https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/06/17/shootings-near-gazas-new-food-distribution-centres-kill-34/

Shootings near Gaza's new food distribution centres kill 34

33 mins ago

Israeli troops opened fire today as crowds tried to reach Israeli-and US-supported food distribution centres in Gaza, witnesses said.

The 34 people killed, according to health officials, made it the deadliest day of such shootings since the new aid system launched last month.

The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on the shootings. But after some previous ones that have been a near-daily occurrence since the aid centres opened three weeks ago, it said its troops had fired warning shots at what it called suspects approaching their positions, though it didn’t say whether those shots struck anyone.

Palestinians say they face the choice of starving or risking death as they make their way past Israeli forces to reach the distribution points, which are run by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centres opened.

The ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed Monday trying to reach the GHF centre near the southern city of Rafah and another was killed while headed to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people who weren't trying to get to distribution centres were killed elsewhere.

Palestinians are desperate to feed their families after most food ran out during the 2-and-a-half months this year when Israel barred all supplies from entering the territory. Israel has eased the blockade since last month to let in a trickle of aid.

Witnesses describe crowds under fire

Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed around 4am (local time) at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food centre, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd.

People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. "Fire was coming from everywhere," said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. "It's getting worse day by day," she said.

The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 injured Monday, the highest single mass casualty event it has seen, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF center. The Health Ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed.

The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of metres from the GHF centre, has been the scene of repeated shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the centre.

Palestinians over the past weeks have said Israeli troops open fire to prevent people from moving past a certain point on the road before the scheduled opening of the centre or because people leave the road.

A GHF spokesperson told The Associated Press on Sunday that "none of the incidents to date have occurred at our sites or during operating hours". It said the incidents have involved aid-seekers who were moving "during prohibited times... or trying to take a short cut". It said it was trying to improve safety measures, including by recently moving the opening times from night-time to daylight hours.