Four people have died as thousands of Palestinians burst into a United Nations warehouse in Gaza, tearing away sections of the building’s metal walls in a desperate attempt to find food.
“Humanitarian needs have spiralled out of control after 80 days of complete blockade of all food assistance and other aid into Gaza,” the statement said.
As the food distribution began, thousands of starving Palestinians rushed into the site, causing at least two of the fences at the entrance queue to collapse quickly.
Satellite imagery of the Gaza food distribution centre, reviewed by the Guardian, suggests the incident took place inside an area marked by the IDF for evacuation as recently as Sunday.
“We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose,” Lazzarini said.
In their frantic search for food, thousands of Palestinians broke into a United Nations warehouse in Gaza, tearing away portions of the structure’s metal walls and killing four people.
The crowd broke into the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday afternoon, crushing two people to death and wounding two more with gunshots, according to health officials.
Whether Israeli forces, private contractors, or others had opened fire was not immediately apparent. According to a Red Cross field hospital, women and children who were shot at the scene were among the injured.
Hundreds of people were seen shouting and shoving into the building in the video, while others threw boxes and flour bags into the throng.
WFP issued a statement warning of “alarming and deteriorating conditions on the ground,” saying that “hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution.”.
“After an 80-day complete blockade of all food assistance and other aid into Gaza, humanitarian needs have spiraled out of control,” the statement said. “Gaza requires an immediate increase in food aid. The only way to guarantee that people won’t go hungry is to do this. “.”.
A UN representative likened the meager aid that is permitted to enter Gaza to “a lifeboat after the ship has sunk.”. Famine-stricken Gaza residents “have lost hope,” according to Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s acting special coordinator for the Middle East, who spoke to the UN security council.
The majority of Gazans are in extreme hunger as a result of the 11-week siege and the ongoing strict Israeli blockade. For months, medical professionals and humanitarian workers in the ravaged Palestinian territory have reported an increase in malnutrition. Due to a shortage of cooking gas, UN World Food Programme bakeries have closed, and the price of the little food that is available in stores and marketplaces is skyrocketing.
The chaotic scenes followed reports from Gaza health officials that a separate incident at a food distribution point in the southern part of the territory the day before had left at least one civilian dead and 48 injured. On Tuesday, as a sizable crowd gathered at the recently created location, Israeli troops opened fire.
Israeli troops opened fire, according to witnesses, after Palestinian crowds breached the perimeter of the center run by a US-backed organization that Israel had selected to transport food into Gaza and had lost control of its distribution point. There were distant gunshots and flares being fired by an Israeli military helicopter. One video shows a sizable group of terrified bystanders, including women and children, rushing away and trampling on the fencing.
Before the incident, hundreds of Palestinians were seen waiting in line beside barbed-wire fences, according to footage. The food distribution started, and as thousands of hungry Palestinians poured into the area, at least two of the fences at the entrance line swiftly collapsed. In the ensuing panic, all of the entrance row fences collapsed, according to later footage.
According to the head of the UN human rights office for the Palestinian territories, Ajith Sunghay, the majority of the wounded were caused by gunshot wounds. According to the health ministry in Gaza, at least one person died.
The Israeli military denied firing at civilians, but claimed to have fired “warning shots” close to the compound to regain control.
No shots were fired at Palestinian crowds, and no one was hurt, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which Israel has authorized to take over food distribution operations in order to circumvent the UN aid mechanisms into the Palestinian territory. “.”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave accounts of Tuesday’s events as he claimed that Mohammed Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza who assumed the role following the death of his older brother Yahya last year, had been killed in an airstrike earlier this month. Both were planners of the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. For the remaining Israeli hostages taken that day, Tuesday also marked their 600th day in captivity.
The incident appears to have occurred inside an area that the IDF had recently designated for evacuation, according to satellite imagery of the Gaza food distribution center that the Guardian examined.
Amidst the bombed-out ruins of southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces posted images and videos of a sizable clearing with surrounding fortifications in advance of food distribution. Both the entrance and the exit had fences, and the crowds crammed themselves into the five slender fenced rows of the entrance route.
Inside the clearing, where at least eight aid trucks and multiple armored IDF vehicles were visible, tables are arranged end to end in recent photos. Images taken inside the aid trucks revealed stacks of shoddily packed brown boxes with stickers that read “GHF.”.
A big dust cloud from the scurrying was visible, and women and children were trapped in the crowd. While some Palestinians seized what food they could and fled, others were able to seize food boxes and flee.
It looked like oil, pasta, beans, noodles, biscuits, flour, canned goods, sugar, and tahini were in two of the opened boxes. People were seen in some videos carrying wood fragments on foot and on the back of donkey carts.
In March, Israel declared that all supplies would be blocked because Hamas was stealing supplies for its fighters, a claim the group disputes. A global hunger monitor reported earlier this month that half a million people in the strip were in danger of starvation.
According to the IPC, about 71,000 children under five were predicted to be “acutely malnourished,” with 14,100 of those cases predicted to be severe over the course of the following 11 months.
The new food distribution system has been rejected by the UN and other humanitarian organizations, who claim it will not be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 21.3 million residents and will enable Israel to use food as a tool for population control. Additionally, they stated that there was a chance that Israeli troops and hungry people looking for supplies would clash.
The organizations went on to say that the newly established group lacked experience and would therefore be unable to manage the logistics of providing food for over 2 million people in a devastated conflict area, a conclusion suggested by Tuesday’s perilous scenes.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), declared on Wednesday that the new distribution model, which is supported by the United States, is a waste of money and a diversion from “atrocities.”.
“Our aid distribution system is already functional,” Lazzarini stated. “Unrwa and the Gaza humanitarian community are prepared. Our knowledge and experience enable us to assist those in need. As the clock is running out on famine, humanitarian efforts must be permitted to continue saving lives. “”.
On Wednesday, the GHF stated that “many parties” wanted them to fail. President Donald Trump of the United States stated that his administration was trying to speed up food supplies to Gaza.
“Aid that is used to mask ongoing violence is not aid, in fact it is humanitarian cover for a military strategy of control and dispossession,” a group of non-governmental organizations, including ActionAid, stated this month. “”.
