TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Three Palestinian civilians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli soldiers near a food distribution site in southern Gaza on Tuesday. The center, operated by a controversial American security contractor, became a flashpoint as thousands of desperate residents sought aid amid severe hunger and ongoing airstrikes.
Palestinian media, citing Al Aqsa, reported that 46 people were injured by live ammunition in west Rafah. Some were also reported missing, according to local officials.
"The occupation forces, positioned in or around those areas, opened live fire on starving civilians who were lured to these locations under the pretence of receiving aid," the Gaza Government Media Office told Aljazeera.
They added it "provides unequivocal evidence of Israel's total failure to manage the humanitarian disaster it deliberately created."
"What happened today in Rafah is a deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime, committed in cold blood against civilians weakened by over 90 days of siege-induced starvation."
Israeli media claimed the shootings were an attempt to control chaotic crowds as a new aid system launched by the U.S. and Israel began. They also alleged Hamas was blocking access to the center, a charge Gaza authorities denied.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israel-backed initiative with no prior aid experience, launched operations Monday under Israeli military oversight. GHF handles logistics while international groups distribute aid.
Despite the extreme need, the system has drawn sharp criticism. Aid agencies and the UN warned the centralized distribution model risks displacing civilians and worsening famine. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the scenes "heartbreaking" and stressed the need to "scale up humanitarian operations" to meet urgent needs.
"This is not how aid is done," said Ahmed Bayram of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "These are the scenes we have literally been warning about all month now. It spread chaos. It spread confusion. And this is the result."
"I think the best thing that can be done now is for this plan to be cancelled, to be reversed, and for us professional humanitarians in the UN and NGOs to do our job. There are tonnes and tonnes of aid waiting across the border. [It’s a] very simple decision: open the gates and keep them open."
GHF’s ties to Israeli and U.S. entities, and its lack of neutrality, have raised alarm. Former head Jake Wood resigned, citing failure to uphold core humanitarian principles of "neutrality, impartiality, and independence."
Israel said its soldiers weren’t distributing aid directly but supported biometric systems like facial recognition to vet recipients, prompting surveillance concerns.
While the UN had operated around 400 aid sites across Gaza, GHF runs just four for 2.3 million residents. Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reported the contents of food parcels were meager and insufficient.
"This is definitely not enough, and it is not enough for all the humiliation that Palestinians are going through to receive these food parcels," she said.
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