Reem al-Akhras, a mother of seven, headed to the American aid distribution center in Gaza on Tuesday morning to obtain food for herself and her family. She carried a plastic bag in her hand, hoping to use it to carry the aid she expected to receive.
Reem waited with thousands of civilians near the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the al-Alam area of Rafah. But instead of receiving food rations, she was killed by a gunshot to the head. She returned to her children at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, wrapped in a white shroud.
Reem’s 13-year-old daughter, Tahrir Zeidan, said that her mother had only gone to bring them food so that she and her siblings wouldn’t starve. “I wish she hadn’t left us,” she told Mondoweiss at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Reem was one of 27 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the latest massacre against civilians at the GHF-run aid distribution point on Tuesday, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement on the same day that the latest aid massacre brings the total number of Palestinians killed at GHF sites to 102 people since May 27, with over 490 others wounded.
By now, these “aid massacres” are following a similar pattern. Starving civilians crowd near the distribution site, waiting for a signal from the Israeli army or GHF mercenaries to enter. The Israeli army opens fire on the crowds, either outside of the distribution point before the aid is distributed, as happened on Tuesday, or after it invites the civilians to enter, as it did on June 2, when the Israeli army killed 75 people after quadcopter drones instructed civilians via loudspeaker to enter.
The army and the GHF then either outright deny what happened, like they did on June 2 — asserting that the allegations of a massacre were “completely false” — or the army says it fired warning shots at individuals approaching the site “suspiciously,” as it did on Tuesday, claimning it had identified suspects who had breached designated access routes approximately “half a kilometer” from the compound. According to an Israeli army spokesperson, Israeli forces fired warning shots and, when the suspects continued to approach, opened fire.
GHF inadvertently admits to accusations of luring civilians into ‘active war zone’
This pattern of committing massacres and subsequently denying them has led both locals and the Gaza Government Media office to describe the U.S. aid centers as traps set up to kill hungry families, asserting that scant food shipments are being used as bait.
The Government Media Office said in a statement on Tuesday that “the so-called ‘aid’ distribution centers are established in dangerous red zones under the control of the occupation army,” where civilians are then “lured” and deliberately targeted.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also concluded that the Israeli army had deliberately positioned the GHF centers in dangerous areas under its military control, “without providing safe corridors,” adding that this has “created a deadly trap for thousands of starving civilians.”
Meanwhile, the GHF seemingly made an inadvertent admission that its sites are placed in the middle of an “active war zone.” As it shirked responsibility for the massacre on Tuesday, claiming that aid distribution had proceeded “without incident” and that Tuesday’s events had occurred “well beyond” its center, the GHF also said in a statement quoted by ABC News and Middle East Eye that “we don’t control the area outside of our distribution sites and surrounding vicinity,” adding that it had “no knowledge” of Israeli army activity “beyond our perimeter, which is still an active war zone.”
In other words, this is an inadvertent admission and corroboration of accusations that the GHF centers have been placed in the middle of dangerous military zones. This stands in stark contrast to previous and repeated Israeli claims that the sites would be located in “sterile zones” in southern Gaza, far away from combat.
Today, in an apparent repudiation of Israeli claims that aid sites are located in safe areas, the Israeli army announced that the roads leading to the GHF distribution centers would be prohibited to civilians because they would be “considered combat zones.” The GHF also announced today that its operations would be suspended due to “renovation, reorganization, and efficiency improvement work,” stating the operations would resume on Thursday.
‘These centers are killing fields‘
Despite the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army at the GHF aid points, people have not stopped going to them due to desperation and hunger.
Akram Abu Zayed, 36, is a father of four who survived Tuesday’s Rafah massacre and returned to his family empty-handed. Abu Zayed had been waiting for aid since the previous night but fled as soon as he heard Israeli fire.
Abu Zayed indicated that he will try to return if conditions improve and will not stop trying to get food for his family.
Contrary to GHF claims that the Israeli army’s activities were “well beyond” the site, Abu Zayed told Mondoweiss that he and the crowds were waiting “about a hundred meters away from the distribution center,” and that the crowds were not standing near the Israeli army.
“There were thousands of people waiting when quadcopters and tanks started firing at us,” Abu Zayed said. “We were not that close to the army — they came after us.”
Despite these dangers, Abu Zayed says he will keep going to the U.S. aid centers, knowing that “death is waiting there.”
“I will try my best to return safely and bring food for my family,” he said. “What can I do when I see my children dying of hunger in front of me? I will risk it if it means feeding them.”
“If there were another way to get food for our families, we would not go to the American distribution points, which are prepared to kill us,” Abu Zayed added. “We know that going to the American centers is like going to the Israeli army, but sometimes we believe them when they tell us the place is safe and they order us to go there.”
Some civilians in Gaza have refused to go to GHF sites from the beginning, and after the most recent string of massacres, many others hesitate to risk their lives again without any certainty that they might be able to secure a food parcel.
Essam Jalal, 41, a displaced father in Khan Younis, told Mondoweiss that the U.S. wants to “wipe out all Palestinians,” because “if they wanted to give us food, they would have given it to the UN, which is the best organization for food distribution,” he said.
Jalal explained that neither he nor any of his relatives and close friends go to the distribution centers, and are trying to tell people not to go either.
“When they started killing people by the dozens, everything was clear,” Jalal said. “These centers are killing fields disguised as aid distribution points.”
By: Tareq S. Hajjaj
Source: Mondoweiss
