Palestinian health officials and witnesses report that Israeli forces shot and killed at least 27 people Tuesday as they approached an aid distribution site – the third such fatal incident in as many days.
The Israeli military claimed it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, advanced toward troops and ignored warning shots.
These near-daily killings follow the establishment of aid points inside Israeli military zones by a controversial Israeli- and U.S.-backed foundation, a move aimed at bypassing Hamas.
The United Nations has rejected this system, calling it inadequate to address Gaza’s worsening hunger crisis and accusing Israel of weaponizing aid.
The Israeli military said it is investigating Tuesday’s casualties.
It previously said it fired warning shots Sunday and Monday at suspects approaching forces, despite Palestinian reports of 34 deaths on those days.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which manages the sites, insists no violence occurred within or near its locations.
It confirmed Tuesday that the Israeli military is investigating injuries sustained after civilians “moved beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone,” well beyond the foundation’s secure distribution area.
The shootings all occurred at the Flag Roundabout, about a kilometer (1,000 yards) from one of the GHF’s distribution sites in the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah.
The entire area is an Israeli military zone where journalists have no access outside of army-approved embeds.
At least 27 people were killed early Tuesday, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.
Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said its field hospital in Rafah received 184 wounded people, 19 of whom were declared dead on arrival and eight more who later died of their wounds. The 27 dead were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis.
There were three children and two women among the dead, according to Mohammed Saqr, head of nursing at Nasser Hospital.
Hospital director Atef al-Hout said most patients had gunshot wounds.
Yasser Abu Lubda, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian from Rafah, said the shooting started around 4 a.m. in the city’s Flag Roundabout area, about 1 kilometer from the aid distribution hub. He said he saw several people killed or wounded.
Neima al-Aaraj, a woman from Khan Younis, gave a similar account.
“There were many martyrs and wounded,” she said, calling the shooting by Israeli forces “indiscriminate.”
She said she managed to reach the hub but returned empty-handed. “There was no aid there,” she said. “After the martyrs and wounded, I won’t return. Either way, we will die.”
Rasha al-Nahal, another witness, said “there was gunfire from all directions.” She said she counted more than a dozen dead and several wounded along the road. She also found no aid when she arrived at the distribution hub and said Israeli forces “fired at us as we were returning.”
Israel ended the cease-fire in March after Hamas refused to change the agreement to release more hostages sooner.
Israeli strikes have killed thousands of Palestinians since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The war began following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, incursion on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza.
Israel's genocidal strikes have killed more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children.
