The Gaza help site offered a day for women only. Did not stop the murder

The spread of food was announced in advance, as well before it, in a social media publication, with an illustration of smiling Palestinians receiving boxes for help.

This time, however, the invitation, shared by the Humanitarian Gaza Foundation (GHF), was different, including illustrations only for women.

“Tomorrow, on our morning distribution of our location in the Saudi neighborhood, only women are welcome to come and receive a food box,” said GHF Post. “Men should avoid the site during this distribution.”

Mary Sheikh al-Ed wanted to feed his seven children. Her husband was killed earlier in the war and the family survived the lentil soup for three weeks, said Mary Haul’s sister, but the last week was a struggle.

“Her children and mine told us not to go,” Howla told the BBC. “Mary told me she wanted because it’s a day for women and numbers won’t be big.”

The GHF food distribution system has been marred by almost everyday scenes of chaos and murder, as it was implemented in May with the support of Israel and the United States.

Huge crowds are forced to travel long distances in Israeli military zones, entering fenced sites that are surrounded by private security performers and Israeli troops. Palestinian men are most at risking the risk to provide a box of food for their family.

There are only four GHF distribution sites for two million Gaza people, but usually no more than two open in a given day.

On Thursday, the sisters Mary and Howla went early for the point of aid in the southern part of Rafa. By the time they arrived, the scene was already chaos.

“There was a huge crowd of women and the place seemed out of control. They couldn’t unload and distribute help,” Howla said. “They started spraying women with a pepper spray, then brought stunning grenades and began to throw them on the women to force them back.”

The sisters split into the chaos. Haula’s clothes were full of pepper spray, so she called her sister, agreeing to meet at their brother’s house.

Shortly after she called again, the feeling that something was wrong.

“This time, a stranger raised, he told me that the owner of the phone had been shot and taken to the Red Cross (Field Hospital),” Haula said.

“I called again and this time I was told she was shot in the head. I ran like crazy and called again, but this time they told me that the owner of this phone was killed.”

As the GHF assistance system was created in late May, the UN says over 1000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli military while trying to receive help mainly near GHF distribution sites, as well as near UN convoys and other auxiliary convoys.

On Friday, a former US soldier who worked with GHF said he had witnessed Israeli troops and security contractors shooting through crowds.

Anthony Aguilar told the BBC that he had never seen such a level of “brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary power against civilian population, naked, starving population.”

Earlier, Israel said his troops had fired “warning shots” and that he was applying “learned lessons”. He accuses Hamas of inciting chaos near the points of aid and disputes the number of reports reported.

Medics at Nasser Hospital in Han Enis said Mary Sheikh al -Aid died of a bullet injury on the neck. She is one of the two women who are known to have been killed on Woman’s Day on Thursday.

The BBC also talks with the family of the second woman who was killed, Khadija Abu Anza.

A sister, alone, who was with her, said they were traveling to a place to help GHF when an Israeli tank and troops arrived.

From a distance of just a meter of troops, warning shots for the first time, until they were told to move back, said on Friday.

“We started to go back and then she was hit by the bullet,” she said alone. “They shot her in the neck and she died immediately.”

“I tried to wear her and her blood fell on me. A man helped me to bring her to Nasser hospital. The auxiliary was opened as soon as they shot her and let people go in.”

In response to the BBC, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they “identified suspects approaching them, threatened the troops” and “fired warning shots” on Thursday, but added that it was not aware of the victims.

It says the shots were fired “hundreds of meters away” from the site of distribution before working hours.

Until May, UN agencies, other international organizations and charity organizations provided the greater part of the Gaza Population Assistance to 400 places for distribution throughout the territory.

The introduction of GHF has been criticized by many in the community of aid as an attempt to undermine the previous humanitarian system and increase Israeli control over the spread of food in gas, forcing people in dangerous military places. The UN refuses to cooperate with the GHF system, calling it unethical.

In recent days, Israel’s control over food supplies in Gaza has been widely condemned by many European governments and help groups.

Israel says he introduced the GHF system because Hamas had previously diverted and earned from assistance to the system led by the United Nations, although it did not provide evidence to show it on a systematic basis.

Daily messages of malnutrition are collecting pace in gas. Humanitarian officers say the territory should be flooded with help to prevent a complete collapse.

According to international law, Israel as a military power that occupies gas has an obligation to protect civil life – it guarantees that people can find food to survive. However, Israel has accused Hamas and agencies of assistance in the present shortage, while continuing to support the GHF distribution model.

“I pray to God to close, they are death traps,” says Mary Haula’s sister. “She went to get food for her children, but returned from people who wear her body.”

Additional reporting from the BBC and Mohamed Shalaby of BBC Cerify’s Frelance Gaza team