The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed non-profit organization established in Gaza earlier this year, is a US-backed organization. Following a protracted halt in supply deliveries to the enclave, aid distribution began in May. However, more than 1, 000 Palestinians have died while trying to access food at GHF aid centers, according to the UN.
Palestinians in Gaza, who are starving and in agony, must walk a few miles to collect the city’s four militarized hubs to collect the desperately needed food packages. According to Palestinian medics and civilians, GHF and Israeli troops frequently fire on aid seekers, killing dozens at once.
The killings have sparked international outcry, including condemnations from heads of state, UN agencies, and human rights groups, and have been supported by video evidence, whistleblowers, Israeli soldiers, and other harrowing accounts.
Who is accountable for the murders?
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which records atrocities committed against Palestinians, mercenaries employed by the GHF are principal targets.
Additionally, Euro-Med claims that Israeli forces have made it possible for Palestinian gangs to loot aid convoys and terrorize people.
Formerly employed by the GHF, retired US special forces officer Anthony Aguilar recently made public some of the brutal treatment Palestinians receive at aid sites.
Without a doubt, I witnessed the Israeli military commit war crimes,” Aguilar told the BBC in an exclusive interview.
How are Palestinians killed, exactly?
Israeli doctors and survivors claim that Israel frequently directs Palestinian aid seekers with snipers.
In the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, Dr. Fadel Naeem claimed that he sees most gunshot wounds in the “head, chest, and abdomen” and that he frequently treats patients there.
He noted that Israel occasionally fires tear gas, explosives, or artillery shells at large crowds, but also appears to fire indiscriminately at hungry Palestinians. As well as flesh and shrapnel wounds, these attacks frequently result in severe burns.
“Many] of the injured end up with amputated limbs because there is frequently severe tissue tearing,” said Dr. Naeem.
Other Palestinians are frequently stricken in the hysteria to flee Israeli gunfire or get a bag of food aid because of their sustained fractures and broken bones.
Many of the injuries, according to Dr. Hassan al-Shaer, who works at al-Shifa Hospital, are serious.
He told Al Jazeera, “Many of the injured] victims who come to us also have life-threatening wounds, and they are taken to the operating room right away.”
What justification is there for these killings in Israel?
Israel consistently refutes Israeli claims that its troops only shoot “warning shots” outside GHF distribution centers to stop overcrowding and officially denies firing at Palestinians.
Additionally, the Israeli army claims that “chaos” at the locations pose an “immediate threat” to army soldiers.
However, Israel’s troops pose the real threat, according to a news report that was released by the Israeli daily Haaretz on June 27.
Many soldiers who served in Gaza acknowledged that their superiors had “ordered to shoot” directly at Palestinian aid recipients.
Between one and five people were killed daily in the area where I was stationed. They are treated like a hostile force, with no crowd-control or tear gas, just live fire from anything that can be used, including heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars, according to a soldier.
He continued, “It’s a killing field.”
Both Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Katz refute the accusations and assert that they are “blood libel” against Israel, making it false and anti-Semitic to accuse Jews of killing Christians with their blood in religious rituals.
Does the official narrative of Israel have medical support on the ground?
No, the claims made by doctors in Gaza’s hospitals and clinics do not support Israel’s assertion.
When the GHF began providing aid in the middle of May, according to Dr. Shaer of al-Shifa, many of the injured people began visiting the hospital.
In Gaza, illnesses and weak immune systems are frequently the cause of injuries that are frequently compounded by illness and starvation.
Hakeem Yahiya Mansour, a 30-year-old emergency medical professional from Gaza, continued that “death always occurs” at GHF sites.
He told Al Jazeera, “The majority of the calls we receive come from the distribution zones’ environs.”
What appearance are the GHF websites?
According to Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its French name MSF, footage of the sites shows thousands of starving Palestinians crammed onto a strip of land roughly the size of a football field.
Aid seekers are frequently forced to fight for food parcels that are tossed to hungry crowds at poorly organized and chaotic distribution points because they are surrounded by guard towers.
Aid seekers can often hear the terrifying drones buzzing above them because tanks are frequently stationed nearby.
Palestinians have little room to maneuver or get assistance, according to satellite imagery obtained by Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad.
Palestinians have the choice between dying from gunfire or starvation despite the dangers. In order to provide food for their families and young children, many people chose to accept the risk and apply for aid.
Mohanad Shaaban said he had to go to the GHF site on July 30 because he had been unable to eat for three days. He recalls seeing two tanks at the location, one on the right and the left.
He eloquently recalls how “the Israelites then opened fire on us.”
Shaaban pleaded with the world to “tell this famine to end.”
What is the world’s response?
Some of Israel’s allies have been forced to issue stern condemnations and ultimatums due to the harrowing images and images of Palestinians dying from hunger and being killed at GHF aid sites.
Israel should increase life-saving aid, according to a statement released by France, Germany, and the UK.
