Latest news with #crush
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
At least 20 Palestinians killed in crush at food distribution site in southern Gaza
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in a crush at a food distribution site in southern Gaza run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It happened after GHF guards used teargas or pepper spray on hungry crowds arriving at the centre, Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said. Nineteen people were crushed and one stabbed in a 'chaotic and dangerous surge' on Wednesday morning, GHF said in a statement. It did not respond to questions about the use of pepper spray or teargas by its staff at the site near Khan Younis. Fifteen people died from suffocation after teargas was fired at the crowd, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. 'All of the 15 arrived at the hospital already dead with obvious symptoms of lack of oxygen. You can see blue marks, vomit, blue lips, swelling faces – all symptoms of suffocation,' Dr Mohammed Zaqqout, the director of hospitals for Gaza, said. 'We couldn't save any of the 15 we received because they were already dead on arrival.' Abdel Ghani Rouqa's 20-year-old nephew, Mohammad, was among the dead. 'The tents are completely empty now, lacking any food or drink, so people, with no other options or alternatives, are forced to go to dangerous areas just to get a can of fava beans or hummus, or even a few kilograms of flour, anything to feed their hungry families,' Rouqa said. 'Unfortunately, when Mohammad went there today, the place was extremely crowded. The Israeli army had narrowed the area and created some passages for people to walk through,' he added. 'What happened today was that, with the army firing teargas canisters at the densely packed crowd in front of the aid distribution gates, panic broke out. People started pushing and rushing to flee the area.' 'Mohammad fell to the ground and couldn't get up or escape. As the panicked crowd fled, they stepped on him, some on his stomach or back, some on his head, and others on his legs until he lost his life,' his uncle said. 'The main cause of the chaos and deaths of more than 20 people was the firing of gas bombs.' GHF rejected the accounts provided by relatives and the Gaza health authorities and instead blamed the incident on Hamas. Chapin Fay, a GHF spokesperson, said: 'Make no mistake, this tragic incident was no accident. This was a calculated provocation, part of a pattern of targeted efforts by Hamas and its allies to dismantle our life-saving operations. 'GHF personnel identified a large number of people within the crowd carrying pistols. One American GHF worker, a medical professional, was targeted by a suspected Hamas affiliate with a pistol. 'The medic attempted to tackle him, but in the process, the Hamas affiliate fled the site, and the medic was stabbed by another Hamas affiliate with an ice pick-like weapon.' Fay said no teargas was deployed, but pepper spray was used, 'only to protect against additional loss of life'. He added that warning shots were fired in the air to disperse the crowd when a GHF worker saw a child in danger of being crushed, and that the GHF worker was able to save the child. In an earlier statement, GHF said that the trampling deaths were 'the result of a surge instigated by armed Hamas agitators who infiltrated the crowd'. Fay said 19 people had been trampled to death, and another died from stab wounds. 'The 19 victims who were trampled likely died due to compressive asphyxia, otherwise known as suffocation, which is the leading cause of death in these types of incidents,' he said in an online briefing. The deaths marked a grim milestone for Palestinians in a war where Israeli attacks have already killed more than 58,000 people, the majority of them civilians. On Tuesday 13 members of the same family, including seven children, were reported killed when an Israeli airstrike hit their home in eastern Gaza City. Some of the victims were left to die under the rubble, as the Israeli military prevented rescuers from approaching the scene for roughly eight hours with the use of drone strikes, local rescue workers and family members told the Haaretz newspaper. Israeli forces have killed at least 800 Palestinians while they were trying to access food since the GHF began operations in late May. Many of them were trying to reach a GHF distribution site. The deaths on Wednesday were the first at a site controlled by the organisation's armed security guards. Gaza health authorities also said they were the first 'due to suffocation and severe stampedes'. GHF, a startup organisation with no experience of distributing food in complex conflict zones, says it bears no responsibility for deaths outside its perimeters. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday it would donate $30m (£22m) to the organisation, a move decried as 'outrageous' by the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen. Van Hollen referred to GHF as a 'shadowy group at the centre of the scheme to replace humanitarian aid orgs in Gaza with mercenaries, leading to the killing of starving civilians trying to collect food'. 'Taxpayers shouldn't be paying for this outrage,' the senator said in a social media post. GHF runs only four sites to feed 2 million people, in a territory where extreme hunger is widespread and food security experts have warned of looming famine. Food security experts say deaths are inevitable in a system with only four sites, which open for short, irregular periods, providing food for hundreds of thousands of desperately hungry people. Under the aid model run by the UN and major international humanitarian organisations, which fed Palestinians during nearly 20 months of war, there were more than 400 aid distribution points used to bring food into communities. Israeli authorities claimed they needed a new aid system because Hamas was diverting aid, but have not provided evidence to back up allegations that closely audited supply chains of UN and humanitarian agencies were compromised. William Christou in Beirut contributed reporting
SBS Australia
16-07-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
At least 20 killed in crowd crush at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid site
A crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, with the site's operator blaming "Hamas operatives" within the crowd and the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire. It was the first time that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the United States and Israel, acknowledged deaths at one of its distribution sites after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations. AFP footage showed lifeless bodies taken to a nearby hospital in the city of Khan Younis, with some placed on the floor and others on already-bloodied beds. LISTEN TO SBS News 16/07/2025 08:52 English Abdullah Alian, a witness, said that mayhem unfolded as the crowd of aid-seekers was hit with stun grenades and pepper spray. "When they saw people starting to die on the ground and people on top of each other suffocating, they opened the gate and people started climbing on top of each other," Alian said. It was not clear whether he was referring to US contractors securing GHF sites, Israeli forces or another party. Palestinian health officials told Reuters that 21 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. The latest deaths came as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas were ongoing, aiming to seal a deal for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza and the unfettered flow of much-needed aid into the territory. Hamas has accused Israel of wanting to retain long-term military control of Gaza — a key sticking point in the talks, which are now in their second week in Qatar. Crowd crush The GHF said that 19 of those killed on Wednesday "were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge". Spokesperson Chapin Fay later told a briefing that the deadly incident was "instigated by armed Hamas operatives" and denied the use of tear gas or that shots were fired into the crowd. "Limited use of pepper spray was deployed only to protect against additional loss of life," Fay said, adding that "warning shots were fired into the air at one point when GHF personnel identified that a child was being trampled". Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 20 people were killed in the incident, blaming it on fire from Israeli troops. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that thousands had gathered at the site when "Israeli forces opened fire and used (tear) gas, causing panic and a stampede after aid centre guards closed the main gates in front of the hungry crowd". The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. The GHF, an officially private effort, began operations in late May as Israel eased a two-month aid blockade that had sparked warnings of famine. On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, including 674 "in the vicinity of GHF sites". Last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that "most of the injuries are gunshot injuries".
News.com.au
16-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Gaza aid point crush kills 20 people
A crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, with the site's operator blaming "agitators" within the crowd and the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire. It was the first time that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the United States and Israel, acknowledged deaths at one of its distribution sites after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations. AFP footage showed lifeless bodies taken to a nearby hospital, in the city of Khan Yunis, with some placed on the floor and others on already-bloodied beds. Abdullah Alian, a witness, said that mayhem unfolded as the crowd of aid-seekers was hit with stun grenades and pepper spray. "When they saw people starting to die on the ground and people on top of each other suffocating, they opened the gate and people started climbing on top of each other." It was not clear whether he was referring to US contractors securing GHF sites, Israeli forces or another party. Paramedic Ziad Farhat said that after more than 21 months of devastating war, "there are not enough hospitals for the injured or the martyrs". "Enough of the tragedies that we are living." The latest deaths came as indirect negotiations between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas were ongoing, aiming to seal a deal for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza and the unfettered flow of much-needed aid into the territory. Hamas has accused Israel of wanting to retain long-term military control of Gaza -- a key sticking point in the talks, which are now in their second week in Qatar. - 'Stampede' - The GHF said it understood that 19 of those killed on Wednesday "were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge". The organisation said the crush was "driven by agitators", adding: "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd -- armed and affiliated with Hamas -- deliberately fomented the unrest". Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 20 people were killed in the incident, blaming it on fire from Israeli troops. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that thousands had gathered at the site when "Israeli forces opened fire and used (tear) gas, causing panic and a stampede after aid centre guards closed the main gates in front of the hungry crowd". The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. The GHF, an officially private effort, began operations on May 26 as Israel eased a two-month aid blockade that had sparked warnings of famine. On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, including 674 "in the vicinity of GHF sites". Last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that "most of the injuries are gunshot injuries". The GHF -- accused by aid organisations of catering to Israeli military needs -- has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points, and the Israeli army has accused Hamas of firing at civilians, though witnesses have blamed the military. - 'No progress' - In the truce negotiations, Hamas is seeking a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and last week rejected an Israeli proposal that it said would have kept troops in more than 40 percent of the territory. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday that work was ongoing to revise Israeli pullback maps, citing an unnamed foreign official. Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political leadership, told AFP that Israel "has not yet delivered any new or revised maps regarding military withdrawals". "What is happening on the ground confirms (Israel's) intentions and plans to maintain and prolong military control within the Gaza Strip for the long term," he said. Speaking in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel's army chief Eyal Zamir said that "in the coming days, we will know whether or not we have an agreement", according to a military statement. A Palestinian source close to the negotiations earlier told AFP there had been "no progress so far". If a deal is not reached, Israel will "intensify and expand combat operations as much as possible, beyond what we are currently doing", Zamir said. The war was sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Sky News
16-07-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Deadly crush at Gaza aid site after new system implemented
Twenty one people have been killed following a crush at an aid distribution site in Gaza, according to local health officials. Footage shows young men being rushed to the nearby Nasser hospital in the immediate aftermath of the incident on Wednesday morning. At least 17 of the victims died from suffocation, according to one of the hospital's doctors, Dr Muhammad Saqr. The crush is the latest in a string of incidents that have plagued the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and US-backed organisation tasked with delivering aid in Gaza. It comes one day after GHF implemented a new system at the site whereby red and green flags are used to tell Palestinians whether the aid centre is open, rather than posts on social media. Analysis by Sky News shows that GHF stopped announcing the timings of aid site openings more than a week before the new system was put in place. Of the 13 aid distributions since 6 July, only one was announced by GHF. The flag system was implemented following widespread criticism of GHF's protocols after numerous reports of fatal mass shootings near its aid sites. The footage below was taken on Tuesday at the site where the crush occurred, known as Secure Distribution Site 3 (SDS3). It shows a red flag above the site following an aid distribution. "The new system doesn't tell you when to go," says Ahmed Dhair, who was present at the crush this morning. "To see the flag, you have to go very, very close to the centre." Another person says that everyone goes early to the aid centre. "If they follow the flags, they will not have time to reach the centre." Sky News spoke to five Palestinians who were present at the stampede. Their accounts suggest that the crush was the result of systemic failures of communication and crowd control by GHF. Decision to approach Father-of-four Ahmed, 36, told Sky News that "thousands" of people had been waiting nearby for the site, SDS3, to open. Three eyewitnesses, including Ahmed, said that the crowd began to approach the aid site at around 6am after seeing the withdrawal of IDF vehicles. Ahmed says this has become standard practice since GHF stopped announcing opening times in advance. "This is what usually happens: we head to the site, get shot at for a while, then sleep on the ground so we don't get hit," he says. "When the [military] vehicles withdraw, we run very quickly until we get aid." Alaa, aged 39, says that people ran towards the aid centre only to find that it was still closed. Outside the centre, he says, was a 10-metre wide passageway enclosed by barbed wire on either side. Footage from the site, taken on Tuesday, shows this area and the barbed wire fencing around it. "It was a small corridor for the number of people," Alaa says. All five eyewitnesses who spoke to Sky News said that GHF employees then attempted to disperse the crowd using gunfire and either gas or pepper spray - resulting in a stampede. "People began to push until [the Americans] opened the gates," says Alaa. "Children and some young people fell - and here was the disaster, as people trampled on them due to the pressure of the crowd." A GHF spokesperson denied that tear gas was deployed or that shots were fired into the crowd. "Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life," they said. Why did people go to the aid centre? GHF had not announced any site openings for Wednesday, raising questions over why so many people attempted to access SDS3 this morning. GHF blamed false reports of site openings, which it said were "fuelling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder". But witnesses said they attended because GHF has repeatedly failed to announce site openings in advance. All six openings at SDS3 since 6 July have had no prior announcement. In one case, the site opened after GHF had announced that it would remain closed. "If the opening time of the aid point was posted on the official page, what happened today would not have happened," said one person on the GHF's official WhatsApp channel. Ahmed says that the GHF's social media announcements have "no credibility". "Most of the time they say it is closed and then it is opened," he says. "They say they will open the centre at 10am, and then we are surprised that they opened it at 9am." Another person who was present at the crush said he had turned up because the site had opened the previous day without any prior announcement. "Please can you contact any of the security personnel and inform me of the opening time of the aid site before it opens, so that I can bring flour to my family?" one Palestinian asked Sky News. "We are going through famine and have been without food for three days now." Crush will add to criticism of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Lisa Holland, Sky Correspondent in Jerusalem The United Nations has already condemned the aid centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as 'death traps' – and that was before the latest loss of life in which 21 people died seemingly mostly from suffocation. It's the first and only time we know of people dying in this way waiting to get food. Although the Gaza Health Ministry and the GHF dispute exactly what happened. But how much longer can this Israeli and American backed way to supply aid continue when people are dying on a near daily basis? However it happened Gaza's over-crowded hospitals are once again overwhelmed. And there are serious questions to answer about the organisation of a system which is supposed to be providing humanitarian aid to desperately hungry people - but instead is a place where there is so much loss of life. It leaves people with an unbearable choice between risking their lives to get supplies or going hungry. Chaos of the system A Palestinian former employee of GHF told Sky News that he had quit the organisation last month because of its failure to improve its systems. "The reason I left the organisation is because they did not take into account the suggestion of doing pre-registration like other organisations so that there is a fair and honest system for the crowds," he says. "It should be done by ID card," says Ahmed. "It is not fair for a person to be coming every day, selling the food and keep stealing again. I went almost 20 times and not once did I get a box because I can't run." A GHF spokesperson said: "Today's incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF." In a written statement, the Hamas-run Government Media Office denied the allegations, saying that GHF "vainly seeks to evade responsibility for one of the most heinous organised massacres committed against the starving in Gaza since the start of the genocide". Rising number of GHF casualties A total of 674 people have been killed while trying to collect food from GHF sites, according to the UN. These numbers do not include the latest casualties from Wednesday's incident. Sky News analysis has found that deaths across the Gaza Strip as a whole increase significantly on days when more GHF sites are open. "We have no more beds to put patients on - we're putting patients on the ground," says Dr Muhammad Saqr at Nasser hospital. "We can no longer deal with any more casualties coming from GHF or other centres." 0:14
The Independent
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
At least 20 Palestinians killed in crush at Gaza aid site
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in a crush at an aid site run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The GHF, which is supported by Israel, said the crowd surge on Wednesday was instigated by armed instigators who were linked to Hamas. Nineteen people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, the organisation said. "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest." There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Twenty-one people had died of suffocation at the site, Palestinian heath officials said. One medic said a great number of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. The UN rights office in Geneva said it had recorded about 800 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza. The majority of them were close to GHF distribution points. Most of the deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called "lessons learned". The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation. The UN has called the GHF's model 'inherently unsafe' and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards. The GHF has denied the allegation. Amjad Al-Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, accused the GHF on Wednesday of gross mismanagement, saying its lack of crowd control and failure to uphold humanitarian principles had led to chaos and death among desperate civilians. "People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organisation and discipline by the GHF," he said. The war in Gaza, triggered in October 2023 by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel, has devastated large swathes of the coastal enclave, displaced almost all of the territory's population and led to widespread hunger. Israeli army road Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had completed a new road in southern Gaza separating several towns east of Khan Younis from the rest of the territory in an effort to disrupt Hamas operations. Palestinians see the road under Israeli army control as a way to exert pressure on Hamas in ongoing ceasefire talks, which started on 6 July and are being brokered by Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar with the backing of the United States. Palestinian sources close to the negotiations said a breakthrough had not yet been reached on any of the main issues under discussion. Hamas said Israel wanted to keep at least 40 per cent of the Gaza Strip under its control as part of any deal, which the group rejected. Hamas has also demanded the dismantlement of the GHF and the reinstatement of a UN-led aid delivery mechanism. Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the road showed Israel was not serious about reaching a ceasefire deal. "It confirms the occupation's long-term intentions and plans to remain inside the Strip, not to withdraw, and not to end the war. This contradicts everything it claims at the negotiating table or communicates to mediators," Naim said in a post on his Facebook page. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas is disarmed and removed from Gaza. Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 17 people across the enclave on Wednesday. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. An estimated 50 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including 28 hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are being withheld.
