Death toll reaches 4 in WFP warehouse incident
We have reported earlier that two people died after Palestinians burst into the UN’s World Food Programme warehouse in the central Gaza Strip, pushing each other in the shadow of the cavernous facility’s main door.
We now know from officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital that two people were fatally crushed in the crowd, while two others died of gunshot wounds.
Many aid seekers could be seen carrying large bags of flour as they fought their way back out into the sunlight through throngs of people pressing to get inside. Each bag of flour weighs about 25kg (55 pounds).
Palestinians carry bags of flour after storming a UN World Food Programme warehouse in Zawaida in central Gaza on May 28
Gaza government rejects Israel’s ‘blatant lie’ of Hamas stockpiling flour
Gaza’s Government Media Office has accused Israel of spreading misinformation after a video circulated showing hungry Palestinians storming a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza.
In a statement, the office said the incident was the result of the “catastrophic humanitarian reality” caused by Israel’s aid blockade and systematic starvation of Palestinians. It rejected Israeli army claims that the Hamas-run government in Gaza was stockpiling flour and deliberately withholding aid.
“This is a blatant lie and part of a deliberate campaign to evade international accountability for using hunger as a weapon of war – a crime that amounts to genocide under international law,” the statement read, adding that the warehouse in question was under full UN control.
It also said Israeli forces had prevented the WFP from distributing flour and food aid to Palestinian families. Instead, it ordered them to be distributed exclusively to bakeries, the office said, calling it part of a wider strategy of “engineered starvation”.
It also noted that thousands of aid trucks have been stranded at the crossings into Gaza for nearly 90 days as Israel maintains a crippling blockade on the bombarded territory, where a famine looms.
