LONDON — The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) announced some changes at its Khan Younis aid distribution center on Monday, as Palestinians continue to report mass killings and chaos near aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip.
The center will now use “a flag system” in place to indicate the status of the site, with the red flag signifying the site is closed and the green flag showing it is open, according to a social media post from GHF.
The announcement comes after major controversies around GHF’s operations since it took over most of the humanitarian aid distribution in the Gaza Strip on May 27 after Israel had blockaded supplies getting into the strip for more than two months.
Since the end of May, at least 798 people have been killed near and around food aid sites, according to a United Nations statement on Thursday. Among them, 615 people were killed on their way to GHF sites and 183 near other aid convoys, the UN statement added.
Reacting to the new GHF flag system, Ibrahiem Mohammed Abdul Raouf Al Qatrawi, a 22-year-old Palestinian, called for the total cancellation of the GHF aid system, telling ABC News on Monday that “respect and dignity” should be restored.
“The humiliation we live is really difficult at the American aid centers, not to mention the fear, I even feel sorry for myself, going through this,” Al Qatrawi said.
“It’s a death trap, it’s very dangerous over there,” Hazem Al Taweel, a Palestinian who had recently returned from getting aid at one GHF center, told ABC News on Sunday. “You can go there to bring a bag [of food] but you get brought back in a bag.”
“You see snipers, quadcopters and tanks. You feel the whole world is fighting you over your food. It’s very difficult, even those who get minor injuries bleed to death while no one can help them,” Al Taweel added. As he went to collect aid recently, he said he was surrounded by dead bodies. Ambulances were not allowed to reach the injured, he said.
Responding to ABC News on the hundreds killed near the aid site, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday in a statement it “allows the American civilian organization (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF added, “The aforementioned incidents are under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”
Israel says it implemented the distribution system built around GHF to keep Hamas from stealing aid and using it to support its militants. Israeli officials have long accused Hamas of seizing humanitarian goods and selling them to fund militant activity. Hamas denies those claims. A State Department spokesperson issued a statement to the Wall Street Journal that said the Trump administration supports GHF, because it is “the only pipeline that denies Hamas resources and control.”
The GHF called the UN report “false and misleading” in a statement, accusing the UN of using numbers from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The organization added, “The UN’s reliance and coordination with a terrorist organization to falsely smear our effort is not only disturbing but should be investigated by the international community.”
Nonetheless, the risk is mounting for hungry Palestinians as they try to get food and water.
On Sunday, 12-year-old Siraj Khaled Ibrahim was waiting in line to collect water for his family in Nuseirat Camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip, when he was killed in an airstrike, his family told ABC News. Siraj and at least nine other Palestinians, including five other children, were killed in the IDF airstrike near the water distribution point, according to Al-Awda hospital, where the deceased were taken.
ABC News has verified video of Siraj’s father carrying his son’s blood-covered body in the aftermath of the attack. The video was widely shared online. In the video, Siraj’s father can be heard saying, “Oh my boy, why did you go to fetch water? We didn’t need water.”
“He had the most beautiful heart in the world,” Hamza Ibrahim, a relative of Siraj, told ABC News. “He would memorize Quran and was a football fan,” he added.
The IDF told ABC News on Sunday that the strike near the water distribution was “a technical error with the munition,” and the main target was “an Islamic Jihad terrorist” in the central Gaza Strip. “The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area as a result, and the details of the incident continue to be examined,” the statement added.
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