Dozens of Palestinians killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals say

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed as they tried to access aid in Gaza, hospitals say.

Two hospitals in Gaza City said 25 people were killed overnight, near a convoy transporting flour and a food distribution site run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the area of the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli military zone.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire. There are also reports of people being crushed by lorries and being shot by Palestinians. Israel's military said troops fired warning shots as suspects approached them.

Another 14 people were killed by Israeli fire near a GHF site in Rafah, in the south, a hospital in Khan Younis said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports from Rafah.

The GHF said more than 43,000 food parcels were handed out at its three distribution centres in Rafah and central Gaza "without incident" on Wednesday.

However, there have been deadly incidents near the GHF's sites almost every day since its controversial aid system began operating on 26 May.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 223 people had been killed while trying to reach areas designated for aid distribution over the past two weeks, including 57 on Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli anti-war activist Alon Lee-Green shared a video showing scenes of total chaos as hundreds of young Palestinian men rush from all directions into a GHF distribution centre to get boxes of food.

Many are seen climbing over earth mounds and metal fencing, and there appears to be no organisation or control.

BBC Verify geolocated the video to the GHF's Tal al-Sultan site, which is inside an Israeli military zone in western Rafah. It is said to have been filmed on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Green described the scene as "apocalyptic", adding: "This is what starving people look like, rushing for food while risking their lives."

It came after officials at al-Shifa and al-Quds hospitals in Gaza City said at least 25 people were killed by gunfire from Israeli troops as people gathered early on Wednesday near the GHF's Wadi Gaza site in the Netzarim corridor.

The director of al-Shifa's emergency department, Moataz Harara, said the hospital received around 200 injured people at the same time, many of them with gunshot or shrapnel wounds to the abdomen and pelvis.

Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told news agency AFP that the deaths and injuries were the result of "Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of civilians".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement: "Overnight, IDF troops fired warning shots toward suspects who were advancing while posing a threat to the troops, in the area of the Netzarim Corridor. This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone.

"The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured, the details are under review."

Later on Wednesday, officials at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said another 14 people were killed by Israeli gunfire near GHF sites in Rafah.

For the past few days, people have been saying that Palestinian gunmen have also fired at them. It is not clear whether they were members of militias linked to the Israeli military, or criminal gangs intent on looting supplies from aid convoys.

Eyewitnesses have expressed their sense of utter despair.

"They shoot and throw missiles at us, the gangs attack us - everyone attacks us for a bag of flour. They kill their own people for a bag of flour," one man said.

Another said their child had not eaten in two or three days.

"Our children are being pushed from one community kitchen to another, and the situation is dire. We call on the whole world to stand with the people and demand a ceasefire. We have no part in this war."

Much of the focus in the past two and a half weeks has been on the deadly incidents connected to the new aid mechanism run by the GHF.

But what is becoming clearer by the day is that the entire aid distribution system in Gaza - such as it is - appears to be close to complete breakdown.

UN agencies and other aid groups are refusing to co-operate with the GHF, saying its system contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.

They also warn that Gaza's 2.1 million population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an almost three-month total Israeli blockade that was partially eased on 19 May.

The US and Israel say the GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas. The UN says this is not a widespread issue, while Hamas denies doing it.

UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York on Wednesday: "We reiterate in the strongest terms possible that no-one should be forced to risk their lives to receive aid."

He also said the UN's World Food Programme had only been able to deliver small amounts of food and other aid since Israel started allowing limited supplies into Gaza three weeks ago, and that this was largely due to delays or denials of permission for convoys due to expanded Israeli military operations.

The WFP said it dispatched 59 aid lorries carrying 930 tonnes of flour to northern Gaza on Monday night, but that the convoy was "stopped along the way and offloaded by hungry civilians in critical need of food to feed their families".

A GHF spokesman told news agency Reuters: "Ultimately, the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population.

"There is not yet enough food to feed everyone in need in Gaza. Our current focus is to feed as many people as is safely possible within the constraints of a highly volatile environment."

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 55,104 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.