Officials with the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said that 31 Palestinians were shot dead Sunday on their way to get food from an aid distribution site. But the U.S.-backed charity helping to deliver that aid vehemently denied those claims.
The wildly conflicting accounts about what actually took place in the city of Rafah underscore the extreme difficulty in getting accurate information out of the Gaza Strip, which has been the site of an intense Israeli military operation since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Jewish state. Hamas has been the governing body of Gaza since 2007.
Media reports emerged early Sunday citing eyewitnesses on the ground and officials with the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza saying that 31 Palestinians were killed and more than 150 wounded by gunfire in and around the aid distribution site in Rafah.
Witnesses told the Associated Press that Israeli troops fired on the crowds about 1,000 yards from the location, which is operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a body backed by Israel and the U.S. The organization began operations last month. Supporters say the group is needed to consolidate aid delivery in the devastated Gaza Strip and to stop Hamas terrorists from intercepting food and other aid meant for Palestinian civilians.
The group vehemently denied reports of violence.
“Our aid was again distributed today without incident,” the GHF said in a statement. The statement also blasted “coordinated efforts every day that instigate false narratives and distort media coverage around the operations of our distribution sites.”
In a statement to the AP, the Israeli Defense Forces said they were “currently unaware of injuries caused by [Israeli military] fire within the humanitarian aid distribution site. The matter is still under review.”
There are private security contractors on the ground at the aid delivery sites. The GHF has previously said those contractors have not fired on crowds. Israeli troops have acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions, the AP reported.
The GHF said it distributed 16 truckloads of food Sunday, totaling 15,360 boxes providing about 887,040 meals.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett shared video footage on X that he said was shot at the precise time forces were allegedly firing on Palestinian crowds.
“Nothing. No shooting. Everything going well,” Mr. Bennett posted.
“100% fake. The headline is simply a LIE,” he said about claims of violence at the site.
But other videos being circulated on social media, and claiming to be at the aid delivery sites, appear to show crowds scattering and the sounds of apparent gunfire in the background.
It’s difficult to know exactly when and where such videos were taken, or the exact circumstances around the scenes they claim to show.
One eyewitness described a scene that sounded like a coordinated military assault.
“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” the AP quoted a purported witness, Amr Abu Teiba, as saying.
He said that he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded to a field hospital.
