Twenty people trying to get food were killed Wednesday morning at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution center, the organization said in a statement.
According to GHF, 19 of the victims were trampled to death, and one was stabbed in a crowd surge sparked by Hamas-affiliated agitators. Gazan authorities, however, said in a statement that Israeli soldiers sprayed tear gas and opened fire at the crowd seeking aid, causing the incident. POLITICO could not independently verify the reports.
Nearly 900 people have been killed in Gaza while trying to get food in recent weeks, 674 of them in the vicinity of GHF sites, according to the United Nations’ human rights office.
Prior to Wednesday, the U.S.- and Israel-backed GHF has frequently denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the proximity of its aid distribution centers.
GHF has led humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza since May, but has been accused by the U.N. of contributing to the forced relocation of Palestinians, as Israel wages war against Hamas militants in the coastal strip.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in June that aid distribution in Gaza had “become a death trap” and a “humiliating system” designed to force “thousands of hungry [and] desperate people to walk for tens of miles to an area that’s all but pulverized.”
In June, an EU review found Israel to be in breach of its human rights obligations under the trade deal between the two.
Brussels then struck a deal last week with Israel to deliver more aid to Gaza, but EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday that Israel must do more to improve the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
In its statement after Wednesday’s deaths, GHF said: “We mourn the lives lost today, and we remain committed to providing humanitarian aid as safely and responsibly as possible. GHF exists to serve the people of Gaza with compassion and integrity, and our mission has never been more urgent or more challenged.”
Rory O’Neill contributed to this report.
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