Israeli soldiers opened fire on thousands of starving Palestinians, injuring several, who rushed to a new aid distribution center run by a U.S.-backed group in southern Gaza on Tuesday, local authorities said.
"The Israeli occupation's plan for aid distribution in the so-called buffer zone has failed disastrously," Gaza's government media office said in a statement.
It said Israeli forces opened fire after thousands of starving Palestinians rushed into the aid distribution facility.
The statement asserted: "What happened today is irrefutable evidence of the occupation's failure to manage the humanitarian crisis it deliberately created through a policy of starvation, siege, and bombardment."
The office stated: "Establishing buffer-zone ghettos to distribute limited aid under the threat of death, gunfire, and hunger does not reflect a genuine intention to address the crisis, but rather embodies a systematic political engineering aimed at prolonging starvation and dismantling Palestinian society."
The media office held Israel fully responsible for the collapse of food access in Gaza, condemning its use of aid as "a weapon of war and a tool of blackmail," and its continued prevention of aid entry through crossings and international organizations.
It called on the United Nations and the Security Council "to act urgently to stop the crime, open the crossings without restrictions, and enable humanitarian organizations to carry out their missions independently of the occupation's interference and agendas."
The office also demanded that independent international investigation committees be dispatched to document the crime of starvation and bring Israeli leaders to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said American workers affiliated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were evacuated from Rafah after the storming.
The newspaper Israel Hayom further reported that the Israeli army deployed forces to the distribution site after the U.S. workers evacuated.
The incident in Rafah came days after the partial easing of a total aid blockade on the territory that Israel imposed on March 2, leading to severe shortages of food and medicine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later acknowledged a "loss of control momentarily" at the center, but a senior military official said the distribution was nonetheless "a success".
According to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), normal operations resumed following the incident.
Ayman Abu Zaid, a displaced Gazan, told AFP he was standing in line at the center when "suddenly a large number of people started pushing and entering randomly".
"It was because of the lack of aid and the delay in distribution, so they tried to get in to take whatever they could," he said.
At one point, "the Israeli forces started shooting, and the sound was very frightening, and people began to scatter, but some still kept trying to take the aid despite the danger", he added.
The Israeli military later said its "troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound".
"Control over the situation was established, food distribution operations are expected to continue as planned, and the safety of IDF (military) troops was not compromised," it said.
GHF said in a statement that there was a point at which the "volume of people at the SDS (distribution center) was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate".
"Normal operations have resumed," it added.
AFP footage showed crowds of people streaming out of the area on Tuesday carrying supplies, including in boxes marked "GHF".
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against defenseless civilians in the enclave.
