Stampede at Gaza aid distribution site kills at least 21, Health Ministry says

JAFFA, Israel - At least 21 people were killed in a crowd crush and stampede that erupted Wednesday morning at an aid distribution center run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation west of Khan Younis, according to local health officials.

The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement that 15 of the victims suffocated. Ahmed Fara, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties, said some victims also suffered from gas inhalation. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) put the death toll at 19 and said the victims were trampled.

They were the first deaths due to such an incident in the seven deadly weeks since the GHF aid sites began operating in the starvation-gripped Strip, the ministry said. There have been repeated incidents around the distribution centers, which often open and close at short notice and are quickly overrun by hungry Palestinians. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday that 674 Palestinians had been killed near the sites as of July 13.

The fatal shootings of Palestinians seeking food at distribution centers in Gaza since late May are an outcome of the aid project’s flawed design, which draw enormous crowds in proximity to Israeli troops, who have opened fire on multiple occasions, according to experts in humanitarian aid programs, witness testimony and visual evidence.

A Washington Post investigation found that the distribution sites operate inside areas controlled by the Israeli military and that the sites ignore long-standing humanitarian practices for distribution and crowd control.

Hunger is widespread and malnutrition fast-rising in Gaza, where Israel has allowed in limited aid after a total blockade from March to May. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that aids Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that 1 in 10 children screened at its sites suffered from malnourishment.

Israel says the GHF is needed to replace the U.N.-led aid system because Hamas profits from it. Israel has not provided any evidence of widespread aid diversion.

Shortly before the GHF centers opened, the United Nations warned in a briefing paper that overcrowding at the sites could result in soldiers or contractors opening fire. “Israeli forces or private military security companies may use force to control crowds,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Two eyewitnesses said Wednesday’s stampede broke out due to a crush by the gates at the entrance to the site. Security workers with GHF then fired tear gas toward the crowd, they said.

The GHF said the accounts were “blatantly false” and that the team “doesn’t have or use tear gas.”

“Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life,” it said. “In at least one instance, an American worker physically entered the violent crowd to rescue a child who was being trampled.”

In an earlier statement, the foundation blamed the “chaotic and dangerous surge” on “agitators in the crowd,” who it said were connected to the militant group Hamas. The organization said it “mourn[s] the lives lost.”

“We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd - armed and affiliated with Hamas - deliberately fomented the unrest,” the GHF said in the first statement. “For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated.”

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for footage of the incident and evidence of Hamas involvement.

Rajaa al-Sheikh Eid, 50, who lives in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, said people began gathering near the aid site late Tuesday but did not advance toward the distribution center as the area around it is a closed military zone outside of operational hours.

By early morning, a large crowd had gathered as people waited for the site to open, said Salam al-Agha, 43, who also came from a tent in Khan Younis.

Both he and Sheikh Eid said that sometime after 6 a.m., Israeli tanks positioned in the area withdrew - a move that typically signals that the distribution site is opening. People quickly moved down the road.

“The first wave entered the site, and the gates closed,” said Sheikh Eid. “The wave that was behind them quickly arrived and stopped by the gates, and it became crowded.” More waves came, he said, and the number of people packed in between the barbed wire fences grew. When the gate opened again, people surged forward, crushing those in front of them. “The people were on top of each other.”

Both men said GHF security workers then fired tear gas into the crowd.

“Those who were inside suffocated, and those who were outside ran away,” said Agha.

Agha and Sheikh Eid said they did not see any armed men in the crowd. Sheikh Eid said Israeli forces fired what appeared to be warning shots into the air during the stampede. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Victims arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis packed one on top of the other in the back of a rickshaw, according to local journalist Moaz Abu Taha. In a video he took and shared on social media, distraught men pull out the limp bodies of young men one at a time. It is not clear if any of them are alive.

“These people died by suffocation for aid,” yells one distressed man. “These children, what is their fault?”

At the overwhelmed hospital - which is facing an acute shortage of fuel and medicine - victims were treated on the dirty ground, according to photos he shared on social media.

“It was a catastrophe,” Abu Taha said by phone of the scene.

In another photo, 11 bodies are lined up in the morgue, some covered in plastic and others exposed.