Doctors say a growing number of people are being shot and killed while going to aid distribution points in Gaza. “If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot. If they arrive on time, but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot. If they arrive late, they shouldn’t be there because it is an ‘evacuated zone,’ so they get shot”.
GAZA CITY JUNE 27: Doctors in Gaza say a growing number of people are being shot and killed while going to aid distribution points. Israel’s military said it does not fire on civilians, and only targets individuals who appear to pose a threat while approaching them.
The Israeli-US food distribution scheme in Gaza that was launched one month ago is forcing Palestinians to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minuscule amounts of aid, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today.
“If people arrive early and approach the checkpoints, they get shot. If they arrive on time, but there is an overflow and they jump over the mounds and the wires, they get shot. If they arrive late, they shouldn’t be there because it is an ‘evacuated zone,’ so they get shot” – Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.
One month after its launch, this US-backed aid scheme has been deadly and done little for Palestinians in desperate need of food and other critical supplies.
According to Save The Children some families in Gaza are so desperate – in some cases due to a lack of a healthy adult – that they are sending children to collect food at distribution points, unavoidably exposing them to the risk of being shot by Israeli forces.
Children have been killed or injured in more than half of the fatal attacks at food distribution sites in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating four weeks ago, said Save the Children.
