Israel warns of aid centers becoming ‘combat zones’
(MENAFN) Gaza’s aid distribution centers were set to remain closed on Wednesday, following announcements by the Israeli military that roads to these sites would be treated as “combat zones.”
According to reports, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an aid organization supported by the US and Israel that only recently started operating, said it was suspending its operations for a day to conduct “update, organization and efficiency improvements works.”
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that anyone attempting to enter the aid centers or use the roads leading to them would be “prohibited.”
Earlier Tuesday, reports stated that at least 27 Palestinians lost their lives near one of the distribution centers after being struck by Israeli gunfire. The deaths were confirmed by the Civil Defence Agency operating under the Hamas administration.
This was the third deadly event near a GHF site in as many days, according to reports.
IDF representatives explained that soldiers had fired on “suspects” approaching them who had “deviated from the designated access routes.”
In response to Tuesday’s incident, the director of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Atef Al-Hout, reported that those injured arrived with gunshot wounds after Israeli forces fired on “crowds of civilians waiting for aid in western Rafa.”
A spokesperson from the Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency, Mahmoud Basal, said that tanks, drones, and helicopters fired on civilians near the aid location.
One foreign medical worker on the ground described the aftermath as “total carnage,” saying that the influx of casualties was overwhelming.
The IDF said in a statement that its troops were “not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites.”
According to reports, the GHF indicated it would resume distributing aid on Thursday.
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