NEW YORK (Palestine Foundation Information Center) A group of 169 aid and rights organizations have called for shutting down the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and accused Israeli forces and their mercenaries of “routinely” opening fire on Palestinians seeking aid.
Some of the world’s most noted charitable and rights organizations, including Oxfam, Amnesty International and Save the Children, said in a joint statement on Monday that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed and almost 4,000 injured in less than four weeks while trying to obtain food from GHF in Gaza.
They accused GHF of forcing starved and weakened civilians to trek through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones to reach the militarized distribution sites, where they have to “fight” for limited food supplies in “chaotic enclosures.”
“These areas have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law,” they said in their statement.
The NGOs urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed in the war-torn territory before Israel imposed a full blockade on international humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.
“NGOs call for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) in Gaza,” the organizations wrote in their joint statement on June 30.
In a related context, Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) said that the death toll of hungry civilians who were shot dead by Israeli gunfire at or near US-backed distribution points in Gaza climbed to 580 martyrs, with 4,200 people injured and 39 others missing.
In a statement on Wednesday, GMO accused GHF of orchestrating the systematic killing of starving civilians at its aid distribution sites.
