Israel is facing growing international pressure as aid distribution efforts in Gaza devolved into chaos during the first days of a controversial new mechanism backed by the United States and Israel.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, 11 people have been killed and dozens injured as crowds of desperate people arrived at distribution sites in southern Gaza since they opened earlier this week.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which runs the new sites, said on Thursday that no one was killed or injured during the distribution of aid.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, pushed towards famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade, descended on both the sites belonging to the GHF, as well as a warehouse run by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) over the past three days, grabbing bags of food and bags of flour. Food scarcity in Gaza has sparked scenes of desperation and widespread looting in recent days.
The start of the new aid mechanism comes as some of Israel’s closest allies have grown increasingly vocal in their condemnation of its conduct in Gaza, and their threats of action should the bombardment and restrictions on aid continue.
On Wednesday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said, “Israel’s strikes in Gaza go beyond what is necessary to fight Hamas.” She also criticized the new aid mechanism run by GHF, saying the EU does not support “any kind of privatization of the distribution of humanitarian aid.”
Recent comments by officials from Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Europe, have also put support for Israel under the spotlight. “The Israeli government must not do anything that its best friends are no longer prepared to accept,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this week.
Last week, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Canada threatened to take “concrete action,” including targeted sanctions, if Israel does not stop its renewed military offensive and continues to block aid from entering Gaza.
But even as Israel’s allies issue warnings, the desperation of starving Palestinians persists – while the GHF presses on with its push to become the enclave’s primary aid provider.
On Tuesday, a massive throng of Palestinians overran the first GHF aid site in southern Gaza, tearing down some of the fencing and climbing over crowd control barriers. The rush forced the private contractors manning the site in Tel al-Sultan to “fall back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely,” GHF said, even as videos from the scene showed masses of people grabbing boxes of aid and leaving.
GHF asserted that “there have been no deaths at any GHF location. Reports to the contrary originated from Hamas and are inaccurate.”
A day later, “hordes of hungry people” broke into a UN warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food, according to the WFP. Sounds of gunfire were audible in videos from the scene. According to WFP, initial reports indicated that two people were killed and several were injured in the incident.
WFP said humanitarian needs had spiraled out of control after “80 days of complete blockade” by Israel, which was only been partially relieved in the past week.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “at its darkest point yet.” It criticized the new framework, saying that “a new militarized distribution system has just been launched” that “puts people at risk, and it will not meet people’s needs, or dignity, across Gaza.”
“The conditions for us to deliver aid safely and at scale are absent,” OCHA said in a statement.
For now, the new GHF mechanism and the established UN distribution are concurrently operating in Gaza. But little aid is coming into the territory, and some areas, especially in northern Gaza, appear to be receiving nothing.
Geolocated video on Thursday also showed crowds looting a street market in Zeitoun, northern Gaza, an area where even less aid is arriving than in the south.
On Thursday, three of four GHF sites distributed boxes of food, including the first such site in central Gaza, as the organization tries to reach its stated goal of providing food for 1.2 million Palestinians by the end of the month, just days away. Yet GHF remained confident, saying “we are well on our way” to providing enough food – along with UN distribution – for the entire population of more than 2 million Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
UN officials have cast doubt on GHF’s projections.
Omar Abd Rabbo, a Gaza resident, went to the new site in the center of the enclave for food as it opened. In a series of videos, he said, “The place was filled with chaos and random jostling, a scene that reflects the extent of the suffering and hunger experienced by the people of Gaza.” He took a short video with one of the US security contractors manning the site and said, “Thank you.”
But many did not get the food for which they desperately waited. Video from the scene showed security inside the site throwing what appeared to be stun grenades at Palestinians waiting for food outside. GHF said “non-lethal means” were used, including “smoke and warning shots,” when the crowd would not disburse. Witnesses said people who didn’t get aid took the tables and chairs from the site.
Yousef Hammad, another resident, said a huge crowd numbering tens of thousands approached the newly opened site, but he told CNN that very few got boxes.
“This is a big lie, a trap and betrayal, and this is only for thieves and merchants… People do not benefit anything,” Hammad said. “There is no aid or any humanity. This is humiliating and insulting. This is lack of dignity for our people and children.”
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