Dozens were feared dead and scores were wounded Sunday after the Israel Defense Forces opened fire on a group of people receiving food from a collection point in the Gaza Strip, according to hospital officials and witnesses on the ground.
The reports were vigorously denied by the organization charged with distributing aid.
Witnesses who spoke to NBC News described chaotic scenes of gunfire at the aid distribution center near Rafah, with one individual who said he saw a tanks firing at the crowd. Witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press said Israeli forces had earlier fired on the crowds around 1,000 yards from the aid site.
Mohammed Zaqout, Gaza hospitals director, said at least 31 people were killed in the strike, adding that more than 200 wounded had arrived at Nasser Hospital, 30 of whom were in critical condition.
“Their injuries are direct gunshot to the head, to the chest, to the abdomen,” he added. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Zaqout’s description of the dead and wounded.
“It was hell”
Footage taken by an NBC News team on the ground showed a truck arriving at Nasser Hospital with the bodies of several wounded men lying in the back, as bystanders lifted them onto stretchers and rushed them inside, laying them beside other bloodied bodies strewn across the floor.
The bombing began with airstrikes, followed by tank fire, according to 28-year-old Ahmad Abu Labdeh.
“They told us to come and collect aid, and when we gathered, they opened fire on us,” he said. “It was hell.”
Mahdi Maher Mohammad Brais said he was waiting for aid at 4 a.m. when the shooting began.
“They were shooting at everyone who came,” he said. “They were only going to get food to eat.”
Arafat Siam, 43, said his brother was killed while attempting to collect aid for his children, accusing authorities of luring civilians to aid distribution sites only to target them with violence.
“He was going to get a living for his children, and they killed him,” Siam said. “He is not with Hamas or anyone else.”
Wafaa al-Siyoum, mourning for the loss of a relative killed while trying to collect aid, decried the dire conditions her family.
“We haven’t eaten bread for a long time,” she told NBC News. “And when he went to get it, they shot at him before he reached the aid point.”
NBC News journalists at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said they saw at least 50 of the wounded enter the facility.
The Palestine Red Crescent said it had transported “23 fatalities and 23 injured individuals” from the aid distribution point in Rafah.
The Israeli military on Sunday denied allegations that it fired on civilians at the aid distribution site based on what it called an initial inquiry.
Aid distribution chaos
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began distributing aid in the enclave last week as part of a new U.S.- and Israel-backed plan, said that it delivered 16 trucks of food “without incident,” and denied reports of “deaths, mass injuries and chaos” at its distribution sites.
GHF later shared hours of CCTV footage appearing to show crowds of Palestinians peacefully collecting aid from one of its distribution centers. It was not immediately clear when and where the video was taken.
“As noted in our daily report earlier, aid was distributed without incident,” the organization said in a statement accompanying the video. “Reports of injuries and fatalities are completely false and fabricated. Please do not be duped by them.”
GHF was tasked with distributing aid in Gaza after Israel earlier this month lifted an almost three-month blockade barring the entry of food, medicine and other vital supplies following warnings of rising starvation in the enclave.
But its first week in operation has been marred by controversy and chaos.
Last week, thousands of hungry Palestinians flooded one of its distribution centers and Israeli soldiers fired live rounds into the air to disperse crowds.
The GHF rejected statements by Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office that three Palestinians were killed, 46 others injured and seven people were missing after the incident. The foundation said that no one was killed while trying to access its distribution site.
GHF’s former executive director, Jake Wood, also quit the organization ahead of its operations in Gaza, saying it was impossible to implement the plan while also adhering to the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” according to a statement published by Reuters.
The United Nations, which has refused to participate in the plan, has condemned the GHF initiative as a “distraction” that undermines a long-standing humanitarian framework in Gaza. The U.N. says the effort poses a threat to the independence of aid operations, while simultaneously displacing Palestinians en masse to Gaza’s south.
Israel has maintained that a new aid distribution system was necessary, alleging that Hamas was diverting supplies. The United Nations and other humanitarian groups have said they have not seen evidence that the group was siphoning off aid meant to go to civilians.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 54,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the enclave, which has been run by Hamas since 2007.
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