Chaos and confusion broke out at a new aid center in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the first full day that humanitarian assistance was being distributed through a contentious effort conceived by Israelis.
A blockade by Israel since March had halted food and fuel entering the enclave, leaving Palestinians desperate for supplies. Aid organizations suspended their operations as food stockpiles dwindled, and relief officials have been warning that widespread hunger has become a daily reality.
The desperation was evident at the distribution site on Tuesday, where footage verified by The New York Times showed chaotic scenes unfolding, with hundreds of people gathering in the compound. Large crowds, including women and young children, could be seen running toward the center of the site where boxes of aid had been piled up earlier in the day, and the chaos grew as more people climbed up and over sand berms surrounding the location.
In one video, a large crowd can be seen suddenly running away from the distribution site as several short bursts of gunfire are heard in the distance. The panicked crowd tramples the metal fencing set up round the perimeter of the site.
Security at the new distribution sites is being provided by private American contractors, but the Israeli military is stationing forces nearby, outside the perimeter.
On Tuesday, the military released a statement saying that “troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound” but denied carrying out aerial fire. The Times verified the videos by matching key details in the footage — such as metal fencing and the shape of silos inside the compound — to satellite imagery and visual materials released by the military.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the organization behind the effort, hinted at some of the chaos at its distribution site in Tel al-Sultan, in Rafah, in a statement on Tuesday. It noted that “the needs on the ground are great,” and that in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the southern Gaza distribution site was so overwhelming that it had prompted the foundation’s team to retreat “to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate.”
Two people involved in the initiative said that in the late afternoon, crowds did break into the site, with one of them estimating that about 100 people were involved in the rush. They said the contractors working for the foundation had been prepared and, in accordance with their plan, retreated to avoid a clash, while a group of Palestinian workers involved in the initiative formed a cordon around the affected area, essentially allowing those who broke in to take food packages. Calm was eventually restored, they said, and the contractors did not fire any shots.
One Palestinian, who asked to be identified only as Hassan because he feared retribution from Israel or Hamas, said he had traveled to the site from his shelter in Khan Younis — but ultimately fled empty-handed after the chaotic crush. His stomach empty, he said, he walked more than three miles back to the tent where he has been staying with his family.
Videos filmed earlier in the day confirmed that some people at the distribution site had received boxes of aid, but it was unclear how many in total were able to get access the supplies.
Mohammad, 26, who also asked for his surname to be omitted for fear of retribution from Hamas and other Palestinian factions, said that he lived close to the site and that hehad been among the first 50 people to arrive.
Addressing concerns about Israel’s involvement in the plan and its military’s proximity to sites, Mohammad said he had seen no one arrested or searched. The Israeli army was visible in the distance, he said.
But he said that tanks later fired machine guns as warning shots to control the crowds.
According to Mohammad, recipients were able to get aid whether or not they had identification. The aid boxes he saw bore the logo “GHF,” weighed around 20 kilograms, and included basic food items such as oil, sugar, salt, flour, pasta, and fava beans, he said. Some packages contained different items, with varying quantities, he said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Tuesday that about 8,000 food boxes had been distributed in the enclave so far, with each one feeding “5.5 people for 3.5 days, totaling 462,000 meals.” The flow of aid is expected to increase daily, it added.
But the supplies constitute a mere trickle of assistance for the about two million people of Gaza, and there were conflicting reports on Tuesday about what was happening on the ground. The foundation mentioned only one distribution site in its statement, and people involved with the initiative said it was the sole site opened. But the Israeli military said two sites had been opened.
The centers are operated by international aid organizations and secured by an American civilian security company, the Israeli military said. But the foundation coordinating the effort has faced criticism, and its executive director resigned on Sunday, hours before the program was set to start. He said he had found it impossible to perform the job independently after reports in several news outlets, including The Times, raised questions about the group’s connections with Israel.
Israel has said it was blocking aid from entering Gaza to prevent it from reaching the hands of Hamas. Under the new plan, aid is being distributed at sites the foundation has set up in coordination with the Israeli authorities.
But the plan to have the Israeli military stationed at a visible distance from the sites has drawn an outcry from humanitarian organizations. Critics say it puts Palestinian civilians at risk of more contact with Israeli soldiers. And there are fewer sites proposed than aid groups once had in place, raising fears that there will be less access to food and that civilians will have to travel farther to get it.
In a speech on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, sought to characterize the shoving crowds and chaos as a small bump in the overall project. “There was some loss of control momentarily,” he said. “Happily, we brought it back under control.”
Johnatan Reiss and Sanjana Varghese contributed reporting.
Ephrat Livni is a reporter for The Times’s DealBook newsletter, based in Washington.
Patrick Kingsley is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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