One person has been killed and 48 others injured after a crowd overwhelmed an aid hub in Gaza, according to local health officials.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians over-running an aid distribution site set up by an Israeli and US-backed aid group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
People broke through the fences, and an Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gunfire, and saw a military helicopter firing flares.
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Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Palestinian territories, said it appeared that Israeli army gunfire had caused most of the injuries.
Speaking from Switzerland, Mr Sunghay said earlier: “The information that we have is that about 47 people have been injured, it is through gunshots.
“We’re still gathering information, the numbers could go up.
“What we know is that it was shooting from the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces]. But again, this is a job we are continuing to do at this time.”
The GHF said its military contractors did not fire on the crowd but “fell back” before later resuming operations.
Israel said its troops nearby had fired warning shots.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there had been “some loss of control momentarily” at the hub, but “happily, we brought it under control”.
He repeated Israel’s plan to relocate Gaza’s population to a “sterile zone” at the southern end of the territory while it fights Hamas elsewhere. In the meantime, its strikes on Gaza have continued.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the new model for providing aid to Gaza was wasteful and a “distraction from atrocities”.
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‘Teaspoon’ of aid
Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of an Israeli blockade, which has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said last week Israel had only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid and more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new aid system.
They have warned that it will not be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population.
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Israel said it has established the new aid system to stop Hamas from siphoning off supplies.
It has provided no evidence of systemic diversion, and UN agencies have said they have mechanisms in place to prevent this.
Read more:
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The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation publicly launched earlier this year and is run by a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials.
Until his resignation, Jake Wood was the face of the foundation.
The US military veteran said on Sunday he quit because it was clear the group would not be allowed to operate independently.
It is not clear who will run the GHF now.
The US and Israeli-backed group is the linchpin of a new aid system, despite opposition from the UN and most humanitarian groups.
It has set up a number of hubs under the guard of armed contractors, instead of taking aid to where Palestinians are.
The GHF moved food to its hubs on Monday and began distribution.
It said flows would be “increasing each day” and it had plans to reach more than one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
The Israeli military said two of the four hubs had begun distributing food, both in Rafah.
The foundation has said it will create more hubs within 30 days, including in the north.
Sanaa airstrikes
Elsewhere in the region, Israel said it had carried out airstrikes on the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
It came after Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired several missiles at the country in recent days.
Israel last struck the airport on 6 May. During that attack, it destroyed the airport’s terminal and left its runway riddled with craters. Some flights resumed to Sanaa on 17 May.
Israel said it had struck Houthi targets, including the last remaining plane used by the group, at the airport.
