After nearly three months without having access to fresh supplies, thousands of Palestinians have occupied a food distribution center in southern Gaza.
As people poured into the aid center on Tuesday in Rafah’s southern city to avoid starvation and malnourishment, there was a chaotic scene.
As the desperate crowds pressed against the fences that drew them away from the food boxes, Israeli soldiers used gunfire to disperse them.
As part of the military offensive that Israel launched in the Palestinian enclave in October 2023, Israel had imposed a total blockade on aid to Gaza.
International pressure on Israel increased as famine fears increased. Israel was warned earlier this month by allies, including the United Kingdom, France, and Canada, that if the aid restrictions were not lifted, it might face sanctions.
Days later, Israel announced that it would resume “minimal” deliveries of essential supplies.
However, that announcement was contentious, not least because Israel chose to steer clear of conventional aid distribution channels like those run by the UN.
Instead, it chose to take the helm of the effort with the assistance of the United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut, who is based in Amman, Jordan, “a lot of questions were raised, even within the Israeli government,” about how exactly this was going to operate.
As you can see from the screenshot, the private organization that was established to distribute this aid has now completely lost control.
The Hamas-backed armed Palestinian organization has denied that Israel is to blame for the chaos at the aid center.
Hamas instead blaming Israel for failing to “manage the humanitarian crisis it purposefully created” in a statement released on Tuesday.
There is no proof Hamas has harmed the distribution of aid, according to Mohamed Vall, a journalist for Al Jazeera. He instead focused solely on Gaza’s pressing need: More than two million Palestinians.
He said, “These are the civilians of Gaza, the people of Gaza, trying to get just any piece of food for their children, for themselves.”
Vall added that there was also skepticism about the rationale behind concentrating aid distribution in the south of Gaza.
According to Vall, “they claim that the reason why]Israeli officials] established these distribution points only in the south is because they want to compel people to flee from the north,” or at least force them to do so.
He continued to worry that moving Palestinians south could represent the “preliminary phase for the total ousting” of Gaza’s population.
Since the start of the war, at least 54,056 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, which humanitarian aid organizations and UN experts have compared to a genocide.
Source: Aljazeera
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