Keystone-SDA
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that 22 people had been killed and more than 100 injured near one center south of Khan Younès (South) and four near another north of Rafah. He attributed attacks to Israeli fire.
(Keystone-ATS) According to the same source, the shots took place near humanitarian aid centers managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by the United States and Israel. The GHF indicated that the information reporting from the sites near its sites was “false”.
A witness told AFP to have surrendered before dawn with five family members to seek food in one of these centers when Israeli soldiers started to shoot.
“What bullets”
“We couldn’t have anything,” said Abdelaziz Abed, 37. “Every day, I go there and all that we only receive bullets.”
Three other witnesses also accused the soldiers of having opened fire.
Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army said it had identified in the Rafah sector “suspects” who approached soldiers.
They did not comply with the calls to leave the premises and the soldiers opened fire as a warning, said the army, adding that they had received information on victims.
“We examine the incident” which took place at night about one kilometer from the closed aid center at that time, according to the army.
“We have repeatedly warned people in search of help not to go to our sites during the night and early in the morning,” said GHF on X, reporting “false” information on deaths near its sites.
This organization began its operations at the end of May, after a total humanitarian blockade of more than two months imposed by Israel despite the UN warnings on an imminent risk of famine in Gaza.
The UN and humanitarian NGOs refuse to work with this organization with opaque funding due to concerns about its procedures and its neutrality.
After several weeks marked by scenes of chaos and almost daily information reporting Palestinians killed while waiting for help, the GHF recognized the death on Wednesday of 20 people in a stampede on one of its sites.
At the start of the week, the UN indicated that it had identified 875 people killed by trying to get food since the end of May, including 674 “near the GHF sites”.
Given the restrictions imposed on the media by Israel, which besieges Gaza, and difficulties of access to the field, AFP is not able to independently check the balance sheets and assertions of the various parties.
“Open the passages”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) assured on Saturday having sufficient food stocks for the entire Gaza Strip for more than three months. “Open the passages, end the blockade, and let UNRWA accomplish its mission,” she wrote on X.
During a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, Pope Leo XIV expressed “his concern in the face of the dramatic humanitarian situation” in Gaza and called to “revitalize negotiations” for a cease-fire.
The indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel for a truce are deadlocked, the armed branch of Hamas accusing Israel on Friday of blocking them.