Witnesses and Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces opened fire on large crowds around one kilometre from an Israeli run aid distribution site, as ITV News Correspondent Lucy Watson reports
Health officials in Gaza say Israeli forces again fired on people heading to an aid site in Rafah on Tuesday, killing at least 27 and wounding over 180, the third time this has happened in the last three days.
The Israeli army said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route and approached armed forces.
They say they are looking into reports of casualties and have denied firing on civilians.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a joint US and Israeli backed aid distribution, is a new operation which Israel says is designed to circumvent Hamas.
The UN has rejected this, saying it doesn’t address Gaza’s mounting hunger crisis and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the sites, says there has been no violence in or around them.
On Tuesday, it acknowledged that the Israeli military was investigating whether civilians were wounded “after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone,” in an area that was “well beyond our secure distribution site.”
The latest incident occurred close to Gaza’s southern city of Rafah which is now mostly uninhabited.
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.
At least two women who survived the shooting described finding no aid supplies at the site when they got there.
Neima al-Aaraj said: “There were many martyrs and wounded.”
Adding: “There was no aid there. After the martyrs and wounded, I won’t return, either way we will die.”
Tuesday’s shooting follows a similar incident on Sunday which killed at least 31 and was disputed by the IDF, ,as well as a second on Monday at the same site which left three dead.
Meanwhile the Israeli military said Tuesday that three of its soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on Israel’s forces since it ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March.
The military said the three soldiers, all in their early 20s, fell during combat in northern Gaza on Monday, without providing details. Israeli media reported that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area.
What we know about the shootings so far?
Early on Sunday, witnesses and Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces opened fire on large crowds around one kilometre from an Israeli run aid distribution site, killing at least 31 and wounding over 170.
On Monday, authorities said Israeli forces fired at people in the same location, killing at least three and wounding dozens.
Now most recently on Tuesday, crowds were again fired on, killing at least 27 and injuring at least 184 according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. A spokesperson for the UN also confirmed these deaths.
What have the Israeli army said?
The Israeli army described the claims about Sunday’s attack as false reports and said initial investigations showed “the IDF did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false.”
They later published drone footage which they claim shows masked Hamas gunmen opening fire on people queuing for aid.
On the Monday shooting which killed three, the IDF said they fired warning shots toward, “several suspects who advanced toward the troops and posed a threat to them.” They say this took place at a time when the aid distribution centre was closed and denied preventing people from accessing the site.
They claimed the same about Tuesday’s shooting and said that reports regarding casualties were “being looked into,” adding: “IDF troops are not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites. The warning shots were fired approximately half a kilometer away from the humanitarian aid distribution site toward several suspects who advanced toward the troops in such a way that posed a threat to them.”
The US-Isareli backed, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the aid sites, says there has been no violence in or around them. On Tuesday, it acknowledged that the Israeli military was investigating whether civilians were wounded “after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone,” in an area that was “well beyond our secure distribution site.”
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