June 3 (UPI) — At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured early Tuesday near an aid hub run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
The Hamas-run ministry said in a social media update that the people were waiting at an area designated as an aid distribution point in Rafah and that 27 bodies and 90 injured had been brought to hospitals, “some of them in a critical condition.”
The statement did not say how the victims were killed and injured, but the incident follows the deaths of at least 31 Palestinians and injuring of more than 200 after Israel Defense Forces allegedly opened fire on a crowd at the same location Sunday.
The IDF said on its official account on X on Tuesday that troops fired warning shots to deter “several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated routes” leading to the aid site. When the suspects failed to turn back, the soldiers directed additional fire toward individuals continuing to advance toward their positions.
The IDF said it was aware of Tuesday’s reports of casualties and was looking into the details.
“The IDF allows the American Civil Organization (GHF) to operate independently in order to enable the distribution of aid to the Gazan residents — and not to Hamas. IDF troops are not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites. The warning shots were fired approximately half a kilometer away from the humanitarian aid distribution site toward several suspects who advanced toward the troops in such a way that posed a threat to them,” the military’s statement read.
However, an overseas volunteer doctor working in a nearby hospital told the BBC it had been “total carnage” since just before 4 a.m. local time and that they had been deluged with injured people.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an urgent, independent probe into the violence that reportedly occurred Sunday.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” he said.
The IDF has categorically denied any involvement in Sunday’s incident, insisting an initial investigation had found “the IDF did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
The Gaza Health Foundation, set up to run the new U.S.-Israeli mechanism for delivering humanitarian assistance into Gaza, which bypasses the United Nations and other aid agencies, also denied the reports of Sunday’s violence, saying aid had been distributed without incident and that there had been no injuries or fatalities.
However, GHF has been plagued by problems since it began operations in Gaza a week ago with thousands of hungry Gazans swamping its Tel al-Sultan Secure Distribution Site One from day one.
The scheme aims to prevent aid from allegedly being stolen and resold by Hamas to fund its military operations against Israel, but the U.N. and legacy aid agencies have roundly condemned it as being in breach of humanitarian ethics and “weaponizing” the issue of aid.
GHF’s two top officials, Executive Director and former U.S. Marine Jake Wood and Chief Operating Officer David Burke, both resigned in the days before the scheme began operating.
Burke has not publicly commented on his decision, but Wood said he resigned because the scheme was out of step with the key humanitarian principles of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”