Geneva, Switzerland — More than 500 people have been killed in the vicinity of the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s sites since late May, the United Nations said Friday.
An officially private effort, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking famine warnings.
GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations in the Palestinian territory.
Overall, “we have recorded 613 killings” near GHF distribution points and near humanitarian convoys since the GHF began operations, until noon on June 27, UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.
“Of the 613 figure that I mentioned, 509 people killed were killed near the GHF distribution.”
The others were killed “near UN and non-UN convoys”, she said.
Shamdasani said the figures were evolving as the UN human rights office receives “further reports of killings since then that we are working to corroborate”.
Call for investigation –
Shamdasani said the task was being made more difficult by lack of access to the Gaza Strip.
“It is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points,” she added.
“How many killings? Who is responsible for that? We need an investigation. We need access. We need an independent inquiry, and we need accountability for these killings.”
The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives and violates basic humanitarian principles.
Based in Delaware in the United States, GHF said Thursday it had handed out more than a million boxes of foodstuffs in Gaza.
GHF’s chairman is Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical leader allied to US President Donald Trump.
“We have not had a single violent incident in our distribution sites. We haven’t had a violent incident in close proximity to our distribution sites,” he told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday.
Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, spoke about the deaths, saying: “The senseless killing in Gaza must stop”.
Peeperkorn visited the territory’s Nasser Medical Complex this week, saying there were “patients everywhere: on the floor, in the corridors”, he said.
“It’s mainly boys, young adolescents, young men, and we all know that they go to these so-called safe, non-UN food distribution sites,” he added. “There are so many of these cases shot in the head, shot in the neck, shot in the chest.”
