Displaced Palestinians receive food packages from a U.S.-backed foundation pledging to distribute humanitarian aid in western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 27, 2025. (Credit: AFP)
Three people were killed and nearly 50 people wounded on Tuesday at an aid distribution site in Rafah, southern Gaza, mostly from gunshots fired by the Israeli army, according to reports from the enclave's Government Media Office, cited by Al Jazeera, and a senior U.N. official, cited by AFP.
The media office announced three deaths and 46 injuries at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a newly established organization backed by the U.S. and Israel and tasked with distributing aid to a population that has be under a complete blockade for nearly three months and is suffering from malnutrition and starvation. The statement add that several people more remain missing.
The U.N. official did not mention the deaths but echoed that around 47 people were injured, largely due to gunshots fired by the Israeli military, and that information is still being gathered.
The Israeli army claimed its troops fired "warning shots," amid the chaos of a hungry crowd desperate to collect basic food supplies like flour and oil, and which overran the barriers set up to control the flow of distribution, causing the organization's staff to briefly lose control of the facility.
Thousands reportedly rushed into the center, run by an organization that bypasses the U.N., carrying out a distribution process that international humanitarian organizations refused to participate in due its "weaponization of aid," and stark inability to meet basic food needs. The organization's CEO resigned earlier this week over humanitarian concerns.
Several times during the war, the Israeli army has fired on Palestinians trying to collect the scare food aid that has been allowed into the besieged Strip. Aid dropped from planes has also crushed people waiting below, or landed in the water, where then several people drowned trying to retrieve it.
"From the information we have, there are about 47 people who have been injured" in Tuesday's incident, Ajith Sunghay, the head of U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, told the U.N. correspondents' association in Geneva.
He added that "most of those injured are due to gunshots" and based on the information he has, "it was shooting from the [Israeli army]." Sunghay stressed that his office was still assessing and gathering information on the full picture of events.
"The numbers could go up. We are trying to confirm what has happened to them," in terms of how seriously people were injured, Sunghay added.
With regards to GHF, Sunghay said: "We have raised numerous concerns with this mechanism. What we saw yesterday is a very clear example of the dangers of distributing food under the circumstances which the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is doing."
Three people were killed and nearly 50 people wounded on Tuesday at an aid distribution site in Rafah, southern Gaza, mostly from gunshots fired by the Israeli army, according to reports from the enclave's Government Media Office, cited by Al Jazeera, and a senior U.N. official, cited by AFP.The media office announced three deaths and 46 injuries at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a newly established organization backed by the U.S. and Israel and tasked with distributing aid to a population that has be under a complete blockade for nearly three months and is suffering from malnutrition and starvation. The statement add that several people more remain missing. The U.N. official did not mention the deaths but echoed that around 47 people were injured, largely due to gunshots fired by the Israeli...
