Israel kills nearly 600 Palestinians in help centers: everything you need to know | Gaza News

Since May 27, at least 583 Palestinians have been killed and 4,186 wounded while waiting for food distribution sites on humanitarian aid (GHF), supported by the United States and the United States, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The killings have occurred daily while famine is looming on the besieged enclave. International organizations have warned for weeks that 2.1 million residents of Gaza face catastrophic food shortages with empty markets, rare clean water and help sporadic and dangerous deliveries.

In the The first eight days of the GHF operationMore than 100 people were killed by Israeli forces gunshots.

Hani Mahmoud, from Al Jazeera, reporting from Gaza City, said GHF remains the only food source in the strip while Israel continues to place serious restrictions at the entrance to supplies by other groups.

“Many people here are trying to stay away from the GHF centers because of the danger involved in breastfed due to the current and deliberate shootings of aid seekers,” said Mahmoud. “But again, staying away is not an answer because if there are no food packages, it means that children will go to bed hungry.”

Where are the help distribution sites?

While the United Nations distribution network has operated around 400 sites across the band, GHFKeeped by armed private security entrepreneurs working for an American company, has only set up four “mega -sitis”, three in the south and one in the center of Gaza – none in the North, where the conditions are most serious.

GHF centers operate irregularly, sometimes opening for an hour. In a case, a site announced its opening on Facebook, to publish eight minutes later that the supplies had already exhausted.

The centers operate on a basis at first arrival, first served, often promoting chaos while desperate crowds are fighting on limited resources.

How do people access these help distribution sites?

Access to these centers is perilous. Palestinians must sometimes travel several kilometers through active combat zones, navigate in biometric control points and bring heavy provisions to their families.

The system indeed excludes the most vulnerable – including the elderly, injured and disabled – who are the least able to make travel.

What is in the boxes?

The help boxes themselves barely meet subsistence needs. While the World Food program recommends 2,100 calories per person per day, Israel has capped the aid at 1,600.

GHF plots offer a little more – about 1,750 calories – but are not far from nutritional needs and do not contain clean water, drugs, blankets or fuel. For many, receiving a box is not a relief but a rare luck.

Al Jazeera Hind Al-Khoudary correspondent has brought to Gaza that rations offer little to keep families for a long time.

She described a typical GHF box as containing 4 kg (8.8 lb) of flour, a few bags of pasta, two cans of beans, a pack of tea sachets and some cookies. Some plots include lenses and small soup mixtures, but the quantities are minimal.

Are help seekers deliberately slaughtered?

According to Israel Journal HaaretzWho quoted anonymous Israeli soldiers, the troops were invited to shoot the crowd of the Palestinians and to use a unnecessary deadly force against people who did not seem to threaten.

“We have drawn machine guns from tanks and launched grenades,” said a soldier in Haaretz. “There was an incident where a group of civilians was struck during the progress under the cover of the fog.”

In another case, a soldier said between “one and five people were killed every day” in the Gaza district where the soldier is parked.

“It’s a killing field,” said this soldier.

What is GHF?

Before the start of the war on October 7, 2023, around 500 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza daily. It changed when Israel launched his war against the enclave. Help deliveries fell to less than 80 trucks per day, and in March, Israel completely interrupted them during a blockade of almost three months on all supplies.

On May 27, the GHF resumed aid operations as a private entrepreneur, introducing a new delivery system outside the traditional United Nations.

The organization, created this year in the United States this year, was described by the New York Times Journal as “an original Israeli idea” – part of a longer -term strategy designed in 2023 while Israel began to plan the future of Gaza.

The GHF has not publicly disclosed its sources of funding. He said he had obtained $ 100 million commitments, although the details remain vague. The US State Department recently promised $ 30 million in support.

How are Gaza children affected?

UNICEF warned that Malnutrition of children in Gaza increases at an “alarming rate”.

In May alone, at least 5,119 children aged six and five were admitted to hospitals for acute malnutrition-an increase of almost 50% compared to April and an increase of 150% compared to February when a temporary cease-fire allowed higher access to aid.

“In just 150 days from the beginning of the year until the end of May, 16,736 children – an average of 112 per day – were admitted for treatment,” said Edouard Beigbeder, regional director of UNICEF for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Each of these cases is avoidable. Food, water and nutrition treatments they desperately need are prevented from reaching them. These are artificial decisions that cost lives,” he added.

Out of 19 documented fatal incidents involving food aid distribution, children were among the victims of more than half, highlighting the vulnerability of the youngest residents of Gaza.

How does Israel threaten the people of Gaza with famine?

One in five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip faces famine due to Israel’s help blockade. The distribution of chaos of the aid underline the amazing level of the hunger gripping Gaza.

According to the latest classification report for the integrated food security phase (IPC), 1.95 million people – 93% of the enclave population – are faced with acute food shortages.

Some governors are experiencing more serious levels of hunger, namely in the north of Gaza.

The IPC said that the continuous blockade of Israel “would probably lead to an additional mass movement within and between governors”, because the articles essential to the survival of people will be exhausted.