A United Nations food warehouse in Gaza was stormed by hundreds of Palestinians desperate for food. Four people died in the chaos on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
The Palestinians were shouting and shoving each other and ripping off pieces of the building to get inside, reports AP. Two people were fatally crushed in the crowd, while two others died of gunshot wounds, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.
Scores of aid-seekers could be seen carrying large bags of flour as they fought their way back out into the sunlight through throngs of people pressing to get inside. Each bag of flour weighs around 25 kilograms.
The deaths came a day after a crowd was fired upon while overrunning a new aid-distribution site in Gaza set up by an Israeli and US-backed foundation—the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 48 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military, which guards the site from a distance, said it fired only warning shots to control the situation. The foundation said its military contractors guarding the site did not open fire. A Red Cross field hospital said the 48 people wounded suffered gunshot wounds, including women and children.
The Israeli-backed distribution hub outside Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was opened Monday by the GHF, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations.
The crowd of Palestinians broke through fences Tuesday around the distribution site where thousands had gathered.
The World Food Program said “humanitarian needs have spiraled out of control” after Israel’s long blockade of supplies entering Gaza, which began in early March to pressure Hamas.
Palestinians are desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli border closures have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.
Israel says it helped establish the new aid mechanism to prevent Hamas from siphoning off supplies, but it has provided no evidence of systematic diversion, and UN agencies say they have mechanisms in place to prevent it while delivering aid to all parts of the territory.
GHF says it has established four hubs, two of which have begun operating in the now mostly uninhabited Rafah. It said around eight truckloads of aid were distributed at the hubs on Wednesday without incident.
The GHF sites are guarded by private security contractors and have chain-link fences channeling Palestinians into a what resemble military bases surrounded by large sand berms.
The UN and other aid groups have refused to participate in GHF’s system, saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it can be used by Israel to forcibly displace the population by requiring them to move near the few distribution hubs or else face starvation, a violation of international law.