More than 20 Palestinian civilians were killed on Wednesday at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site in Khan Yunis, most of them appearing to have been trampled, according to the aid agency.
Early Wednesday morning, GHF said in a statement, “We are heartbroken to confirm that 20 people died this morning in a tragic incident at the distribution site SDS3 in Khan Yunis. Our current understanding is that 19 of the victims were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd.”
This is the first time that GHF has admitted to deaths occurring on its grounds, though in its early days in May, it admitted to some injuries and incidents where Palestinian civilians overwhelmed parts of the food facilities.
NGOs, the UN, and Gazan groups have claimed many other such deadly incidents, but GHF has said the other incidents were either fake news or occurred outside of the facility between the IDF and Gazans, often accusing Hamas of being involved.
As of Tuesday, GHF said, it had distributed 76 million meals to Palestinians since May.
GHF added regarding the Wednesday incident, “We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest. For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated. An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident.”
It was unclear whether the were additional signs of Hamas involvement beyond the firearms or what happened to those who brought firearms into the GHF site.
Violence at Gaza aid sites
“This horrific event follows a deeply troubling pattern in recent days. False messages about aid site openings, including at SDS4 (Wadi Gaza) and the long-closed SDS1 (Tal Sultan), have circulated widely on Telegram and other platforms, fueling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder. Just last night, GHF issued a warning in Arabic via Facebook urging aid seekers to ignore these misleading messages, and to only refer to official GHF channels for updates on our operations,” GHF said.
However, critics have said that a vital problem with the GHF sites in general is that there are too few of them, and they inherently draw too many Palestinians at once. In contrast, under the United Nations and other food aid NGOs, there were dozens or more localized sites for distributing food aid.
The advantage of the GHF is that it has been breaking Hamas’s control over food aid in central and southern Gaza, where it operates so far. It has not yet operated in northern Gaza, where the UN and the NGOs still run the food aid operations.
GHF stated, “We mourn the lives lost today, and we remain committed to providing humanitarian aid as safely and responsibly as possible. GHF exists to serve the people of Gaza with compassion and integrity, and our mission has never been more urgent or more challenged.”
Responding to the incident, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed 21 Palestinians were killed, including 15 who died of suffocation as a result of tear gas fired at the starving people and the subsequent stampede at the GHF site.
Various Arab and global media reports cited the GHF’s use of tear gas to disperse crowds as responsible for the tragedy when Palestinians started to overfill an area near the food distribution area, as they arrived at a GHF gate, which was still closed.
Late Wednesday, GHF dismissed these claims, saying, “The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry statement is blatantly false.”
“The incident and consequential fatalities were the result of a surge instigated by armed Hamas agitators who infiltrated the crowd. At no point was tear gas deployed, nor were shots fired into the crowd. Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard against additional loss of life. In at least one instance, an American worker physically entered the violent crowd to rescue a child who was being trampled,” said GHF.
Further, GHF said, “Today’s incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF.
“It is no coincidence that this incident occurred during ceasefire negotiations, where Hamas continues to demand that GHF cease operations.
“Hamas has murdered our local workers, attacked our American team members, put bounties on the heads of anyone affiliated with GHF, and has been conducting an orchestrated disinformation campaign against our aid efforts since day one.”
At press time, GHF still had little to share about how it could have prevented the incident and how it intends to prevent such incidents in the future, as well as what the consequences will be for any of the Palestinians who allegedly entered the compound armed.