TWENTY people desperate to get food have been killed “amid a chaotic and dangerous surge”; at an aid distribution site in southern Gaza.
Nineteen were trampled to death with one person stabbed in the “tragic accident,”; the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said.
The GHF said it believed the harrowing surge was “driven by agitators in the crowd”; who were affiliated to Hamas.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it had received 10 bodies who had died due to “suffocation”; after an aid site was shut by the GHF’s US private security contractors.
The GHF said the stampede was “driven by agitators in the crowd”;, adding: “We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest”;.
A medical source at Nasser Hospital told AFP the victims were “heading to the aid distribution centre in northwest Rafah to receive food aid”; but the main gate to the centre had been closed.
The GHF started its operations on May 26 after Israel had halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking warnings of imminent famine.
On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites”;, since the end of May.
Last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said that “most of the injuries are gunshot injuries”;.
The GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points and the Israeli army has accused Hamas of being responsible for firing at civilians.
The GHF said on Wednesday: “For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated.
“An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident.”;
It added that it was part of a “deeply troubling pattern”;, including “false messages”; about aid site openings.
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