At least 47 Palestinians were injured when a crowd overwhelmed an aid centre set up by a logistics group backed by Israel and the US to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a UN official said.
Earlier, reports indicated Israeli troops opened fire near thousands of Palestinians after representatives lost control of the aid hub which was overwhelmed with thousands of visitors.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva it appeared that Israeli army fire had caused most of the injuries.
Israel has yet to comment on the development. It said it fired "warning shots" near the hub in order to regain control of the situation.
The distribution hub, opened the day before by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), was not prepared for the thousands of Palestinians who broke through fences in order to reach the aid.
Palestinians in Gaza have been under a tight Israeli blockade, including an 11-week total block on critical supplies.
Some of those at the scene told AP that hundreds of thousands had travelled several miles to reach the aid hub, passing through nearby military positions.
By afternoon, the centre was overcapacity, and turmoil erupted with people tearing down fences and grabbing hold of the forces.
Workers at the aid centre abandoned their posts, the foundation said. “At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the (secure distribution centre) was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Palestinians in Gaza to take aid safely and dissipate,” explained GHF in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged there had been a "loss of control momentarily" during the food distribution in a speech on Tuesday night, but said it was "brought back under control."
Most were reportedly left empty-handed after visiting the overwhelmed centre, although a few managed to secure boxes containing basic items like sugar, flour, pasta and tahini.
“It was chaos,” said Ahmed Abu Taha, who said he heard gunfire and saw Israeli military aircraft overhead. “People were panicked.”
The GHF has been under continuous controversy after its founding director, Jake Wood, resigned on Sunday citing concerns about the organisation's impartiality and effectiveness.
It would not be possible for the group to deliver aid "while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence," Wood said.
The UN and other international aid organisations have refused to work with the centre, arguing that doing so would compromise fundamental values key to reaching civilians in all conflict zones.
They have also warned that the new group would be unable to meet the demands of feeding more than 2 million people in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated following months of warfare.
The US and Israel have backed the organisation, which they claim is necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing humanitarian aid.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that the priority was delivering aid to Gaza, no matter who was delivering it. She also accused Hamas of blocking GHF convoys from reaching individuals.
However, scenes on Tuesday seemed to confirm the suggestion from international aid groups that the GHF would be unprepared to meet the demand in the Gaza Strip.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called the scenes "heartbreaking" and said the sight of crowds rushing to get aid was upsetting when the UN and partners have a "detailed, principled and operationally sound plan" to get aid into the enclave.
The GHF has set up four hubs around Gaza to distribute food in the Rafah area. It uses armed private contractors to guard the hubs and the transportation of supplies.
Israel says it will replace the UN and other aid groups that have coordinated a massive operation distributing supplies throughout the war. The past week, however, Israel has allowed a trickle of aid to enter Gaza for the UN to distribute.
The Israeli military agency responsible for coordinating aid, COGAT, said Tuesday that 400 trucks of food supplies were waiting on the Gaza side of the main crossing from Israel but that the UN had not collected them.
A spokesperson for the UN in Geneva told reporters that Israeli authorities have been assigned "insecure routes" that pose a challenge for aid agencies. The amount of aid allowed in the last week was "vastly insufficient," he added.
