Aid sites run by a controversial US and Israeli-backed group in Gaza “have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty”, leading to crowds of people being shot, a charity has said.
In a new report, MSF – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) locations have become scenes of “orchestrated killing”.
Raquel Ayora, one of the general directors of the charity, which provides medical aid in the besieged enclave, said: “In MSF’s nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians.
“The GHF distribution sites masquerading as ‘aid’ have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty. This must stop now.”
MSF has called for the immediate dismantling of the GHF scheme, the restoration of the UN-coordinated aid delivery mechanism, and has urged governments as well as private donors to “suspend all financial and political support for the GHF”.
Sky News has contacted the GHF and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) for a response to the report.
In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, an IDF spokesperson claimed some accounts of shootings at aid sites are “fake news”.
“I think that is completely false,” Nadav Shoshani told presenter Jayne Secker.
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IDF calls some aid shootings ‘fake news’
MSF said it received 1,380 casualties at two of its clinics near GHF aid sites between 7 June and 24 July.
Of those, 28 were dead and 71 were children treated for gunshot wounds – 25 of whom were under 15.
Among them were five young girls, including an eight-year-old who had been shot in the chest, and a 12-year-old boy hit by a bullet that had passed through his stomach.
A Palestinian man who carried casualties as people sought aid from a GHF aid site. Pic: Reuters
‘We’re being slaughtered’
MSF said 11% of gunshot wounds seen at its al Mawasi clinic were to the head and neck, while 19% were to the chest, stomach, and back.
People arriving from a distribution site in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, were more likely to have gunshot wounds to the lower limbs.
“The distinct patterns and anatomical precision of these injuries strongly suggests the intentional targeting of people within and around the distribution sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire,” said the report.
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One patient at al Mawasi, Mohammed Riad Tabasi, is quoted as saying: “We’re being slaughtered. I’ve been injured maybe 10 times.
“I saw it with my own eyes, about 20 corpses around me. All of them shot in the head, in the stomach.”
The MSF report also said the charity has treated 196 patients injured during scrambles at the aid sites, including a woman who died of asphyxiation likely caused by a suffocating crush.
Others have been beaten and robbed by other desperate people after receiving food, it added.
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‘Global inaction is baffling’
The GHF has been primarily responsible for aid since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade of the Gaza Strip in May, but has faced criticism from charities and the UN.
Sky News analysis has previously shown how aid distributions by the GHF are associated with a significant rise in deaths, with the UN branding them “death traps”.
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
UN experts this week described it as an “utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law”.
They have called on Israel to allow charities and UN aid workers to deliver aid into Gaza. MSF has also called for the dismantling of the GHF scheme, and for the US to suspend support.
Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said: “Despite the condemnations and calls for dismantling it, the global inaction to stop GHF is baffling.”
‘No limit of aid’, says IDF
In his Sky News interview on Wednesday, the IDF’s Mr Shoshani insisted “there is no limit of aid getting into Gaza”, adding: “Every day, hundreds of trucks go into Gaza.”
Israel has said they are a solution to UN aid being stolen by Hamas fighters, and ensure supplies reach civilians.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited one of the sites last week, with the US president having declared: “We’re putting up money to get the people fed.”
