Palestinians in Gaza say they were fired on once again as they headed to one of the aid distribution centres run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Monday.
Witnesses said that for the first time they were fired on by Palestinian gunmen near the GHF site in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah, in the south. They also said Israeli troops fired on them.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said six people were killed and 99 injured from areas designated for aid collection.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
The GHF said the Tal al-Sultan site did not open on Monday and that there were no incidents at two other sites which did hand out aid.
It comes days after Israel’s prime minister acknowledged that it was arming Palestinian clans in Gaza who were opposed to Hamas.
Almost every day since the GHF began distributing aid on 26 May, there have been deadly incidents near one or other of the four centres it has so far opened.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while approaching one site in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah on a route that runs through an Israeli military zone.
In the previous incidents, witnesses have said that Israeli forces opened fire at crowds. The Israeli military has denied that troops fired at civilians within the site, but it has said that troops fired at “suspects” who ignored warning shots and approached them.
In Monday’s incident, people at the scene said that Palestinian gunmen shot at them, as well as Israeli forces.
They said the gunmen appeared to be allied with the Israeli forces, as they were operating near them and moved back into an Israeli military zone.
One witness told BBC Arabic’s Middle East daily programme that he saw a group of young men dressed in civilian clothes and with their faces completely covered when he arrived in the area to get a box of food aid from the GHF site.
“At first, we thought they might be Palestinian youths helping with the process, but suddenly, they began shooting at us,” Hisham Saeed Salem said.
“Even those who managed to get a box of aid were targeted and shot. We still don’t know who these attackers are. They took everything from us – some even stole from us during the chaos,” he added.
Another man, Mohammed Sakout, said: “Several young men were shot and killed right behind me. I narrowly escaped death – some bullets passed just inches from my head.”
“At first, it was the Israeli army that was shooting at civilians. But today, we were shocked to discover the presence of gangs and militias,” he added.
At Nasser hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis, a seriously injured man being treated for a gunshot wound to his neck, Mohammed Kabaga, told the Associated Press: “A group of masked armed men who were organising us starting firing towards us directly.”
“We went to get aid. They said to stand in line. We stood in line and suddenly they started shooting at us. While I was standing, I was surprised when a bullet hit me, I got dizzy and fell down,” he said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was looking into the reports.
The GHF said in a statement that it opened two sites on Monday in the Saudi neighbourhood of Rafah and Wadi Gaza, in the centre of the Strip, and that “aid distribution at both sites proceeded without incident”.
When asked by the BBC about the reports from Tal al-Sultan, a GHF spokesperson said there was “nothing around our sites”.
However, a post on the group’s Facebook account did say on Monday afternoon that the Tal al-Sultan centre was closed due to the “chaos of the crowds”.
The GHF’s interim executive director, John Acree, said it had delivered more than 11 million meals over the past two weeks “without an injury or major incident at our distribution sites”.
Gaza’s health ministry said hospitals had received a total of 127 dead and 1,287 injured people from “areas designated for aid distribution” during the same period.
The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to Palestinians.
The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the new system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.
They also warn that Gaza’s 2.1 million population faces catastrophic levels of hunger after an almost three-month total Israeli blockade that was partially eased three weeks ago.
The US and Israel say the GHF’s system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 54,927 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
