UN Condemns Gaza Aid System After Dozens Killed by Israeli Fire

At least 46 people waiting for aid have been killed by Israeli fire in two incidents in central and southern Gaza, according to rescuers and hospitals. UN agencies have condemned the US and Israel-backed food distribution system, with one official calling it 'an abomination' and 'a death trap'. Such deadly incidents have recently become a near daily occurrence but have attracted relatively little attention outside Gaza since Israel attacked Iran more than a week ago. Without including the latest deaths, the UN has said that more than 410 Palestinians are reported to have been killed by Israeli gunfire or shelling since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began work in late May.

'Why are our children's lives seen as so cheap?' demanded Umm Raed al-Nuaizi, a widow whose son was shot and wounded after he went overnight to collect food for his hungry family in central Gaza. 'My son went to get a grain of flour so that he could eat and feed his siblings, and now he is in the intensive care unit.'

Footage from al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat showed chaotic scenes as young men with gunshot wounds were carried in, groaning in pain and some drenched in blood. Soon every bed was filled, and casualties covered the floor. An older man was set down dead as his wife, bereft, cradled his face and wept. Hospital officials and the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said that at least 21 people were killed and some 150 injured.

Paramedics and rescuers said that at least 25 people were also killed near a site run by the GHF in southern Gaza on Tuesday morning. A witness told the BBC that he had gone to a site north of Rafah at 05:00, but shortly before it was due to open at 10:00, Israeli tanks advanced towards them and opened fire with no announcements.

As news of the latest incidents broke, a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen al-Kheetan, held a briefing in Geneva condemning the system. 'Israel's militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution,' he said. 'The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services constitutes a war crime.'

According to the source: BBC.