Thousands rush into new Gaza aid delivery centre

Thousands of Palestinians rushed into a new aid distribution centre run by a US-backed group in southern Gaza Tuesday, leading to chaotic scenes as Israel implemented a new distribution system.

By late afternoon Tuesday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals, after an almost three-month-old Israeli blockade of the war-devastated enclave.

In the southern city of Rafah, which is under full Israeli army control, thousands of people including women and children, some on foot or in donkey carts, flocked towards one of the distribution sites to receive food packages.

Videos showed lines of people walking through a wired-off corridor and into a large open field where aid was stacked. Later, images shared on social media showed large parts of the fence torn down as people jostled their way onto the site.

The Israel military said its troops fired warning shots in the area outside the compound and that control was reestablished.

A UN spokesperson called images of the incident "heartbreaking."

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X that 8,000 "food packages" were delivered to Palestinians Tuesday, the first day of what he described as an American initiative.

Some of the recipients showed the content of the packages, which included some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits and sugar.

Although the aid was available on Monday, Palestinians appeared to have heeded warnings, about biometric screening procedures employed at the foundation's aid distribution sites.

Israel says the Switzerland-based GHF is a US-backed initiative and that its forces will not be involved in the distribution points where food will be handed out.

The Israeli military said four aid sites have been established in recent weeks across the enclave, and that two of them in the area of Rafah began operations on Tuesday and "are distributing food packages to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip."

The GHF said the volume of people seeking aid at one distribution site was so great at one point that its team had to pull back to allow people to "take aid safely and dissipate" and to avoid casualties. It said normal operations had since resumed.

Humanitarian groups briefed on the foundation's plans say anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology that many Palestinians fear will end up in Israeli hands to be used to track and potentially target them.

In New York, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters the U.N. and its partners have a sound plan "to get aid to a desperate population" and that Israel was still allowing it to deliver some relief but with a lot of obstacles.

Last week Israel eased its blockade, allowing a trickle of aid trucks from international agencies into Gaza, including World Food Programme vehicles bringing flour to local bakeries.

The death toll from the Israeli occupation's ongoing onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which has persisted since Oct. 7, 2023, has surged to 54,056, with an additional 123,129 individuals wounded, QNA reports from Gaza.

In a statement Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said that 79 martyrs and 163 injured individuals were received in hospitals across the Strip over the past 24 hours.