Hamas condemns Israel’s ‘brutal’ Rafah attack
The Gaza-based armed group has released a statement regarding the Israeli attack in Rafah near the GHF aid distribution point.
Here are its translated comments:
- A brutal massacre was committed by the fascist occupation army, targeting thousands of citizens who had headed to an aid distribution centre west of Rafah.
- This resulted in more than 35 killings and more than 150 injuries. This massacre confirms the fascist nature of the occupation and its criminal objectives behind this mechanism.
- The army brutally opened fire on them, in a blatant confirmation of the premeditated intent to commit this crime.
- We hold the Zionist occupation, along with the US administration, fully responsible for the massacres committed at the sites where the occupation’s aid distribution mechanism is being implemented, and for the use of starvation as a weapon of war against our people.
- We call on the UN to form an independent international commission of inquiry and enter the Gaza Strip to investigate these systematic crimes against civilians and hold those responsible accountable as war criminals.
Israel, US replaced 400 aid points with 4 while ‘100 percent of Gaza is hungry’: Charity chief
Speaking from Gaza City, Bassam Zaqout of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society said the current aid distribution mechanism has replaced 400 former distribution points with just four.
“I think there are different hidden agendas in this aid distribution mechanism,” he told Al Jazeera. “The mechanism does not cater to the needs of the people, such as the elderly and people with disabilities.”
“Currently, only about 1 percent of the aid distribution points are available in Gaza. Meanwhile, various UN agencies and international humanitarian organisations are prepared to operate 400 distribution points to facilitate aid delivery,” Zaqout said, adding that “100 percent of the population is hungry”.
Rafah attack death toll rises
At least 39 Palestinians have been killed and more than 220 wounded in the Israeli attack west of Rafah city near the GHF aid distribution point, according to the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, cited by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Separately, as we have been reporting, at least one person was killed and others were injured after the Israeli army opened fire at people near another GHF aid site on the Netzarim Corridor.
PRCS says it transported bodies of 23 Palestinians killed in Rafah
Twenty-three other injured people have also been transferred to hospital from an aid distribution point in Rafah.
The organisation said its teams also carried 14 injured people from the aid distribution point near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, which separates northern and southern parts of the Strip.
Earlier, Hamas said 35 people were killed and about 150 wounded in an Israeli attack in Rafah near the aid distribution point set up by the US-backed GHF, responsible for delivering humanitarian supplies into the enclave.
The Israeli army claimed that it is unaware of the attack.
Gaza mourns as dozens of aid seekers killed in Israeli attacks
