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The Gaza aid distribution centers will be closed Wednesday for a day, while the Israeli army warned roads leading to sites that will be considered “combat zones”.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial aid network in the United States and Israel that started operating last week, said that it closed its sites for “organizational, organization and efficiency work”.
In a separate update, Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) said that people would be “prohibited” to enter the distribution centers or to travel on roads that led them.
Tuesday of the day after, At least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire Near a distribution center, according to the civil defense agency managed by Hamas.
It was the third deadly incident In as many days to perform on a road to a GHF site.
The FDI said that its troops had fired after identifying suspects that moved to them “deviate from the designated access routes”.
In the wake of Tuesday’s incident, the director of the Nasser Hospital of Khan Younis, Atef Al-Hout, said that the wounded arrived with ball injuries after the Israeli forces had opened fire on “crowds of civilians awaiting aid in the west of Rafa”.
The spokesperson for the Civil Defense Agency led by Hamas, Mahmoud Basal, said that civilians had been dismissed by tanks, quadcopter drones and helicopters near a help site.
A foreign doctor working in the region described the scene as a “total carnage” and said they had been flooded with victims.
In a statement, the FDIs said that its troops “did not prevent the arrival of Gazan civilians at humanitarian aid distribution sites”.
GHF said he would start aid again on Thursday.
A spokesman for the aid group said he had asked Israeli soldiers to “guide pedestrian traffic” near military limits to reduce “confusion or climbing” risks, according to the Reuters news agency.
GHF added that he was also working to develop clearer advice for civilians and improve training to support their security.
“Our absolute priority remains guaranteeing the security and dignity of civilians receiving help.”
UN secretary general António Guterres called for an “immediate and independent” investigation into events.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for Guterres, told the BBC that the closure of the aid centers showed “a lack of clarity from which is the GHF” and a “lack of responsibility”.
“We see men armed around these distribution points. No one knows who they are, for which they are responsible,” he said.
It then happens that the UN warns that more than two million people are at risk of famine In Gaza, after a total Israeli ban on food expeditions and other aids that lasted 11 weeks.
The GHF aims to replace the LED Und aid distribution network in Gaza, following repeated complaints from Israel that the UN did not prevent supplies from being diverted by Hamas, which the UN denies.
As part of the new distribution system, the Gazans are required to collect supplies in a small number of centers in areas under Israeli military control and with armed American entrepreneurs.
Critics say that the model has left people who need to walk long distances to sites and transport boxes weighing 20 kg at their house or shelters.
Dujarric described the GHF as “a demonstration of the way of not doing humanitarian aid” because she “puts people’s lives in danger” by forcing them to make long trips to get food in a militarized area.
He called the “unacceptable” strategy and echoed the head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, who said that the aid distribution was “become a death trap”.
The UN and other humanitarian organizations have accused the GHF of not having respected humanitarian principles.
Also on Tuesday, the Reverend Dr Johnnie Moore – a Christian evangelical pastor and an eminent supporter of the American president Donald Trump – was announced as the new GHF chief.
He was appointed to replace his first chef Jake Wood, a Former American navies who withdrew and criticized the GHF model.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the cross -border attack in Hamas on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 54,470 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 4 201 since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory.
