Israel continued its daily massacres of aid-seekers at its official aid distribution centers Monday, killing three people and wounding dozens.
Monday’s massacre followed the killing of more than 31 people and wounding over 170 in a similar massacre Sunday at an aid distribution center in the same location.
Amr Abu Teiba, a witness of Sunday’s massacre, told Politico, “There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones.”
One witness told Le Monde, “They opened fire from all sides: left, right, next to us, in front, behind, you couldn’t even tell where the soldiers were,” adding that ambulances were also targeted.
In a statement on Sunday’s shooting, the Red Cross reported that “All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site. This is the highest number of weapon-wounded in a single incident since the establishment of the field hospital over a year ago.”
Since the opening of aid centers operated by the US/Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) last week, massacres of aid-seekers by the Israeli military have occurred nearly every day. Following each of the killings, the Israeli military admitted firing what it called “warning shots.”
In a statement Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded an investigation into the killings.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday,” Guterres said. “It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food. I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
He added, “Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law to agree to and facilitate humanitarian aid. The unimpeded entry of assistance at scale to meet the enormous needs in Gaza must be restored immediately.”
The daily massacres of aid-seekers confirm the warnings by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations that the aid distribution centers operated by the GHF are nothing more than the logistical component of the effort by Israel to herd the Palestinians in Gaza in concentration camps in preparation for their forcible expulsion from the territory.
It has been nearly three months since Israel announced the total blockade of food, fuel, and electricity in Gaza. On May 19, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would allow “minimal” aid deliveries into Gaza for distribution by the GHF aid centers, which have had no meaningful impact on alleviating mass hunger.
The UN and other humanitarian aid organizations have refused any cooperation with the scheme.
On Friday, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian office, told reporters in a briefing that “One hundred percent of the population is at risk of famine,” adding that the besieged enclave is the “hungriest place on earth.”
A report by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification last month estimated that almost 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be “acutely malnourished” over the course of the next 11 months.
The report said, “The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people—one in five—facing starvation.”
The attacks on aid-seekers were accompanied by attacks throughout Gaza on Monday. One attack on a residential building in northern Gaza killed 14 people.
On Monday four people were killed in an airstrike on a school being used as a shelter in Deir al-Balah in the center of Gaza. The Guardian published a report on Monday citing sources that the bombing was part of a deliberate policy shift to more easily target schools being used as shelters.
The Guardian reported that, “This followed a loosening of controls on actions targeting Hamas operatives at sites with large numbers of civilians present, according to sources familiar with the strategy.”
Ninety-five percent of Gaza’s schools have been damaged during Israel’s assault on Gaza, with over 400 schools having suffered a “direct hit,” according to UN figures.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 54,000 people since October 7, 2023.
An in-depth analysis published by the Financial Times (FT) found that hundreds of displacement orders issued by the Israeli military have made four-fifths of Gaza off-limits to Palestinians. The report noted that Gaza was already one of the world’s most densely-populated territories before the genocide even started.
The FT noted, “But Israel is not done. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has suggested it wants to corral the entire population into a tiny corner of southern Gaza along the border with Egypt, with the rest of the enclave off-limits.”
It added, “By even the most generous calculations, each of Gaza’s war-weary civilians will have less physical space than a small room to survive. When subtracting unusable land—taken up by rubble, marshes or roads and garbage dumps—the space left for each Palestinian could be even less. In the most dire calculations, it could be as little as a living room sofa.”
This is the meaning of the declaration by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich last month that, “Within a few months...Gaza will be destroyed...The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the south.” He added that “Understanding that there is no hope, and nothing to look for in Gaza,” the Palestinians would accept their displacement from Gaza, adding, “They will be totally despairing.”