CNN
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At least 26 Palestinians were killed and injured after Israeli forces fired on Sunday near the South Gaza Aid Distribution Center run by the controversial US Support Foundation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Association and a nearby hospital.
When Israeli forces fired, they were “heading to receive food aid” from the Rafa area site, said a paramedic with PRCS, the only medical expert in the area.
According to the Nasser Medical Complex of South Gaza, more than 80 people were injured, according to the Nasser Medical Complex of South Gaza.
CNN contacted the Israeli military for comment and contacted the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the site.
The GHF is a private organization supported by Israel and the United States. It was founded amid Israel’s accusations that Hamas had stole aid in Gaza and sold it for profit. Humanitarian organisations say there is no evidence of this, and Israel has not publicly presented evidence.
The UN aid agencies have criticised the GHF’s aid mechanism, saying it violates humanitarian principles and poses risks for Palestinians.
UN aid groups such as UNRWA usually rely on a registered family database when verifying identification and distributing aid.
However, GHF has not screened Palestinians on aid distribution sites, despite saying additional security measures are the core reasons for creating new programs.
Criticism has been growing for both Israel and the GHF after chaos broke out last week when tens of thousands of starved Palestinians arrived at two new food distribution sites.
Palestinian Ministry of Health figures before the incident on Sunday showed that 11 people have been killed and dozens have been injured since the aid distribution site was opened. The GHF said Thursday that no one has been killed or injured since the aid distribution began last week.
The statement added that it has served more than 4.7 million meals over six days. This provided 16 trucks of food on Sunday mornings and over 887,000 meals.
In a statement issued Sunday, GHF said it will continue to scale with plans to build additional sites across Gaza, including the northern region, in the coming weeks.
Aid read the statement “without any issues.” The group “recognizes that they are being actively fomed by Hamas, suggesting death and injury today,” the group added.
However, a mixed photograph appears on the ground, along with the claim that aid claims that are considered inaccurate are distributed.
GHF also claims that reports of “death, mass injuries and chaos” on the site are “false.”
“They are not true, they are manufactured,” the statement continued.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
