At least 30 Palestinians have been killed and another 150 wounded by Israeli forces after they opened fire on people heading to a humanitarian aid collection point in western Rafah, Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian news agency Sanad.
Military vehicles and drones fired on Palestinians on their way to receive humanitarian aid packages at a US post. The wounded have been taken to Nasser Hospital.
“The Israeli occupation forces committed a new massacre against starving civilians who had gathered at the so-called humanitarian aid distribution points, supervised by a US-Israeli company and protected by the occupation army, within the so-called buffer zones of Rafah city,” Palestinian authorities said, according to Sanad.
Likewise, the organization has denounced Israel for using humanitarian aid as a “tool of war” and maintained that the United States, as the supervisor of this aid, bears “moral and criminal responsibility” for these crimes.
The NGO Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was created this year as part of Israel’s plan to establish a mechanism for delivering humanitarian aid outside the system of conventional international humanitarian organizations, arguing that it aims to prevent it from being managed and exploited by Hamas.
Both UN agencies and NGOs working in the Gaza Strip rejected earlier this month the plan to distribute humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave designed by Israel and the United States, arguing that it “contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles” of impartiality, independence, and neutrality due to the control that the Israeli Armed Forces would have.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reported Saturday that Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 54,380 Palestinians and injured more than 124,000 since October 7, 2023.
