuesday.Credit: AP

In a statement, GHF said that because of the large number of Palestinians seeking aid, staff at the hub followed the group’s safety protocols and “fell back” to allow them to dissipate, then later resumed operations.

A spokesperson for the group told the AP that no shots were fired from GHF. Speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the group’s rules, the spokesperson said the protocols aimed at “avoiding loss of life, which is exactly what happened”.

In a separate development, Israel carried out airstrikes on Wednesday on the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, destroying the last plane belonging to the country’s flagship carrier. The strikes came after Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired several missiles at Israel in recent days, without causing casualties.

The Israeli military said it destroyed aircraft used by the rebels. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the strikes.

Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said – without providing evidence – that Hamas, Gaza’s dominant militant group, had tried to block civilians from reaching the aid distribution centre in Rafah.

Hamas denied the accusation. “The real cause of the delay and collapse in the aid distribution process is the tragic chaos caused by the mismanagement of the same company operating under the Israeli occupation’s administration in those buffer zones,” Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said.

“This has led to thousands of starving people, under the pressure of siege and hunger, storming distribution centres and seizing food, during which Israeli forces opened fire.”

GHF uses armed private contractors to guard the hubs and the transportation of supplies. The hub is also close to Israeli military positions in the Morag Corridor, a band of territory across the breadth of Gaza that divides Rafah from the rest of the territory.

Israel’s three-month long blockade has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.Credit: AP

GHF has set up four hubs around Gaza to distribute food, two of which began operating on Monday – both of them in the Rafah area.

By late afternoon on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), GHF said it had distributed about 8000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X that 8000 “food packages” were delivered to Palestinians on Tuesday, the first day of what he described as an American initiative.

Some of the recipients showed the content of the packages, which included some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits and sugar.

Palestinians open a box containing food and humanitarian aid.Credit: AP

The UN and other humanitarian groups have refused to participate in GHF’s system, saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it can be used by Israel to forcibly displace the population by requiring them to move near the few distribution hubs or else face starvation – a violation of international law. They have also opposed the use of facial recognition to vet recipients.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the turmoil at the Rafah centre, saying, “There was some loss of control momentarily … happily we brought it under control.”

He repeated that Israel planned to move Gaza’s entire population to a “sterile zone” at the southern end of the territory while troops fight Hamas elsewhere.

Israel has said the new system is necessary because it claims Hamas has been siphoning off supplies that reach Gaza. The UN has denied that any significant diversion takes place.

Throughout the war, the UN and other aid groups have conducted a massive operation distributing food, medicine and other supplies to wherever Palestinians are located. Israel says GHF will replace that network, but the past week has allowed a trickle of aid to enter Gaza for the UN to distribute.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of co-ordinating aid, said on Tuesday that 400 trucks of supplies, mainly food, were waiting on the Gaza side of the main crossing from Israel, but that the UN had not collected them. It said Israel had extended the times for collection and expanded the routes that the UN could use inside Gaza.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, told reporters in Geneva that agencies struggle to pick up the supplies “because of the insecure routes that are being assigned to us by the Israeli authorities to use”.

He said the amount of aid allowed the past week was “vastly insufficient.”

More than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground war, Gaza health authorities say. The war was launched following a cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

AP, Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.