Twenty-seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid to be distributed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
They were reportedly killed in the Rafah area of southern Gaza early on Tuesday.
The Hamas-run ministry claimed that more than 90 people were injured in what it called a “massacre”, with some of the wounded in a serious condition.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had fired shots about half a kilometre from the aid distribution site of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), adding that people were moving towards its forces in a way that “posed a threat to them”.
The media office of the Gaza government, which is run by Hamas, said in a statement that Israel was transforming aid distribution centres “into mass death traps and bloodbaths” with 102 people killed and 490 more injured in just eight days since the centres opened on 27 May.
The aid centres were “luring starving civilians to them as a result of the crippling famine”, said the media office, which called for humanitarian aid delivered through UN agencies and neutral international organisations rather than the GHF.
The IDF said in a statement: “Earlier today (Tuesday), during the movement of the crowd along the designated routes toward the aid distribution site – approximately half a kilometre from the site – IDF troops identified several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated access routes.
“The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops.”
Sky News pressed Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer on whether any of these individuals had weapons – but he failed to answer the question.
Mencer told Sky’s Kamali Melbourne: “The warning shots were fired away from the aid distribution point in response to the threat perceived by IDF troops.”
The GHF said in a statement on Tuesday: “While the aid distribution was conducted safely and without incident at our site today, we understand that IDF is investigating whether a number of civilians were injured after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone. This was an area well beyond our secure distribution site and operations area.
“We recognise the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when travelling to our distribution sites. Questions regarding the potential incident should be referred to the IDF Spokesperson.”
Middle East correspondent
The Israeli government says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is supposed to prevent aid from going to Hamas. That’s almost certainly not being achieved.
The operation is in chaos – every morning tens of thousands of people make the journey south on foot to get food when the two hubs open after dawn.
It’s first come, first served. It’s the survival of the fittest in a place where almost everyone is already starving.
The pictures of massive crowds grabbing food boxes in a frenzied manner aren’t just an indication of the desperation, but would also appear to undermine Israel’s claims the aid isn’t going to Hamas.
Amid the chaos and thousands of people (mostly men) scrabbling for aid, how could they possibly know who is getting it?
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah received 184 casualties. A spokesperson added that 19 of those were declared dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after.
There were three children and two women among the dead, according to Mohammed Saqr, who is the head of nursing at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) launched its first aid distribution sites at the end of May to combat widespread hunger among the population in Gaza.
The GHF, a private group endorsed by Israel, operates as part of a controversial new aid system established by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May that Israel would be “taking control of food distribution” in Gaza after it accused Hamas of diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied stealing aid.
GHF’s aid plan has been criticised by UN agencies and established charities, which have refused to work with the new distribution system.
The UN and major aid groups said the aid plan violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the territory.
The IDF said in a statement that the GHF “operate(s) independently in order to enable the distribution of aid to the Gazan residents – and not to Hamas”.
It also highlighted that Israeli troops were “not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites”.
Israel has said it ultimately wants the UN to work through the GHF, which is using private US security and logistics groups to bring aid into Gaza for distribution by civilian teams at so-called secure distribution sites.
There have been repeated reports of Palestinians being killed near Rafah as they gathered at the aid distribution site to get desperately needed supplies.
A spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Jeremy Laurence, said: “For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’.”
Mr Laurence’s office said the impediment of access to food and relief for civilians in Gaza may constitute a war crime, describing attacks on civilians trying to access food aid as “unconscionable”.
The alleged shooting comes just two days after reports that 31 people were killed as they walked to a distribution centre run by the GHF in the Rafah area.
Witnesses said the deaths came after Israeli forces opened fire, while Palestinian and Hamas-linked media attributed the deaths they reported to an Israeli airstrike.
The IDF later said its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false”.
Read more from Sky News:
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On Monday, three more Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid.
He called for an independent investigation and said: “It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food.”
The IDF said that three of its soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on Israeli forces since the ceasefire with Hamas ended in March.
Officials said the soldiers, all in their early 20s, died in northern Gaza, with Israeli media reporting that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area.
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Last week, Israel accepted a US-brokered ceasefire proposal, which would see the release over the course of a week of nine living hostages and half of the known hostages who have died.
But Hamas said that it was seeking amendments to the proposed 60-day truce, offering 10 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
