Chaos at Rafah aid site over food shortage
Thousands of Palestinians rushed into an aid distribution center in Rafah, desperate for food after an almost three-month-old Israeli blockade.
The aid was being distributed by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.
Large parts of a fence appeared to be torn down as people jostled their way onto the site.
GHF said the number of people at one site was so great that its team had to temporarily pull back and allow people to, quote, "take aid safely and dissipate" to avoid casualties.
The Israeli military said its troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound and that control was reestablished.
GHF said it began operations but Palestinians appeared to have heeded warnings, including from Hamas, about biometric screening procedures employed at the foundation's aid distribution sites and stayed away.
GHF said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals.
Israel and the GHF said, without providing evidence, that Hamas had tried to block civilians from reaching the aid distribution center.
Hamas denied the accusation.
Israel says the Switzerland-based GHF is a U.S.-backed initiative and that its forces will not be involved in the distribution points where food will be handed out.
Humanitarian groups briefed on the foundation's plans say anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology.
Palestinians worry the technology will be used by Israel to track and potentially target them.
The United Nations and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation.
They say it undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict, based on need.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the situation "heartbreaking."
"As the Secretary-General noted last week, we and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by member states to get aid to desperate population."
