Israeli soldiers kill 27 Gazans near aid centre, says health ministry

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Israeli soldiers killed more than two dozen Palestinians near an aid centre in Gaza on Tuesday, the local health ministry said, the latest in a string of deadly incidents since a controversial US-backed aid scheme was introduced in the enclave last week.

Gaza’s health ministry said 27 people had been killed and dozens more injured in the shooting, which it said took place as they waited for aid in the Rafah governorate in southern Gaza.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah had received 184 casualties, with 19 declared dead on arrival and eight more dying of their wounds shortly afterwards.

The Israeli military said its soldiers opened fire after they saw several people moving towards them and “deviating from the designated access routes”, and that it was looking into the incident.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the previously unknown US-backed group chosen to run the new aid distribution hubs in Gaza, said it was aware of the reports of casualties but that they had occurred in “an area well beyond our secure distribution site and operations area”.

Tuesday’s shooting was the third incident of killings near GHF-run sites in three days, after the foundation replaced the UN as the main conduit for aid deliveries into Gaza.

Officials in Gaza said 31 people were killed on Sunday after the Israeli military opened fire towards hungry crowds heading to the new aid centres, and that three more were killed in similar circumstances on Monday.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site”. On Monday, it said its soldiers had fired at people who “advanced towards the troops and posed a threat to them” about a kilometre away from one of the aid sites, which was closed at the time.

The repeated incidents have received international condemnation, with both the UN secretary-general António Guterres and the UN’s human rights commissioner, Volker Türk, calling for the killings to be investigated. The UN warned on Friday that Gaza’s entire population was at risk of famine.

“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza are unconscionable,” Türk said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the impediment of food and other aid to civilians “may constitute a war crime”.

“Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarised humanitarian assistance,” he said.

Israel has repeatedly said it complies with international law in Gaza.

Under the new aid distribution model, Gazans must travel — in many cases for long distances on foot — to receive boxed meals from distribution hubs secured by US private security contractors and the Israeli military.

Israel blocked all deliveries of food, fuel, medicines and aid to the enclave for more than two months, before allowing a minimal resumption of UN-led deliveries and introducing the new GHF-led system last week.

Israel says the system is designed to prevent aid falling into the hands of Hamas, whose October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel triggered the war.

But the UN and other aid groups say they have seen no large-scale diversion of aid and have accused Israel of using the new system to exploit the desperation of starving Palestinians to displace them to southern Gaza.

GHF has set up four new hubs, but for the past five days only one has been operational.

The group suffered a setback last week, when its executive director Jake Wood resigned, saying “it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

GHF said on Tuesday that it had appointed Johnnie Moore, a US businessman and evangelical leader, as its executive chair.