20 Palestinians killed at Gaza distribution site, says Israeli-backed aid group
Tel Aviv, Jul 16 (AP): Twenty Palestinians were killed at a food distribution centre run by an Israeli-backed American organisation in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from being trampled, the group said.
They were the first deaths reported at one of the group's sites, though hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials.
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas group of fomenting unrest at the food distribution centre, leading to a “dangerous surge,” though it provided no evidence to support the claim.
Witnesses said GHF guards threw stun grenades and used pepper spray on people pressing to get into the site before it opened, causing a panic in the narrow, fenced-in entrance.
Since the group's operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials.
GHF's four sites are all in military-controlled zones, and the Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds.
Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, and the territory is teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security experts.
Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos, witnesses say
GHF said it believed that 19 of the dead died from trampling at its food distribution centre between the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah and one was killed by a stabbing in the crowd.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 17 people suffocated at the site and three others were shot. It was not clear if the shootings took place during the crush or earlier on the road to the center. The witnesses did not report shots fired at the center but said Israeli troops fired toward the crowds as they headed to it.
Witnesses said that thousands of Palestinians arrived at the site early in the morning, and the American contractors guarding it did not open the gates. It was not clear if it was before the site's opening time or if it was not operating at all, since schedules often change.
The crowd surged forward at the turnstiles in the fenced-in entranceway, said one survivor, Ahmed Abu Amra.
“The Americans were calling out on the loudspeakers, Go back, go back.' But no one could turn around because it was so crowded,” he said. “Everyone was on top of each other. We tried to pull out the people who were underneath, but we couldn't. The Americans were throwing stun grenades at us.”
Other witnesses said the contractors used pepper spray as well. The Health Ministry said tear gas was used, but GHF denied that and said its contractors deployed “limited use of pepper spray.” It said they fired no shots at the crowd.
“Everyone suffocated from people crushing on top of each other,” said Omar al-Najjar, a Rafah resident, as he and other men carried a wounded man on a stretcher. He said the chaos at the sites is forcing Palestinians to “march towards death.”
GHF said it believed elements in the crowd “armed and affiliated with Hamas” fomented the unrest. It said that its contractors identified men with firearms in the crowd and confiscated one.
Distribution has often been chaotic
Distribution at the GHF sites has often been chaotic. Boxes of food are left stacked on the ground inside the center and, once opened, crowds charge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF itself.
In videos obtained recently by The Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, contractors are seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds back behind metal fences or to force them to disperse. Gunshots can also be heard.
The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food since May. Of those, 674 were killed while en route to GHF food sites. The rest were reportedly killed while waiting for aid trucks entering Gaza.
Strikes kill dozens as Israel opens a new military corridor
Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Wednesday that hospitals have received a total of 94 bodies over the past 24 hours, with another 252 wounded.
Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a new corridor — the fourth — that bisects Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they say is a pressure tactic against Hamas. In the past, these narrow strips of land have been a serious hurdle during ceasefire negotiations, as Israel has said it wants to maintain control over them.
Indirect negotiations in Qatar between Israel and Hamas are at a standstill, after 21 months of war, which began with the Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That day, fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organisations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
