A mob stormed a compound where humanitarian aid is being distributed west of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the compound, said US contractors securing it had withdrawn to allow “a small number of people” to collect food. “The needs on the ground are enormous. At one point in the late afternoon, the number of people in the compound was so great that the GHF team withdrew to allow a small number of Gazans to safely collect the aid and disperse,” the GHF said in a statement that appeared to try to downplay the incident, which occurred on only the second day of operations.
Under the plan backed by the United States and Israel, the relief sites are being run by an American private security firm , while the Israel Defense Forces are providing security in the surrounding area. Israel allowed the aid to reach Gaza last week after blockading the Strip for 78 days. Before the raid, the GHF said that “about 8,000 boxes of food have been distributed so far. Each box feeds 5.5 people for 3.5 days, for a total of 462,000 meals.” An Associated Press reporter who was near the distribution point said he heard the sound of gunfire. The reporter added that smoke could be seen rising from where one shot had landed. Israeli TV Channel 12 also reported that American forces or the IDF opened fire to try to disperse the crowd. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that they “fired warning shots in the area outside the compound.”
Sources from the American security company said that “towards the end of the day, about 100 Gazans invaded the distribution center. The scenario was expected in advance and the American forces allowed the crowd to take the remnants of the day’s supplies in the center to avoid loss of life. During the incident, shots were fired in the air to disperse them. Tomorrow, they added, a new distribution will begin.
In addition to Rafah, another site has started deliveries in the Morag area, between Khan Yunis and Rafah. The distribution system designed by the GHF is intended to prevent Hamas from looting humanitarian aid. Residents arrived at the aid center for the first time and found pasta, flour, tahini, rice, tomato sauce, fava beans, tea, biscuits and other food items in the packages distributed. The IDF confirmed that two of the four aid distribution sites built in the Strip have started operating. Three of the distribution centers are located in the Tel Sultan area of Rafah, in southern Gaza, while the fourth is located in the Netzarim corridor area, south of Gaza City. “The establishment of the distribution centers took place over the past few months, facilitated by Israeli political leaders and in coordination with the United States government,” the IDF said in its first official commentary on the aid sites.
Hamas Interior Ministry condemned the distribution of aid under the new mechanism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: “The attempt to bring in aid through a new mechanism will fail. We call on our people to act responsibly in these difficult circumstances.” The Islamist organization, meanwhile, according to witnesses, has begun distributing free food in the humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi, Channel 12 also reports. Hamas’s Inner Front channel threatened that anyone who receives food from the GHF will be “welcomed with care.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has not had a good start to its operations. After the executive director, Jake Wood, the head of operations, David Burke, has also left the foundation established in recent months between Switzerland and Delaware. Wood, a former marine, on Sunday night, on the eve of the announced distribution operations in Gaza, had communicated his resignation with a statement in which he had defined the plan as not respectful of the" principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence". In his place, John Acree, a former USAID official, was appointed. The system has been harshly criticized by the UN, which has refused to participate, denouncing the militarization of humanitarian aid, and what appears to be a cover for a plan to forcibly transfer Palestinians who would be forced to push towards the south of the Strip, where most of the distribution centers are expected to be set up.
