UN calls for investigation into killings near Gaza aid site

The UN Secretary General called for an independent investigation into the murder of the Palestinians near a Gaza aid distribution center on Sunday, in the midst of the disputed information that the Israeli forces had opened fire.

Witnesses said they were killed while waiting for food from the center of Rafah led by the United States and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by Israel.

The Red Cross said that her hospital had made 179 victims, including 21 people dead. The Civil Defense Agency managed by Hamas has taken stock at 31 years old.

On Sunday, the Israeli army denied that its troops shot from civilians or inside the site and declared that the reports for this purpose were false.

The GHF said that reports were “pure and simple manufacturing” and that it had not yet seen evidence of an attack in or near its establishment.

Israel does not allow international press organizations, including BBC, in Gaza, which makes it difficult to verify what is happening in the territory.

UN Secretary General, Guterres, said in a statement on Monday: “I am dismayed by reports from Palestinians killed and injured while asking for help from Gaza yesterday.

“I call an immediate and independent investigation into these events and that the authors must be held responsible.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel replied by marking its comments a “shame” in an article on X, and criticized it for not having mentioned Hamas.

The Civil Defense Agency said 31 people had been killed and 176 injured “after Israeli shots targeted thousands of civilians near the American Aid Center in Rafah” on Sunday morning.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Rafah Red Cross Hospital received an “influx of mass victims” of 179 cases, including women and children, at the time.

The majority has been shown to be shot or bursts of buses, and 21 were declared dead on their arrival, he said, adding that “all the patients said that they had tried to reach a help distribution site”.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that his Nasser Hospital teams in Khan Younis also treated people with serious injuries, some of whom were in critical condition.

He added that patients “said they were killed on all sides by Israeli drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and soldiers”, and that a staff member was “killed while trying to collect aid in the distribution center”.

A journalist in Rafah told the BBC that a crowd of the Palestinians had gathered near the Al-Alam roundabout in Rafah, near the GHF site, when Israeli tanks approached and opened fire.

A video published online Sunday morning seemed to show the Palestinians hiding in an open area of ​​sandy field while what looks like automatic shots. However, the BBC could not check the location because there are not enough visible features.

The Israeli Defense Forces (TSAHA) published a statement on Sunday afternoon, according to which an initial investigation indicated that his troops “had not shot civilians when they were close or in the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports for this purpose are false.”

Brig Gen Effie Defrin spokesperson accused Hamas of “spreading rumors” and “trying without and violently to prevent the inhabitants of Gaza from reaching these distribution centers”.

The IDF also published a drone video which, according to him, showed armed men pulling on civilians on their way to collect aid, although the BBC could not check where or when it was filmed.

Later Sunday, an Israeli military official informed the journalists that soldiers had acted to “prevent a certain number of suspects from approaching the forces” about 1 km from the GHF site, before its opening.

“Warning plans have been drawn,” said the official, before insisting that there was “no link between the incident in question and the false allegations against the FDI”.

The GHF said in a statement on Monday that reports were “the most flagrant in terms of pure manufacturing and disinformation provided to the international media community.

“There was no injury, death or incident during our operations yesterday. Period. We have not yet seen any evidence that there was an attack in or near our establishment.”

The American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, accused major media of “reckless and irresponsible reports” on the issue.

“Video and first-hand accounts have clearly shown that there were no injuries, no death, no shooting, no chaos,” he said on Monday.

“The only source for these misleading, exaggerated and completely manufactured stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to stir up the flames of anti-Semitic hatred which undoubtedly contributes to violence against the Jews in the United States,” he added.

Meanwhile, on Monday, health and local media officials reported that three other Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire near the same GHF center in the Rafah Tal Al-Sultan region.

A spokesperson for the Red Cross told the Associated Press that his hospital on Rafah’s field had received 50 injured, mainly with ball injury and bursts of bus, including two dead when they arrived, while Nasser Hospital of Khan Younis, nearby, said he had received a third body.

The Israeli army said in a statement that “warning strokes had been drawn towards several suspects which advanced towards” troops about 1 km from the site.

The soldiers added that he was “aware of the victims, and the details of the incident are fully examined”.

Also on Monday, the civil defense reported that 14 people, including six children and three women, were killed in an Israeli strike in a house in the city in the north of Jabalia. More than 20 other people were missing under the rubble of the destroyed building, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the FDI, but he said in a statement that his plane had struck dozens of targets across Gaza during the last day, including “military structures belonging to terrorist organizations”, underground tunnels and arms stores.

Israel imposed a total blockade in Gaza on March 2 and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, to collapse a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas. He said that the stages were to exert pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, of which at least 20 are supposed to be alive.

On May 19, the Israeli army launched an enlarged offensive which, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would see the troops “taking control of all regions” of Gaza. The next day, he declared that Israel would also temporarily relieve the blockade and authorize a quantity of “basic” food in Gaza.

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, according to the Hamas Ministry of Hamas in the territory.