At least 613 Palestinian deaths have been reported by the UN human rights office, both at border crossings for humanitarian aid run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and close to humanitarian convoys.
As of June 27, this is a figure. Further incidents have occurred since then, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson, who spoke to reporters in Geneva on Friday.
According to the OHCHR, 509 of the 613 people died close to GHF distribution points. More than 650 people have died and more than 4,000 have been wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
As killings continue on the organization’s sites, which rights groups have criticized as “human slaughterhouses,” the GHF started distributing limited food packages in Gaza at the end of May. The UN says this new method of delivery is neither impartial nor neutral.
According to Mahmoud Basal, a representative for the Gaza civil defense, there is “recorded evidence of civilians being deliberately killed by the Israeli military.”
He claimed that at these locations, “more than 600 Palestinian civilians were killed.” “Some were shot by Israeli snipers, and others were killed by drone strikes, airstrikes, or other acts of aid-gathering.”
41 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since Friday morning, according to medical sources.
Following a number of deadly deadly attacks on makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi coastal area, which Israel once considered a “humanitarian safe zone,” the Israeli military in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, killed at least 15 Palestinians. There have been constant attacks there.
Additionally, several Khan Younis regions were threatened with new forced displacement threats from the Israeli army. The area near the Nasser Hospital is one of the areas that has been given the warnings for parts of the city’s east and center.
I “lost everything,”
A mother of the son’s death who tried to get food told Al Jazeera that she “lost everything” after his death.
She continued, “My son was a provider, and I relyed totally on him,” adding, “He was our life’s pillar and foundation.”
The woman referred to the aid distribution centers operated by the GHF as “death traps.”
She said, “We are forced to go there out of hunger, and we are forced to do so.”
People are being carried back as bodies, she continued, “instead of returning with a bag of flour.”
Due to an influx of patients injured near GHF sites, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is currently operating as “one massive trauma ward,” according to the World Health Organization on Friday.
According to Rik Peeperkorn, a WHO representative in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, “they’ve seen daily injuries… (the) most of them coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites,” he told reporters in Geneva.
According to Peeperkorn, the victims had been attempting to access aid at locations run by the GHF, according to testimony from Nasser Hospital’s medical staff and testimony from family members and friends of the injured.
He raconted the terrifying incidents of a 13-year-old boy being shot in the head and a 21-year-old being paraplegic after having a bullet lodged in his neck.
Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, which have a capacity of just over 1,800 beds, are still partially operational, which is completely insufficient to meet the country’s pressing medical needs, according to the UN.
Since starting its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli army has been attacking the hospitals and medical personnel there.
According to Peeperkorn, who cited shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel, “the health sector is being systematically dismantled.”
GHF criticized
The GHF has been repeatedly criticised by the UN, humanitarian organizations, and other NGOs for its handling of aid distribution and the attacks that have taken place nearby.
On Tuesday, more than 130 humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and Amnesty International, demanded the GHF’s immediate closure, alleging it to be a source of aid to Palestinians who are starving.
According to the NGOs, Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” fire on civilians who attempt to get food.
UNRWA, a UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has demanded that inquiries be looked into the killings and injuries of Palestinians who attempted to access food through the GHF. UNRWA has been providing aid for decades.
UNRWA noted that despite operating about 400 sites throughout the territory, the GHF only operates four “mega-sites,” three in the south and one in the center of Gaza, with none in the north, where the conditions are the worst.
The GHF has refuted an investigation by The Associated Press that claimed some of its American employees fired indiscriminately at Palestinians, saying that there were instances where people were killed or wounded at its sites without providing any evidence.
Israeli soldiers, according to a recent report from the Israeli outlet Haaretz, allegedly confirmed that Israeli troops had purposefully shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after their commanders had “ordered” them to do so.
More than 57, 000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the region’s region, while more than two million people have been relocated by other parties, triggering widespread hunger and causing widespread blockade, and destroying much of the region.
Source: Aljazeera
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