‘All humanitarian principles have been thrown against the wall’
Ahmed Bayram, from the Norwegian Refugee Council, says traditional aid distribution systems are done by humanitarian organisations that are unattached to military units, but that’s not the case with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
He described aid distribution in Gaza as “the most dangerous in the world that has been set up by Israel and the GHF”.
“It is obviously linked to Israeli security aims. There’s nothing independent about this, there’s nothing neutral. Clearly, this is linked to what Israel wants to achieve on the ground. Impartiality is out of the window,” Bayram told Al Jazeera.
“All humanitarian principles have been thrown against the wall.”
His comments come after dozens of Palestinian aid seekers were killed or wounded at two GHF sites on Sunday in Gaza.
‘Absolute carnage’ as aid site shooting victims brought to hospital
A British doctor working at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza has described the scene as “absolute carnage” as dozens of victims have been brought in after Israeli forces opened fire on people at a nearby food distribution site.
“I’m in the emergency department at the Nasser complex. We’ve had a shooting at the GHF aid distribution centre near Rafah,” she said in a video with patients and chaos in the background.
“People come through the door. At the moment, the locals are quoting anything from 100 to 200 injured people. These are all gunshot wounds, and as you can see behind me, all the bays are full. It’s absolute carnage here, and there are even more people in the main emergency department.”
More than 30 Palestinians seeking food aid from a GHF distribution site in Rafah were killed when Israeli tanks and drones reportedly opened fire.
Red Cross: Mass shooting victims were at Israel-backed aid site
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says its field hospital in the southern city of Rafah has received 179 casualties, including women and children.
At least 21 of the victims were declared dead upon arrival, the majority with gunshot or shrapnel wounds, it said in a statement.
“All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site,” the ICRC said, calling it the highest number of “weapon-wounded” people in a single incident since the hospital was set up a year ago.
