Latest news with #food distribution
The Guardian
2 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
BreakingNews.ie
3 days ago
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
At least 20 Palestinians die in stampede at food distribution centre
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed at a food distribution centre run by an Israeli-backed American organisation in the Gaza Strip, mostly from being trampled, the group said. They were the first deaths reported at one of the group's sites although hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials. Advertisement Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting unrest at the food distribution centre, leading to a 'dangerous surge', but it provided no evidence to support the claim. A Palestinian child waits for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City (Jehad Alshrafi/AP) Witnesses said GHF guards threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on people pressing to get into the site before it opened, causing a panic in the narrow, fenced-in entrance. Since the group's operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites. Advertisement GHF's four sites are all in military-controlled zones, and the Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds. Gaza's more than two million Palestinians are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, and the territory is teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security experts. GHF said it believed that 19 of the dead died from trampling at its food distribution centre between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah and one was killed by a stabbing in the crowd. The Gaza Health Ministry said 17 people suffocated at the site and three others were shot. Advertisement It was not clear if the shootings took place during the crush or earlier on the road to the centre. The witnesses did not report shots fired at the centre but said Israeli troops fired toward the crowds as they headed to it. Witnesses said that thousands of Palestinians arrived at the site early in the morning, and the American contractors guarding it did not open the gates. It was not clear if it was before the site's opening time or if it was not operating at all, since schedules often change. The crowd surged forward at the turnstiles in the fenced-in entranceway, said one survivor, Ahmed Abu Amra. 'The Americans were calling out on the loudspeakers, 'go back, go back.' But no one could turn around because it was so crowded,' he said. 'Everyone was on top of each other. We tried to pull out the people who were underneath, but we couldn't. The Americans were throwing stun grenades at us.' Advertisement Other witnesses said the contractors used pepper spray as well. The Health Ministry said tear gas was used, but GHF denied that and said its contractors deployed 'limited use of pepper spray'. 'Everyone suffocated from people crushing on top of each other,' said Omar al-Najjar, a Rafah resident, as he and other men carried a wounded man on a stretcher. He said the chaos at the sites is forcing Palestinians to 'march towards death'. Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip (Maya Alleruzzo/AP) GHF said it believed elements in the crowd 'armed and affiliated with Hamas' fomented the unrest. It said that its contractors identified men with firearms in the crowd and confiscated one. Distribution at the GHF sites has often been chaotic. Boxes of food are left stacked on the ground inside the centre and, once opened, crowds charge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF itself. Advertisement In videos obtained recently by The Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, contractors are seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds back behind metal fences or to force them to disperse. Gunshots can also be heard. The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that 875 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food since May. Of those, 674 were killed while en route to GHF food sites. The rest were reportedly killed while waiting for aid trucks entering Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities. Gaza's Health Ministry said on Wednesday that hospitals have received a total of 94 bodies over the past 24 hours, with another 252 wounded.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
20 Palestinians killed at Gaza aid distribution site, says Israeli-backed aid group
Twenty Palestinians were killed Wednesday, most of them trampled in a crowd at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip, the group said, the first time it has reported deaths at its operations. They came as Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting unrest in the crowd leading to a 'dangerous surge' though it provided no evidence to support the claim. Witnesses said GHF guards threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on people pressing to get into the site before it opened, causing a panic in the narrow, fenced-in entrance. It was the first time GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its food hubs. But since the sites began operating in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. GHF's four sites are all in military-controlled zones, and the Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds. Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, and many are teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security experts. Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos, witnesses say GHF said it believed that 19 of the dead died from trampling at its food distribution center between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah and one was killed by a stabbing in the crowd. The Gaza Health Ministry said 17 people suffocated at the site and three others were shot. It was not clear if the shootings took place during the crush or earlier on the road to the center. The witnesses did not report shots fired at the center but said Israeli troops fired on the crowds as they headed to the location. Witnesses said that thousands of Palestinians arrived at the site early in the morning, and the Americans contractors guarding it did not open the gates. It was not clear if it was before the site's opening time or if it was not operating at all, since schedules often change. The crowd surged forward at the turnstiles in the fenced-in entranceway, said one survivor, Ahmed Abu Amra. 'The Americans were calling out on the loudspeakers, 'Go back, go back.' But no one could turn around because it was so crowded,' he said. 'Everyone was on top of each other. We tried to pull out the people who were underneath, but we couldn't. The Americans were throwing stun grenades at us.' Other witnesses said the contractors used pepper spray as well. The Health Ministry said tear gas was used, but GHF denied that and said its contractors deployed 'limited use of pepper spray.' It said they fired no shots at the crowd. 'Everyone suffocated from people crushing on top of each other,' said Omar al-Najjar, a Rafah resident, as he and other men carried an injured man on a stretcher. He said the chaos at the sites is forcing Palestinians to 'march towards death.' GHF said it believed elements in the crowd 'armed and affiliated with Hamas' fomented the unrest. It said that its contractors identified men with firearms in the crowd and confiscated one. Distribution at the GHF sites has often been chaotic. Boxes of food are left stacked on the ground inside the center and, once opened, crowds charge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF itself. In videos obtained recently by The Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, contractors are seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds back behind metal fences or to force them to disperse. Gunshots can also be heard. The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food since May. Of those, 674 were killed while en route to GHF food sites. The rest were reportedly killed while waiting for aid trucks entering Gaza. Across Gaza, strikes kill 41 as Israel opens a new military corridor Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities. Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas. Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a new corridor — the fourth — that bisects Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they said is a pressure tactic against Hamas. In the past, these narrow strips of land have been a serious hurdle during ceasefire negotiations, as Israel has said it wants to maintain military presence in them. Negotiations in the Qatari capital between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill, after 21 months of war, which began with the militants' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That day, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties. ___ This story has been updated to correct that the GHF site is between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, not in Khan Younis. It has also been updated to delete a reference to witnesses reporting tear gas was used. The Health Ministry reported that. ___ Shurafa reported from Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Frankel reported from Ramallah, West Bank.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Health
- Associated Press
The Latest: 20 die in stampede at Gaza food distribution site as Israeli strikes kill 41 others
A stampede at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip killed 20 Palestinians on Wednesday, the group said, in the first acknowledgment of deadly violence at its operations. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund, an American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip's population, said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern city of Khan Younis. The organization accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim. The deaths came as Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children, in Gaza City and Khan Younis, according to hospital officials. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities. Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas. Here's the latest: Israel strikes near defense ministry in Damascus The Israeli army said Wednesday that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus, as clashes continued in the southern Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed. Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the border. It has said it is acting to protect the Druze religious minority. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos at food distribution site Gaza's Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd outside one of its food distribution hubs, causing a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites. 'They used stun grenades and pepper spray against us. They had aid inside, but they intentionally did not distribute it to let people crowd outside,″ said Abdullah Aleyat, who was at the GHF site on Wednesday morning. Omar Al-Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said people were gasping for air, possibly from tear gas. The injuries were 'not from gunfire, but from people clustering and pushing against each other,' Al-Najjar said as he carried an injured stranger to a hospital. The sites are inside Israeli military zones protected by private American contractors. Israel troops surround the sites, but the army says they are not in the immediate vicinity. The United Nations human rights office and Gaza's Health Ministry said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed while seeking food since May, with 674 of those in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by GHF.
The Guardian
3 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. 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 toxic gases were fired at the crowd, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. The deaths marked a grim milestone for Palestinians in a war where Israeli attacks have already killed over 58,000 people, the majority of them civilians. 'This is the first time that deaths have been recorded due to suffocation and severe stampedes at aid distribution centres,' health authorities said. At least 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to access food since the GHF began operations in late May, many of them 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. GHF, a startup organisation with no experience of distributing food in complex conflict zones, says it bears no responsibility for deaths outside its perimeters. In one video posted on social media, which could not immediately be verified, a man described guards throwing teargas at crowds who were already out of breath from the race to get limited aid. 'I was running like everybody else to reach the gate [to the site),' he said. 'People were crushing each other at the gate and they [the guards) started throwing teargas at us.' GHF said it identified people with weapons in the crowd for the first time since starting operations, and confiscated one gun. It claimed, without providing details or evidence, that people with Hamas links 'fomented unrest'. The organisation 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. Under the aid model run by the UN and major international humanitarian organisations, which fed Palestinians during nearly 20 months of war, there were over 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. 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. Malak A Tantesh, Sufian Taha and William Christou contributed reporting
