Nearly 800 Palestinians killed trying to access aid in Gaza since May, UN says

At least 798 people have been killed while trying to receive food aid in the Gaza Strip since the end of May, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters on Thursday.

Of the total number of people killed while receiving food assistance since May 27, 615 were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundations (GHF) sites, said an OHCHR spokeswoman.

"We've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF sites," from the time GHF operations began on May 27 until July 7, United Nations rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said. "This is nearly 800 people who have been killed while trying to access aid."

An officially private effort, the US- and Israeli-backed GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking warnings of imminent famine.

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In addition to the 615 recorded deaths near GHF sites, another 183 people were killed "presumably on the routes of aid convoys" carried out by UN and other aid organisations, Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

"This is nearly 800 people who have been killed while trying to access aid," she said, adding that "most of the injuries are gunshot injuries".

GHF operations, which effectively sidelined a vast UN aid delivery network in Gaza, have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.

An Associated Press report published last week quoted two US contractors, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealing that GHF staff guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza were using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scrambled to access food. 

The GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

Responding to OHCHR's figures Friday, GHF told Reuters the UN figures were "false and misleading". It has repeatedly denied that deadly incidents have occurred at its sites.

"The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to U.N. convoys," a GHF spokesperson said.

The Israeli army said it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimise friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

Gunshot wounds

The OHCHR said it based its figures on a range of sources such as information from hospitals in Gaza, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground.

Most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by the OHCHR since May 27 were gunshot wounds, Shamdasani said.

"We've raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food," she said.

Following the GHF assertion that the OHCHR figures are false and misleading, Shamdasani said: ""It is not helpful to issue blanket dismissals of our concerns – what is needed is investigations into why people are being killed while trying to access aid."

Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the relief aid sites to prevent supplies falling into the hands of militants it has been fighting in the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.

"Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command," an IDF spokesperson said in a statement, adding that such incidents were under review by the army.

The GHF said on Friday it had delivered more than 70 million meals to hungry Gaza Palestinians in five weeks, and that other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted" by Hamas or criminal gangs.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN's World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by "hungry civilian communities".

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There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies 21 months into Israel's military campaign in Gaza, during which much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble and most of its 2.3 million inhabitants displaced.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)