CNN
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At least 20 people have been killed in crowd shattering at aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial Israeli-US aid organization said Wednesday it had first confirmed his death at one of its sites.
According to the GHF, people died in a “chaotic and dangerous surge.” The aid group said 19 people were trampled and one was stabbed by a crowd crash.
The GHF allegedly claimed that an individual “armed and Hamas” had deliberately incited confusion. “For the first time since surgery began, GHF officials have identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which has been confiscated,” he said.
Hamas’ government media office (GMO) blamed the GHF for the incident, calling on Palestinians to receive assistance at the Khan Eunice site in southern Gaza, claiming that “after throwing thousands of hungry people into narrow iron corridors, they began locking iron gates.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said 21 people were killed in the incident, 15 of whom died after tear gas was fired at a crowd waiting for assistance, before choking and crushing the crowd.
Witness Yahya al Sousi told CNN “When Americans closed the gate in front of us” and “we’re running to receive assistance.”
“We went through a small open gate and they started blowing pepper spray on us. Many people were choking and running by people. Everybody on the floor is a martyr,” he said.
Another witness, Mohammadshatat, explained a similar situation. After the “Americans” closed the gates, people “started running” towards one of them, Shatatt said. “When the Americans saw this, they opened the gate and sprayed us with pepper spray,” he said.
“People fell over each other, and everyone behind them stepped into the people in front of them,” he said.
US security contractors operate within the GHF aid site, with Israeli forces being deployed outside the norm. CNN approached the Israeli military to comment on the latest incident.
Hundreds of people have been killed while trying to access aid in Gaza, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, since the GHF began operating on the strip. He said nearly 800 people died this way between late May and July 7th. Of these, 615 people were killed near the GHF site.
Palestinian officials and witnesses say the Israeli military is responsible for most of these deaths. The military has sometimes admitted to shooting warning shots at crowds and denied liability for other incidents. In late June, the military said it had “reorganized” approach routes to support the site to minimize “friction with the population.”
On Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said 27 people were killed and more injured when Israeli forces fired fire on people trying to get assistance from a GHF-run distribution site near South Rafa.
The GHF denied the claim on Saturday, saying that “there was no incident near our site or very close to our site.”
Israeli forces also denied that anyone was injured in the shooting from a troop near the site, but said they continued to review the report. It reported that CNN had no further comment on Sunday.
The GHF’s tough US government assessment reported last week by CNN shows that USAID officials raised “important concerns” about their ability to protect Palestinians and deliver food to them.
The assessment flagged concerns ranging from an overall plan that lacks “even the basic details” to suggestion that a powdered baby formula is potentially distributed to areas that lack clean water to prepare it.
A GHF spokesman defended the organization’s work in Gaza and described the USAID rating as the usual for funding applications.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said “the occupation of Israel and the establishment of the United States have deliberately committed genocide in a systematic way and used a variety of methods against hungry people.”
