At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in a crush at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed US organisation in Gaza, the group said, the first time it has acknowledged deadly violence at its operations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim.
It said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern city of Khan Younis.
In turn, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry and witnesses pushed back against GHF, claiming workers used tear gas against the crowd, after which chaos ensued.
It was the first time that GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its distribution sites, although witnesses, hospitals and UN agencies say hundreds of people have been killed while heading to the hubs to get food.
Stun grenades and pepper spray
Some witnesses said the crowd panicked after receiving messages that no aid would be distributed or would be distributed later.
Others said people became trapped while attempting to move through a turnstile system, which created a bottleneck.
Omar Al-Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said people were gasping for air, possibly after inhaling tear gas.
The injuries were “not from gunfire, but from people clustering and pushing against each other,” Al-Najjar said as he carried an injured stranger to a hospital, together with three other men, AP reported.
“They used stun grenades and pepper spray against us,” said Abdullah Aleyat, who was at the GHF site on Wednesday morning.
“When they saw people killing each other, they opened the gate and people stepped over each other and suffocated,” Aleyat said.
Videos released earlier this year by GHF from an aid distribution showed hundreds of Palestinians jostling for aid and sprinting towards the sites when they opened.
In other videos obtained recently by the AP from a US contractor working with GHF, Palestinians seeking access to the sites are pictured crowded between metal fences, as contractors deploy tear gas and stun grenades.
The sites are inside Israeli military zones protected by private US contractors. Israeli troops surround the sites, but the army says they are not in the immediate vicinity.
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that 875 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed while seeking food since May, with 674 of those in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by GHF.
While claims were made that some of the deaths have been caused by Israeli gunfire, the Israeli army said it fires warning shots and only uses live fire if crowds threaten its soldiers.
GHF, a US organisation registered in Delaware, was established in February to distribute aid during the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis.
Israel opens new military corridor
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis, according to hospital officials.
The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure, such as tunnels and weapons storage facilities.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a new corridor, the fourth, that bisects Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they said is a pressure tactic against Hamas.
In the past, these narrow strips of land have been a serious hurdle during ceasefire negotiations, as Israel has said it wants to maintain military presence in them.
Negotiations in the Qatari capital between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill, after 21 months of war, which began with the Hamas-led cross-border attack on 7 October 2023.
That day, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people. Fifty hostages are still being held, fewer than half of them believed to be alive.
A subsequent Israeli offensive has to date killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures do not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
The Israeli military says nearly 900 of its soldiers have died since the start of the war.