CAIRO/GAZA: Israeli fire killed five people at a food distribution center in southern Gaza’s Rafah, Palestinian health officials said on Wednesday, as Israel said it would help get more aid to the northern part of the Palestinian enclave amid famine fears.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is sheltering, after the main UN agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said one of its facilities had been hit.
At least one UNRWA staff member was among the five killed and 22 others were injured, the agency said, even though the facility’s coordinates had been shared with the Israeli military.
Israel says it tries to minimize civilian deaths as it battles Hamas militants in urban areas.
“Today’s attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
The UN has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population – are on the brink of famine.
On Tuesday, the United Nations used a new land route to deliver food to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks.
“We have been taking efforts to facilitate more aid into northern Gaza,” Israeli government spokesperson Tal Heinrich told journalists on Wednesday. “This was a pilot to prevent Hamas from taking over the aid as they often do.”
Hamas has denied Israel’s accusations and says Israel is using famine to pressure the Palestinian population.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he was determined to have UNRWA replaced by other agencies without harming aid distribution, over the agency’s alleged links with Hamas militants.
PRESSURE
With the Gaza war now in its sixth month, global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access to the enclave.
The United States, Jordan and others have conducted airdrops of aid in Gaza and on Tuesday a ship carrying 200 tons of aid left Cyprus in a pilot project to open a sea corridor to deliver supplies. While UN officials have welcomed new aid routes, they stress there is no substitute for land access.
The war began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel then launched an air, sea and ground assault that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say.
Since the Gaza war began, violence has also risen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with stepped up Israeli military raids and Palestinian street attacks.
On Wednesday, Israeli officials a 15-year-old Palestinian stabbed a soldier and a guard at a checkpoint between the West Bank and Jerusalem before being shot dead.
In separate incidents, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians during a raid in Jenin, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said, while a 13-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in what Israeli police described as a violent riot.
