A month after the launch of a new Israeli-backed aid system for Gaza, reaching the heavily guarded distribution hubs has become a life-risking endeavor for Palestinians, hampering efforts to get enough food to a hungry population.
Deadly violence has erupted frequently around the approaches to the aid sites, most of them in southern Gaza. The Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday that hundreds have been killed over the past month near the distribution points, which are run by American security contractors and guarded by Israeli troops stationed nearby.
In a separate aid effort that has also become engulfed in chaos, the United Nations and other international organizations have been delivering a trickle of food handouts to northern Gaza. Desperate
crowds have been ransacking the trucks carrying flour and other goods minutes after they enter the enclave, according to witnesses.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. agency for coordination of humanitarian affairs, described the new aid distribution hubs as “death traps" for Gazans.
“Gaza is the hungriest place on earth,” he said on Wednesday. “When we are able to bring anything in, it’s getting plundered immediately by the population. That’s the level of desperation.”
The new aid system, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has just a few operational hubs, primarily in the south. It was put into place after Israel blocked aid deliveries to Gaza for nearly three months from March to May. Restrictions on the entry of aid were partially lifted on May 19.
It was part of an effort to try to replace an aid operation led by the United Nations with hundreds of distribution points. The United Nations and other international aid organizations have criticized the new system, saying the aid it delivers falls far short of needs and that it forces people to walk for miles in dangerous conditions for a chance to find food. They accuse Israel of turning aid into a weapon.
Witnesses on a number of occasions have reported that Israeli troops opened fire on the approaches to the new aid hubs. The Israeli military has said repeatedly that its forces have fired “warning shots” when people approached its forces in what it described as a threatening manner.
the new york times is reporting 20 mass executions in the past month, and that's just at one of the three camps
these people man...Just monsters...
