At least 56 Palestinians have been killed since dawn across Gaza, including 38 people who were seeking aid for their hungry families at distribution points, mostly in the Rafah area in the south, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
The latest carnage on Monday came at the controversial sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the United States and Israel and operates in areas that are tightly controlled by the Israeli military and that critics have slammed as “human slaughterhouses”.
The United Nations human rights chief condemned Israel’s conduct of its war in the besieged enclave, where deadly Israeli attacks continue unabated as the country exchanges missile attacks with regional foe Iran.
Speaking on Monday, Volker Turk said Israel’s “means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza”, where more than 20 months of Israeli attacks have killed at least 55,362 people, including thousands of children, according to health officials in Gaza.
More than 300 people have been killed so far near the perilous distribution sites and more than 2,000 wounded since GHF began its operations.
Two Palestinians trying to get food at the Rafah site, Heba Jouda and Mohammed Abed, told The Associated Press news agency that Israeli forces fired on crowds at about 4am (01:00 GMT) at the Flag Roundabout, a traffic circle just metres from the GHF centre, which has repeatedly been the scene of shootings.
People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. “Fire was coming from everywhere,” said Jouda, who has made the dangerous journey several times to get food for her family this past week. “It’s getting worse day by day,” she told AP.
Three more aid seekers were reported killed in northern Gaza and two in an attack on Gaza City.
“Israel has weaponised food and blocked lifesaving aid,” Turk said as he presented his annual report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“I urge immediate, impartial investigations into deadly attacks on desperate civilians to reach food distribution centres,” he added. “Disturbing, dehumanising rhetoric from senior Israeli government officials is reminiscent of the gravest of crimes.”
Hungry Palestinians ‘running out of options’
The GHF began distributing a trickle of food aid in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a nearly three-month total blockade on food, medicines and other essential items, leading to fears of famine. No other aid has been allowed in by Israel, which in effect has kept the punishing blockade in place.
The UN and major humanitarian groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs and bypasses organisations with decades of experience in providing food and medicine at hundreds of locations to the entire population of Gaza.
This month, operations at the GHF aid distribution hubs were temporarily halted after several incidents of deadly violence in Rafah and the Netzarim Corridor, where Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the current aid distribution mechanism has caused “chaos and despair” among Palestinians.
“Many hungry Palestinians have run out of options, forced to choose between staying in their homes and starving or risking their lives to obtain a bag of flour,” he said.
