When university professor Nizam Salama headed to a humanitarian aid point in southern Gaza last week, he was shot twice, crushed in a crowd of desperate, hungry people, and ultimately left empty-handed.
The shooting first began shortly after he left his family's tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 and joined a crowd of people walking along the coastal road toward an aid station in the town of Rafah, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation (GHF), a new U.S.-based organization that partners with private military contractors to deliver aid to Gaza.
Shooting broke out a second time at the Alam roundabout, near the distribution point, where he saw six bodies.
Palestinian health authorities said 27 people were killed that day in Israeli gunfire as they tried to reach help. Israel said its forces had opened fire on a group of people it considered a threat and that the military was investigating the incident.
At the SDS 1 aid point, lines snaked through narrow cage-like fences before gates opened to an area surrounded by sand barriers, where aid packages were left on tables and in boxes on the ground, according to surveillance video released by the GHF.
Salama said the rush of thousands of people after the gates opened was a "death trap."
"The strongest survive: the people who are in better shape, who arrive earlier and who can push harder to get the packages," he said. "I could feel my ribs hitting each other. My chest was tightening. I couldn't breathe. People were screaming; they couldn't breathe."
Reuters could not independently verify all the details of Salama's story. However, it is consistent with accounts from two other people who were trying to reach help. They also spoke of crawling and ducking as bullets whizzed overhead.
All three witnesses reported seeing dead bodies on the way to and from the checkpoints in Rafah. A nearby Red Cross field hospital confirmed the death toll from the attack on the aid post on June 3.
Asked about the high number of deaths since the start of operations on May 26, GHF responded that there were no casualties at the checkpoints or in their immediate vicinity.
Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Efi Defrin told reporters on Sunday that Hamas was doing everything it could to provoke troops, who were "firing to stop the threat" in what he called a war zone near the checkpoints. He said military investigations were underway "to see where we went wrong."
Salama, 52, said he had heard enough about the new system to know how difficult it would be to get help, but his children - two adults, two teenagers and a nine-year-old - were hungry. For months, he said, they had eaten only lentils or pasta, often just one meal a day.
"I was completely against going to the American company's (GHF) checkpoint because I knew and heard how humiliating it was, but I had no choice due to the desperate need to feed my family," said the education management professor.
A total of 163 Palestinians have been killed and more than a thousand injured trying to get help at GHF points since the start of the new scheme two weeks ago, Gaza health authorities said yesterday.
The system appears to violate basic principles of humanitarian aid, said Jan Egeland, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He compared it to "The Hunger Games," a dystopian novel in which people fight for their lives.
"A few will be rewarded, and most will risk their lives in vain," Egeland said.
"International humanitarian law dictates that assistance in war zones should be provided by neutral intermediaries who will ensure that the most vulnerable receive assistance solely on the basis of need, and not as part of a political or military strategy," he added.
The GHF did not directly answer the question about its neutrality, but said it had delivered enough aid for more than 11 million meals in two weeks. Gaza has a population of about 2,1 million.
Risk of hunger
Israel allowed limited UN operations to resume on May 19, after an XNUMX-week blockade of Gaza, where experts had warned of a famine. The UN described the aid allowed as "a drop in the ocean."
Separately from the UN, Israel has allowed the GHF to open four checkpoints in Gaza, bypassing traditional aid agencies. The checkpoints are overseen by a U.S. logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and partly owned by a Chicago-based private equity fund, while security is in the hands of U.S. military veterans working for a private contractor, two sources told Reuters.
An Israeli military official involved in humanitarian issues told Reuters that GHF points can serve about 1,2 million people.
Israel and the United States have urged the UN to cooperate with the GHF, which has seen frequent changes in leadership, although both countries deny funding it. Reuters was unable to determine who funds the organization, but reported last week that Washington was considering an Israeli request for $500 million in aid.
GHF said it was coordinating with the Israeli military for access and planned to open additional points. It has repeatedly paused and resumed distribution after shooting incidents, including on Monday.
Last week, it called on the Israeli military to increase security for civilians outside the perimeter of its operations. The GHF accused the UN of shortcomings in the delivery of aid, citing a wave of recent looting.
Israel claims that Hamas has previously hijacked UN aid to feed its fighters. Hamas denies stealing aid, and the UN rejects claims that its humanitarian operations help Hamas.
The UN, which previously led aid distribution in Gaza, says it has more than 400 aid points in the strip. On Monday, it described the situation as increasingly chaotic, with looting frequent, and called on Israel to allow more of its trucks to pass safely.
The shooting begins.
Salama and four neighbors set off from Mawasi, in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza, at 3 a.m. Tuesday, traveling two hours to Rafah, a few kilometers away near the Egyptian border. The shooting began early in their journey. Some of the bullets came from the sea, he said, consistent with other accounts. The Israeli military controls the sea around Gaza.
His small group decided to continue on. In the dark, the path was uneven and he fell several times, he said.
"I saw people carrying the wounded and returning with them towards Khan Yunis."
When they reached the Alam roundabout in Rafah, about a kilometer from the aid station, a huge crowd had gathered. The shooting had started again and he saw bullets hitting at close range.
"You have to get down and stay on the ground," he said, describing the wounded with head, chest and leg injuries.
He saw bodies nearby, including one female, as well as "many" injured people, he said.
Another Palestinian seeking help, who was also walking towards Rafah in the early morning hours of June 3, described multiple gunshots along the way. At one point, he and everyone around him crawled for several hundred meters, afraid of being shot. He saw a body with a head wound about 100 meters from the aid station, he told Reuters.
The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a massive influx of 3 patients on June 184, most with gunshot wounds, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, calling it the largest number of gunshot-wounded patients the hospital has ever received in a single incident. There were 27 deaths.
"All patients who were conscious said they were trying to reach the aid distribution point," the statement said.
When Salama finally arrived at the checkpoint on June 3, there was nothing left.
"Everyone was standing there pulling packages off the floor that were empty," he said. "Unfortunately, I found nothing: a very, very, very big nothing."
Even though there was no more help, more and more people were arriving.
"A flood of people was pushing me forward as I tried to get back," he said.
As he was pushed closer to where the GHF guards were, he saw them use pepper spray against the crowd, he said.
GHF said it was not aware of the pepper spray incident, but that its workers use non-lethal means to protect civilians.
"I started shouting at the top of my voice: brothers, I don't want anything, I just want to leave, I just want to leave this place," Salama said.
"I left empty-handed... I came home depressed, sad and angry, and hungry too," he said.
Prepared by: A. Š.
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