Israel, on the second day of operations, chose to deliver food to the distribution center in Gaza, and Israeli troops opened fire near thousands of hungry Palestinians.
An 11-week siege and a continued tight lockdown meant that most people in Gaza were anxiously hungry. Thousands of people crossed Israeli military routes to arrive at the new distribution center in Rafa on Tuesday.
However, the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was not prepared for them and employees were once forced to give up their positions.
“In the late afternoon, the number of people in SD [secure distribution centre] “The GHF team took a step back and allowed a small number of Palestinians in Gaza to assist and dissipate safely,” the foundation said in a statement.
The Israeli military said it opened a “warning shot” near the compound to restore control. It is unclear whether there is any harm among the people trying to get food.
In a speech Tuesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that he had “temporarily lost control” during the food distribution process, adding: “I’m glad we brought it back to control.”
Images shared on social media (not immediately verified) seem to show people waiting in queues between wire fences. Later, the parts were partially torn off as people rushed into the open field where a box was waiting.
On Sunday, GHF founding director Jake Wood resigned, saying the organization could not provide assistance “while strictly abide by humanitarian principles, neutrality, justice and independence.”
The United Nations and major humanitarian organizations have refused to work with the GHF, citing that doing so will undermine the critical values of reaching civilians in all conflict areas and put their teams and recipients of aid aid at a gallon risk.
They also warned that a newly formed group with inexperienced will not be able to handle the logistics of feeding 2 million people in destructive combat zones.
Related: “Our Heartache”: In Israel's new offensive, the battle of survival in Gaza, no aid
The dangerous chaos on Tuesday seemed to confirm many fears. GHF said its decision to abandon the distribution center “is done under the GHF agreement to avoid casualties.”
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the scenarios where eager people are eager to get aid are “heartbreaking”, especially when the United Nations and partners develop “detailed, principled, operational reasonable plans” to get aid.
He added that the current popularity of food that arrives in Gaza is not enough to feed its people. “We continue to emphasize that the meaningful scale of humanitarian operations is crucial to avoiding famine and meeting the needs of all civilians.”
Israel is trying to replace humanitarian organizations that bring aid to Gaza. It has long claimed that there is no evidence that Hamas has destroyed their supply network to profit from aid.
GHF uses armed security contractors to deliver food in compounds protected by Israeli troops.
It previously admitted that this approach does not include some of Gaza’s most vulnerable people, as only those who can travel long distances and carry large amounts of food can feed their families in this way.
A security source told Haaretz newspaper that despite pushing for control of food and other supplies into Gaza, the IDF has not properly prepared to distribute aid and “planned to use gunfire to guide the population”.
“They see it as a daily situation involving suspects entering combat zones, but if you want them to feel safe to reach an open area, you can't guide the population of that size with gunfire,” he told the paper.
Sources said the initial idea of the military using gunfire to guide the crowd suggested that “they have no thoughts, no intentions” use other means, such as fencing the area.
GHF said it had distributed 8,000 boxes of food by the end of Tuesday: enough to feed 44,000 people for a half week, according to its calculations. That's only 2% of Gaza's population. The foundation said delivery will be increased within a week.
The pictures shared on social media seem to show the contents of the box, but cannot be verified immediately, suggesting they are meager meals, mainly rice, pasta and flour, as well as some beans and vegetables from Israel.
GHF has not disclosed who is funding its work, although the initial images show the logo of three small aid organizations and experience working in Gaza.
No one answered questions about their work at GHF, but even if they agreed to work with the organization for a long time, they were not able to meet the overall needs.
“Whether GHF is functioning or not, we know from decades of experience that we have responded to this disaster in Gaza for nearly 600 days, and this shameful act of militarization of aid is ineffective.”
“Even under the best conditions, there is no logistics company that can feed 2.1 million people overnight. Humanism is not just about distributing food parcels to feed hungry people; it is about ensuring people have a means to survive.”
Health authorities there said Israeli forces have controlled much of Gaza since the ceasefire in March, launching fierce attacks that killed nearly 4,000 Palestinians.
The total death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza is now 54,000, most of which are civilians. After Hamas was attacked by cross-border attacks on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a war with about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and 250 were taken hostage.
