A leading medical relief agency has demanded the immediate ending of the Israeli-sponsored Gaza aid distribution system.
In a report issued on Thursday, Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) accused the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) of “institutional starvation and dehumanisation”.
MSF argued Israel had adopted a “starvation policy” when it imposed a blockade on March 2nd and shut down the functioning UN aid system with 400 distribution sites. GHF began operations in late May.
The four GHF sites in Israeli army-controlled areas have been characterised by “stampedes, suffocating crowd surges, violent looting and lethal ‘crowd control’ measures” which “fall dangerously short” of recognised standards “for safe and dignified humanitarian distributions”.
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MSF added: “Nowhere else in the world where MSF operates – including in the most volatile conflict zones – would this level of violence around an ‘aid distribution’ site be tolerated.”
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Between June 7th and July 24th, two MSF clinics in Rafah, southern Gaza, near GHF sites received 1,380 casualties, with 28 dead, the report stated.
“During those seven weeks, our teams treated 71 children for gunshot wounds, 25 of whom were under the age of 15. Faced with no alternatives to find food, starved families frequently send teenage boys into this lethal environment, as they are often the only males in the household physically able to make the journey.”
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Among the children shot were a 12-year-old boy and five young girls, including a girl of eight who was shot in the chest.
An initial analysis found that 11 per cent of gunshot wounds treated at al-Mawasi clinic were to the head and neck while those arriving at the Khan Younis clinic had wounds to the lower limbs. MSF quoted 10-times injured Mohammed Riad Tabasi who said 20 corpses he saw at al-Mawasi clinic “had been shot in the head, in the stomach”.
MSF concluded that the “distinct patterns and anatomical precision of these injuries strongly suggests the intentional targeting of people within and around the distribution sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire.”
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The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and the GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites.
MSF teams also “treated 196 patients with injuries following chaotic scrambles at the GHF distribution sites,” among them “a five-year-old boy with severe head injuries and a woman who died of asphyxiation, likely caused by the suffocating crush of a crowd”. People who secure food “often face the risk of violent looting and theft of aid by other starved people”, MSF reported.
MSF director Raquel Ayora said: “In MSF’s nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians. The GHF sites masquerading as ‘aid’ have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty. This must stop now.” – Additional reporting: AP
