31 Palestinians killed heading to Gaza aid site

At least 31 people were killed and over 170 were wounded Sunday as large crowds were on their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, health officials and witnesses said. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired toward the crowds just before dawn, around a kilometer from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation.

Israel’s military denied its forces fired at civilians near or within the site in the southern city of Rafah. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with procedure, said troops fired warning shots at several suspects advancing toward them overnight.

The military also released drone footage it said was shot Sunday, apparently in daylight, in the southern city of Khan Younis, showing what it said were armed, masked men firing at civilians trying to collect aid. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video, and it was unclear who was being targeted. “Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent the successful distribution of food in Gaza," the statement said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — promoted by Israel and the US — said in a statement it delivered aid “without incident,” and released a separate video it said was shot Sunday at the site that appeared to show people collecting aid. The AP was not able to verify the video. The foundation has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent media has no access.

It was the deadliest incident yet around the new aid distribution system, which has operated for less than a week.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that its field hospital in Rafah received 179 casualties, including women and children, 21 of them declared dead upon arrival, the majority with gunshot or shrapnel wounds. It was unclear if any of the dead were militants.

“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 over a year ago.

The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, told ABC News that staffers on the ground were reporting people killed and called it a “tragedy.” “Aid distribution has become a death trap,” the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered that more aid sites be established — and that troops' ground operation be expanded in unspecified parts of northern and southern Gaza.

Multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the foundation's sites. Before Sunday, 17 people were killed while trying to reach them, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.

The foundation says private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on crowds. Israel's military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions.

The foundation said in a statement it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday “without incident,” and dismissed what it described as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos.” UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles.

Thousands of people headed toward the distribution site hours before dawn. As they approached, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, around 1 kilometer away, at around 3 a.m., Israeli forces opened fire, the witnesses said.

“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.

He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded. “The scene was horrible," he said.

Most people were shot “in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest," said Dr. Marwan al-Hams, a Health Ministry official at Nasser Hospital, where many were transferred from the Red Cross field hospital. A colleague, surgeon Khaled al-Ser, said 150 wounded people had arrived, along with 28 bodies. (AP)