At least three people were reportedly killed amid chaotic scenes at an aid distribution site in Gaza, where thousands of starving Palestinians overran fences and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots.
Thousands of people in the southern city of Rafa, including women and children, ran toward the aid distribution centre where boxes of aid had been piled up earlier in the day. The distribution site drew crowds from across the embattled enclave, with many travelling on foot or in donkey carts in search of food.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes – equivalent to 462,000 meals – after an 11-week Israeli blockade of aid in the war-devastated enclave.
The UN did not confirm any deaths in the chaos but said at least 47 Palestinians suffered injuries, mostly from gunfire, during the aid distribution.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, said it appeared that Israeli army fire had caused most of the injuries.
Videos posted online showed crowds moving through a fenced corridor into a large open field where aid packages were stacked. Later footage showed sections of the fence torn down as people pushed forward, scrambling to reach the supplies.
The distribution hub outside Rafah had been opened the day before by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been approved 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 Gaza's 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population.
Israel and the GHF on Tuesday accused Hamas of trying to block civilians from reaching the aid distribution centre. Hamas denied the accusation.
Hamas' media office accused the Israeli military of killing at least three Palestinians and wounding 46 others near one of the distribution sites, while seven people remained missing. A GHF spokesperson said the information from Hamas was "totally false”.
The GHF in a statement noted that "the needs on the ground are great" and the volume of people at the distribution site was so overwhelming that the foundation decided to pull back “to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate".
It said there were no casualties, no one opened fire and normal operations later resumed. The Israeli military said its troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound and that control was re-established.
One Palestinian told the New York Times that he walked more than 4.5km to the site from his shelter in Khan Younis, but was forced to return empty-handed after the chaos.
“There was no order, the people rushed to take, there was shooting, and we fled,” said Hosni Abu Amra, who had been waiting to receive aid. “We fled without taking anything that would help us get through this hunger,” he told the Associated Press.
“It was chaos,” said Ahmed Abu Taha, who said he heard gunfire and saw Israeli military aircraft overhead. “People were panicked.”
A UN spokesperson called images of the incident "heartbreaking”.
“We saw the plan that they’ve [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] published and that they presented to us, and it is not done with the parameters that we feel match our principles, which we apply across the board, from Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar, to anywhere you want to talk about,” Stephane Dujarric said.
The foundation began aid deliveries on Monday, but Palestinians appeared to have heeded warnings, including from Hamas, about biometric screening procedures employed at the foundation's aid distribution sites.
Israel has said its forces will not be involved in distributing aid at the GHF sites.
But the endorsement of the plan by Israel and the US has led many to question the neutrality of the foundation, including its own former chief, who resigned unexpectedly on Sunday.
The Israeli military said four GHF sites have been established. One of the sites is currently distributing aid, with a second site receiving stock, GHF said.
Israeli officials said one of the advantages of the new aid system is the opportunity to screen recipients to exclude anyone found to be connected with Hamas. Israel, at war with Hamas since October 2023, accuses Hamas of stealing supplies and using them to entrench its position. Hamas denies the accusations.
Humanitarian groups briefed on the foundation's plans say anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology that many Palestinians fear will end up in Israeli hands to be used to track and potentially target them.
Details of how the system will operate have not been made public.
The United Nations and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they say undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict, based on need.
As a small aid flow has resumed, Israeli forces – now in control of large parts of Gaza – have kept up attacks on various targets around the enclave, killing 3,901 Palestinians since a two-month ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
More than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war, Gaza health authorities say. It was launched following a cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
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