Around 47 people were injured, largely due to gunshots fired by the Israeli military, during chaotic scenes at a new aid distribution centre in Gaza, a senior UN official said on Wednesday (May 28).
The Israeli military said afterwards that its soldiers did not fire at civilians at the aid distribution point.
Thousands of Palestinians rushed into the centre run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, as Israel implemented a new distribution system that bypasses the United Nations.
The incident in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip came days after the partial easing of a total aid blockade on the Palestinian territory that Israel imposed on Mar 2, leading to severe shortages of food and medicine.
“From the information we have, there are about 47 people who have been injured” in Tuesday’s incident, Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, told the UN correspondents’ association in Geneva.
He added that “most of those injured are due to gunshots” and based on the information he has, “it was shooting from the IDF” – the Israel Defence Forces.
Sunghay stressed that his office was still assessing and gathering information on the full picture of events.
“The numbers could go up. We are trying to confirm what has happened to them”, in terms of how seriously people were injured, Sunghay added.
“We are checking information from the UN. At the time we are speaking, we have no information on this matter,” Israeli military spokesman Colonel Olivier Rafowicz told AFP, referring to the wounded civilians.
Israeli soldiers “fired warning shots into the air, in the area outside” the centre managed by the GHF, he said, adding that “in no case (did they fire) towards the people”.
Rafowicz added that “Hamas is doing everything to prevent humanitarian aid”.
Sunghay also expressed concern about the possible medical aid injured people would be able to access.
“Getting medical aid has never been easy in Gaza or in the West Bank because hospitals have been attacked, ambulances have been attacked, health workers have been attacked,” he said.
The Israeli military said its troops “fired warning shots in the area outside” the distribution compound on Tuesday, and that it had re-established “control over the situation”. A senior military official said the distribution was nonetheless “a success”.
GHF NOT “VIABLE SOLUTION”
Little is known about the GHF, which surfaced in early May.
The foundation has faced accusations of helping Israel fulfil its military objectives while excluding Palestinians, bypassing the UN system, and failing to adhere to humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.
“We have raised numerous concerns with this mechanism,” Sunghay said.
He said large parts of the Gazan population would not travel all the way to the far south to collect food – while the elderly, sick, disabled and those looking after children would not be able to do so in any case.
There were also concerns within the population that they would be detained, or not allowed to return to northern Gaza.