Starving Palestinians pepper-sprayed at GHF aid site in Gaza, video shows
In the 20-second video verified by Al Jazeera's fact-checking agency Sanad, Israeli troops were seen scattering a crowd with pepper spray at Shakoush in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.
The mobile phone video, recorded on July 10 and released on social media late on Saturday, shows three armed soldiers using the pepper spray against the Palestinians at the Israeli and United States-backed GHF aid point.
Men, women and children could be seen running in all directions away from the soldiers – some covering their mouths with their clothes, others frantically rushing to leave the scene with bags of flour hoisted on their backs.
Since the GHF started operating in Gaza in late May, at least 891 people have been killed while trying to get food, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday.
A July 15 report by the United Nations found that at least 674 of those people were killed 'in the vicinity of GHF sites'.
The highly criticised aid operation has effectively sidelined Gaza's vast UN-led aid delivery network after Israel eased a more than two-month total blockade on the enclave.The video of Palestinians being pepper-sprayed came as Israel's genocidal war in Gaza saw at least 54 more Palestinians killed on Sunday, 51 of them aid seekers, until 10:30 GMT on Sunday.
On Saturday, 116 Palestinians were killed across the enclave, including at least 38 aid seekers.
Mahmoud Mokeimar, a Palestinian in Gaza, said he was walking with a crowd of people, mostly young men, towards the GHF hub when Israeli troops fired warning shots and soon opened fire.
'The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,' he told The Associated Press news agency.
Mokeimar said he saw at least three motionless bodies on the ground and many wounded people fleeing.
'Unless Israel allows more food into Gaza, Palestinians have no choice but to risk their lives just for something to eat,' said Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.
'Parents go to the GHF distribution sites to risk getting killed or leave their children starving. There is no option in the market. Everything is very expensive.'Meanwhile, Palestinians, including infants and toddlers, continue to die from starvation across Gaza.
Four-year-old Razan Abu Zaher died of complications from malnutrition and hunger, a source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza City told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
On Saturday, the director of al-Shifa Hospital said two Palestinians had died of starvation, including a 35-day-old infant.
On Friday, the Health Ministry said starving Palestinians are arriving in hospital emergency departments across Gaza in 'unprecedented numbers', as Israel continues to severely restrict access to food in Gaza and shoot people seeking aid.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 58,765 people and wounded 140,485 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
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