IDF fires at suspects who approached Israeli forces at Gaza aid distribution site
The military said it is aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into.
The IDF on Tuesday said that it had opened fire on a group of suspects who made aggressive movements toward its soldiers about half a kilometer from one of three food aid distribution sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) after initially firing warning shots in the air to disperse them.
According to the IDF, the suspects deviated from the designated access routes at the site, but at the same time, the military said it was probing the incident.
There were a variety of reports from Gaza and Hamas indicating around 25 Palestinians had been killed in the incident, this being the third consecutive day of Palestinians being killed near a GHF site.
GHF has strongly rebutted any claim that there is a pattern of Palestinian civilians seeking food who are being killed on their way to the GHF food sites, with the authority and the IDF blaming nearby incidents staged by Hamas.
Despite that counter-narrative, Israeli security sources told the Jerusalem Post that they could not yet preclude the possibility that a mix of Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians had been caught up in some of the incidents in cases where Hamas embedded itself among Palestinian civilians.
All of this also occurs as there are continued reports of officials, advisors, and subcontractors of the GHf quitting or cancelling their contracts, leaving the future of the entity as being uncertain.
After all of the above, a witness of the Tuesday incident told The Jerusalem Post that, "The civilians arriving at the distribution area are supposed to walk along a designated route until they reach the corridor that leads to the distribution compound. This is intended to keep them away from IDF forces and prevent any danger to our forces."
The witness added that the prohibited route is clearly marked, with barbed wire blocking it.
The suspects that were shot at "deviated from the permitted route, and several hundred people started running toward IDF forces. They got as close as 200–300 meters," the witness told the Post.
"The forces fired toward the people to push them back," the witness confirmed.
"We recognize the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when traveling to our distribution sites," GHF said in a statement.
Us-backed aid group launched distribution sites last week
GHF launched its first distribution sites last week in an effort to alleviate widespread hunger amongst Gaza's war-battered population, most of whom have had to abandon their homes to flee fighting.The Foundation's aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and established charities, which say it does not follow humanitarian principles.
The private group, which is endorsed by Israel, said it distributed 21 truckloads of food early Tuesday and that the aid operation was "conducted safely and without incident within the site."
The total number of meals distributed to date is approximately 7,039,462 via roughly 107,520 boxes, according to GHF.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
