The United States says it has approved $30 million in direct funding for a controversial Israeli-backed group providing aid to Gaza despite growing concern over a string of deadly attacks on Palestinian aid seekers near the distribution hub of the besieged territory.
“We call on other countries to support the GHF, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its important work,” State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott told reporters Thursday.
The GHF, supported by the US and Israel, has been a source of widespread criticism since its establishment in May. The organization was established to facilitate a months-long total blockade of humanitarian aid entering the strip amid increasing pressure on Israel. The lockdown has pushed most of Gaza’s population to the brink of starvation.
International aid groups and the United Nations have said they are violating basic humanitarian principles by refusing to cooperate with the GHF and coordinating delivery with Israeli forces supported by individual employment and armed US security personnel.
A video clip appears, indicating that the Palestinians have been shot while trying to gather food aid.
The Gaza government media office said Thursday that at least 549 Palestinians were killed while awaiting food aid distributed on the GHF site. Officially a private group, GHF, has denied that a fatal incident occurred right next to its aid point.
John Acree, interim executive director of GHF, welcomed the US contributions and described it as “time for unity and collaboration.”
“We look forward to the addition of other aid and humanitarian organizations.
Asked about criticism of the operation, Piggott said the group had distributed 46 million meals to date.
He said financial support for the GHF is part of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “pursuit of peace in the region.”
“There’s nothing but death.”
Witnesses who refused to receive assistance from the distribution site on several occasions described the nightmare situation they faced while trying to reach the hub.
Atal Riyadh, a father of eight from Beit Hanoon, who was evacuated to Gaza city, told Al Jazeera that he had traveled several times to a distribution centre near the so-called Neszarim corridor in central Gaza. Thousands of hungry Palestinians will gather near the site early in the morning, Riyadh said.
He said he saw a truck running at someone seeking help. In the other, he saw the body of a young man who appeared to have been shot.
“We went to find only death right in front of us. There was nothing but death,” he said.
Riyadh said his best friend and neighbor are among those killed in the distribution centre. “Everyone died because they tried to get food to feed their families,” he said.
Kate Mackintosh, executive director of UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe, told Al Jazeera that GHF workers can be held criminally for the murder of aid seeking assistance near the group’s distribution points.
“It’s very unclear why these people are being targeted and killed, but I think it’s clear that these are unarmed civilians desperately trying to get food for their families,” she said.
“Firing fire on people in such circumstances is a war crime.”
She said those who work for the GHF “have to think about the extent to which there is a chance that they may be complicit in those crimes.”
“If they know this is going to happen, or even in some jurisdictions, they are aware of the substantial risks of this event. They seem to have to… they can be criminally liable for their participation in those crimes.”
The latest violence over food distribution caused 18 people to die when an Israeli strike crashed into a street in central Gaza on Thursday.
Witnesses said a large group of people gathered to receive a bag of flour from Palestinian police forces that confiscated goods from a convoy looting gangs.
The UN’s efforts to distribute food have been plagued by armed gangs plundering trucks and crowds of hopeless people loading supplies from their convoys.
The strike in the central town of Deia El Barra on Thursday appeared to target members of Sahm, the security unit responsible for stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of the Hamas-led Home Ministry in Gaza, but includes members of other factions.
Israel accused them of stealing aid that steals Hamas groups and using it to support the rules in the enclave. Israeli forces repeatedly hit Gaza police in consideration of the Hamas branch.
