It was their sixth attempt for a week, a dangerous hike down the southern coast of Gaza to the US food distribution. Lunch is a seal, 14 years old, and his Rem mother hoped that this time they would come before the food was over.
Eight o’clock on Tuesday, when they approached the center, the sound of the tank and the firearm broke out. Zidan saw the corpses at his feet. He lay face down to the ground next to them with his sister and mother, waiting for the first light. People began to whisper that you could move safely.
From the ground, Zidan saw the mother start to stand up before the sniper bullet shot it into his head. “Because I am young, I was scared and left my mom,” he said. “I escaped.”
Zidan is one of the eight Palestinians who told the Financial Times about their attempt to get to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund site last week. Their twilight traveled with thousands of people, hoping to approach the help center before 5 am so they could get food.
For the Palestinians, desperate devices after Israel imposed more than a two -month block on the strip, their attempts to get food from GHF brought more horror than relief. Every day was different, but the danger they described was the same.
Tanks, fourth drones and snipers, which, according to them, left the Israeli army, fired by the Palestinians who are waiting for the opening of the site.
For EHAB Jomaa Telecommunications worker, Sunday was 4am when it was shot in Al-Alam, the last moment when people waited before moving to the distribution place.
He and five friends covered himself in the ruins of the bombed beach hotel. They turned off their phones and remained silent.
Then a quadcopter appeared and started firing. “He turned on his microphone and said,” You have to leave, we will shoot you. “As soon as we got up and prepared for the departure, he moved to another area,” Jomoa said. “He shot a boy seven meters away from us.”
Witnesses who talked to FT said they ran down the last section to the distribution site around 5am. Those who came to the site often found all the food that had already gone.
Many tried to get to the place of distribution several days in a row despite the murder. They were so hungry after the siege of Israel that they tried.
For two days the victims were the most difficult. Israeli troops were killed by 27 people and suffered 161 years old, waiting for help on Tuesday morning, Gaza’s health ministry said. On Sunday, 35 people were killed and more than 150 were injured in Israel’s fire in the crowd gathered in the Al-Alama area. All killed on Sunday were shot dead or chest, the ministry said.
ICRC said his field hospital Rafa received about 180 patients for each of the two days, most suffered from firearms. They all said they were trying to get to the place of distribution.
Israel disputed the characterization of the Ministry of Health of the shootings, but acknowledged that he fired “warning” – and on Tuesday “additional” – shots at people who, he said, deviated from the appointed route or approached the troops.
The Israeli security spokesman said some shootings occurred at the GHF sites, when the surrounding areas were attributed to a “war zone in which the civilians were not appointed.”
The official added that changes to access routes to make them safer. IDF also claimed that some shots were released by Hamas.
In his fifth journey to the 45-year-old Hosk distribution site, Zorab watched on Tuesday as his friend shot a short distance in front. Zorab could not save him, and he was determined to find food for his eight children, so he waited with others to hurry to the site.
He said there was no registration system and effective entry. Instead, the crowds kept fear. “There is no gate, but from 2am to 5am permanent shooting. Shooting is a gate.”
Inside the distributed centers with tin boxes and oil on the sandy floor were torn, and people accepted everything they could. According to two witnesses, foreign mercenaries laughed at the stage. Palestinian contractors looked at the fluorescent vests.
GHF did not respond to a comment request, but previously stated that the shooting occurred in the border of its distribution.
Ashraf Abu Speker, the father of six years, went to the site three times: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. But every time he reached the site, everything was already accepted.
On Tuesday, he tried to ask one of the security contractors why there was nothing left. He said that the contractor sprayed him in the face. Three other witnesses, including the one who was sprayed, said the contractors used a spray and sound grenades on the site.
“I didn’t want to go today. I’m tired,” Abu Schbaker said. “If you want to starve people, go forward, but don’t ruin us like that.”
Lunch Zidan read the hospitals, hoping to find a wounded mother, imagining her face alive and in the bed of intensive care unit. He was in a Nasser hospital when a paramedic arrived with three unidentified dead women. Zidan knew one of them.
“It won’t help,” said Zaidan. “It’s a mouse trap.”
Additional James Shothe
