Israeli strike kills 18 in central Gaza amid turmoil over food distribution

An Israeli air strike has killed 18 people in central Gaza reportedly collecting aid, witnesses have told the Associated Press.

The street hit on Thursday, local time, had a crowd getting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit that had confiscated the goods from gangs looting aid convoys, witnesses said.

Hospital officials confirmed 18 people had died.

The strike was the latest violence surrounding the distribution of food to Gaza’s population, which has been thrown into turmoil over the past month. 

After blocking all food for more than two months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.

Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys.

The strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday appeared to target members of Sahm, a security unit tasked with stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. 

The unit is part of Gaza’s Hamas-led Interior Ministry, but includes members of other factions.

A horrific scene

Witnesses said the Sahm unit was distributing bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, drawing a crowd when the strike hit.

Video of the aftermath showed bodies of multiple young men in the street with blood splattering on the pavement and walls of buildings. 

The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where casualties were taken.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. 

Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck Gaza’s police, considering them a branch of Hamas.

An association of Gaza’s influential clans and tribes said on Wednesday they had started an independent effort to guard aid convoys to prevent looting. 

The National Gathering of Palestinian Clans and Tribes said it helped escort a rare shipment of flour that entered northern Gaza that evening.

It was unclear, however, if the association had coordinated with the UN or Israeli authorities. 

The World Food Program did not immediately respond to requests for comment by The Associated Press.

“We will no longer allow thieves to steal from the convoys for the merchants and force us to buy them for high prices,” Abu Ahmad al-Gharbawi, a figure involved in the tribal effort, told the AP.

Accusations from Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz in a joint statement on Wednesday accused Hamas of stealing aid entering northern Gaza, and called on the Israeli military to plan to prevent it.

The National Gathering slammed the statement, saying the accusation of theft was aimed at justifying the Israeli military’s “aggressive practices.” 

It said aid was “fully secured” by the tribes, which it said were committed to delivering the supplies to the population.

The move by tribes to protect aid convoys brings yet another player in an aid situation that has become fragmented, confused and violent, even as Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians struggle to feed their families.

Throughout the more than 20-month-old war, the UN led the massive aid operation by humanitarian groups providing food, shelter, medicine and other goods to Palestinians despite the fighting.

UN and other aid groups say that when significant amounts of supplies are allowed into Gaza, looting and theft dwindles.

Israel, however, seeks to replace the UN-led system, saying Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies from it, a claim the UN and other aid groups deny.

Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has started distributing food boxes at four locations, mainly in the far south of Gaza for the past month.

Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.

Health officials say hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots.

IDF orders war crime probe into aid site shootings

In a separate development, the Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel’s Military Advocate General ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians near Gaza aid distribution sites.

Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers as saying they were told to fire at the crowds to keep them back and using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for a comment from Reuters about the report.

Haaretz quoted a military spokesperson as saying that the army was trying to minimise potential friction between the population and Israeli forces, adding that following reports of civilian harm, the army had conducted investigations and given new instructions to ground forces.

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Haaretz also quoted unnamed sources as saying that the army unit established to review incidents that may involve breaches of international law had been tasked with examining soldiers’ actions near distribution locations over the past month.

In all, more than 500 people have died near aid centres operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) or in areas where UN food trucks were set to pass since late May, the Gaza health authorities have said.

In response to questions about previous incidents, the Israel military often said troops had fired warning shots over the heads of people to get them to move. 

It has also said it is reviewing various cases. It has yet to publish its findings.

The unnamed Israeli soldiers told Haaretz that military commanders had ordered troops to shoot at the crowds of Palestinians to disperse them and clear the area.

During a closed-door meeting with senior Military Advocate General officials this week, legal representatives rejected Israel Defense Forces claims that the incidents were isolated cases, Haaretz reported.

AP/Reuters