Spanish
Jerusalem.- At least six Palestinians have died during the early hours of this Monday from shots fired by the Israeli Army while waiting near a food distribution point in the southern city of Rafah, Zaher al Waheidi, head of the count of victims of the Ministry of Health Palestinian, told EFE.
The victims were among a crowd of civilians waiting near one of the points set up in the south of the Strip when Israeli forces opened fire, according to details offered by the news agency, Wafa, which raised the death toll to eight.
The Israeli army, for the moment, has not commented on this latest incident, although in previous episodes it has acknowledged having opened fire near these points for feeling "threatened by the presence of several suspects."
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"Of those who came to collect food, nobody had weapons. They are normal people. The dead were shot in the head and taken in front of us," explains Gazan Mohamed Madi, who went to the Rafah distribution point this morning.
Furthermore, this Gazan asserts that when he got in line around 5:30 a.m. local time, an armed group appeared and told them they belonged to Abu Shabad.
Shabad is the leader of a Gazan group calling itself the Popular Forces on its social media and has been accused by Hamas, humanitarian organizations, and some media outlets of looting aid trucks in the face of the passivity of Israeli forces.
Last week, one of the leaders of the Israeli opposition, Avigdor Liberman, stated that Israel is arming Gazan clans as a counterweight to Hamas in Gaza, to which the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded without denying his accusations.
Since the implementation of this new humanitarian aid distribution model managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private group supported by Israel and the United States, more than a hundred Palestinians have died while waiting near the centers, according to Hamas figures.
In these first two weeks of operation, the GHF has only installed two complexes in the south and one in the center of the Strip, while the north still has none, which leaves the northern Gazan population without supplies.
International organizations and the UN, which used to be the main entities in charge of aid distribution until Israel decided to veto all shipments to the enclave in early March, have criticized the initiative, considering it not neutral, forcing Palestinians to relocate, and not respecting basic humanitarian principles.
The GHF said yesterday that its teams are testing a new direct delivery system to communities, instead of through distribution centers.
According to the foundation, the results will be evaluated and it will be decided if it is "a viable option from now on."
