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Daily killings of aid seekers ‘nothing short of a scandal for the whole world’
The killings of more than 500 Palestinians near aid hubs in Gaza over the past month is a “travesty” and a global “scandal”, says academic Sami Al-Arian.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Istanbul, Al-Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, said it is “unbelievable to think of this as being routine”.
“Every day people go there hoping that they can get some food so that they can feed their starving children and they end up dead, they end up injured, in a place where there is no medical facility in which they can even treat their injuries.”
Al-Arian said that the situation was “nothing short of a scandal for the whole world”.
“No one could seriously argue that this is a food distribution centre when day after day … we’re having Palestinians not just being injured, being killed,” he said.
Smoke rises after an artillery shell was fired by an Israeli tank towards aid seekers west of Gaza City on Wednesday
At least 549 Palestinians killed seeking aid from US, Israeli distribution sites: Gaza authorities
At least 549 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating four weeks ago, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
The attacks at the “death traps”, the Gaza authority said in a statement, have also caused 4,066 injuries, and led to 39 missing people among starving Palestinian civilians.
“What is taking place at these so-called ‘centers’ constitutes a full-fledged war crime for which the Israeli occupation bears primary and direct responsibility. We strongly condemn this ongoing crime, wherein starving civilians are lured and then systematically and deliberately gunned down on a daily basis according to pre-set schedules.”
“The occupation is using food as a weapon of mass killing, turning what it claims to be ‘aid’ into a tool of extermination and domination,” Gaza’s Government Media Office added.
