Dozens of injured in chaos on a place for help in New Gaza, UN says

The UN Human Rights Service said it believes that 47 people were injured in Gaza on Tuesday, when the crowds conquered a center for the distribution of aid managed by a controversial new group supported by the US and Israel.

A senior official said the UN is still collecting information, but that most injuries are due to rifles and that “shoots from IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).”

Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza said one person was killed and 48 others were injured.

IDF said it was checking the reports. A spokesman said the troops fired “warning shots” in the air outside the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the southern city of Rafa, but that they did not shoot at people.

The GHF assistance system uses US security contractors and bypasses the UN, which rejected it as unethical and incapacitated.

The US and Israeli governments said it did not allow the assistance to be stolen by Hamas, which the armed group denies.

UN agencies have warned that 2.1 million Gaza population is facing catastrophic levels of starvation after almost a quarterly Israeli blockade, which was relieved last week.

On Tuesday, thousands of Palestinians are desperate for help aimed at the GHF Distribution Center in Rafa, which is under complete Israeli military control.

In the late afternoon, videos showing chaotic scenes as thousands of men, women and children embarked on the site, passing over torn fences and earth bermes. One clip shows that some people see themselves as what they seem to be shots.

On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Service in the Palestinian territories said it had received information that about 47 people had been injured during the incident.

“It is through rifles,” Ajit Sungha told reporters in Geneva. “We are trying to confirm what happened to them in the sense of seriousness (from injuries). What we know is that he shoots from IDF.”

A spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health said a man, Salem Abu Musa, has died after being shot at the center for the distribution of help. He was originally taken to the Red Cross Hospital in Rafa before being transferred to Nasser Hospital in Han Einnis, where he succumbs to his wounds. Another 48 people were injured, he added.

“We are checking information from the UN. At the time we are talking, we have no information on this,” IDF spokesman Colonel Olivier Rafovic told AFP agency.

Israeli troops “fired warning shots in the air, in the area outside the” center of GHF, he said, adding that “in any case (did they not shoot) to the people.”

GHF said on Tuesday that at one point his team “returned to allow a small number of Gazani to cope safely and to be distracted”, adding that it was “in accordance with the GHF protocol to avoid casualties”. He also said he could confirm that no shots had been fired at the site.

“What we saw yesterday is a very clear example of the dangers of distributing help in the way GHF does this,” said G -n Sunghay. “Exposure to people to death and injury trying to get food.”

He added that many people in Gaza are afraid to travel south to try to gain access to help because of the security concerns during the long journey and because they were afraid of holding the Israeli forces when they reached there. Many others, he said, failed to travel: women with young children, the elderly and those who are sick or injured.

Asked if at least some food spread by GHF was better than no food, d -Sunghay replied: “He is entitled to food, but also to the distribution of food and humanitarian supplies in a safe and decent way.”

The UN and other established help agencies refused to cooperate with GHF, arguing that his work did not meet the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality.

They said they had tons of deliveries ready to enter Gaza, and a detailed plan for their distribution, which minimizes the robbery.

Hamas’s government office, run by Gaza, said Israel’s efforts to disseminate help “had not failed miserable”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that his government had “made a plan with our American friends to have controlled distribution sites” for help, where it would be “very hard to steal it, especially because we keep these positions”.

He admitted that there was a “known loss of control” on Rafa site, but he added: “We returned it under control. We will put a lot more of them.”

“And the idea is to take away the humanitarian robbery as a Hamas war instrument to give it to the population. In the end, there is a sterile zone in the southern Gaza, where the whole population can move for their own defense.”

Meanwhile, a senior employee of the Trump administration said: “The assistance comes to the needy people and through their secure distribution system Israel is kept and a hahamous empty hand.”

Israel imposed a total blockade of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies of Gaza on March 2 and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month termination of fire with Hamas. It says the steps aim to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages who are still held in gas, up to 23 of which are thought to be alive.

On May 19, the Israeli military began an extended offensive, which Netanyahu said he would see that the troops “take control of all regions” of Gaza. The next day, he said that Israel would also temporarily alleviate the blockade and allow the “main” amount of food in gas.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross -border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and 251 others were hostage.

At least 54 084 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,924 since Israel resumed its offensive, according to the Ministry of Health on the territory.