Witnesses in Gaza describe more chaos at food distribution sites

Nuseirat: Chaos erupted again Thursday as tens of thousands of desperate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip tried to collect food from distribution sites run by a new US and Israeli-backed foundation.

Multiple witnesses reported a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds.

In central Gaza, an Associated Press video showed smoke bombs arching through the air around a distribution centre, and gunfire was audible as an Israeli tank moved nearby.

Witnesses said it was Israeli troops who fired the projectiles to clear large crowds of Palestinians after the centre ran out of supplies Thursday.

“I came to get a sack of flour … a sardine tin or anything,” said Mahmoud Ismael, a man on crutches from an earlier leg injury who said he walked for miles to get to the centre, only to leave empty-handed.

“There is no food in my house, and I can’t get food for my children,” he said.

Turmoil has plagued the aid system launched this week by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs three distribution centres in the territory.

Israel has slated GHF to take over food distribution in Gaza despite opposition from the United Nations and most humanitarian groups.

Over the past three days, there have been reports of gunfire at GHF centres, and Gaza health officials have said at least one person has been killed and dozens wounded.

The Israeli military said it has facilitated the entry of nearly 1,000 truckloads of supplies into Gaza recently and accused the UN of failing to distribute the goods.

It claimed Hamas was responsible for the crisis by stealing aid and refusing to release the remaining hostages.

The military’s spokesman, Brig Gen Effei Defrin, said the army will continue “to provide for the humanitarian needs of the civilian population while taking

necessary steps to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of Hamas”.

With media not allowed to access the centres, the circumstances remain unclear.

The distribution points are guarded by armed private contractors, and Israeli forces are positioned in the vicinity. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it fired warning shots to control a crowd outside one centre.

Khaled Elserr, a surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told the AP he treated two people wounded at distribution centres on Thursday -- a 17-year-old girl and a man in his 20s.

Both had gunshot wounds in the chest and stomach, he said, adding that other casualties had come in from the centres but that he did not have an exact number.

In a statement issued on Thursday, GHF said no shots had been fired at any of its distribution centres the past three days and there have been no casualties, saying reports of deaths “originated from Hamas”.

Separately on Thursday, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 34 people, according to local health officials.

Israel said it would establish 22 more Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict.