Gaza war: Chaos at Israeli-backed food distribution site described as ‘15 minutes of terror’

A Palestinian man has described chaotic scenes and “15 minutes of terror” as he waited for food at a new distribution site run by a US and Israeli-backed foundation.

Shehada Hijazi woke at dawn. It was his best chance, he thought, to get his hands on a package of food.

Thousands of others, equally desperate to feed their hungry families, had the same idea.

By the time Hijazi walked the seven kilometres to the southern tip of the territory, a militarised zone that had been evacuated of its residents, it was chaos.

People pushed and shoved for hours as they restlessly waited outside the site, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and checkpoints.

When it opened, the crowd charged, rushing toward hundreds of boxes left stacked on the ground on wooden pallets.

Mr Hijazi described what he called “15 minutes of terror” on Thursday at the centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the UN in feeding Gaza’s more than two million people.

Israeli soldiers opened fire in an attempt to control the crowd, he and other witnesses said.

His 23-year-old cousin was shot in the foot.

They quickly abandoned hope of getting any food and ran for their lives.

“Gunfire was very intense .... The sand was jumping around us,” he told The Associated Press.

The military did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the situation at the centre Mr Hijazi visited on Thursday.

It acknowledged firing in the vicinity of another centre in central Gaza that day.

On Friday, Mr Hijazi said he would wait before returning, though he is desperate for anything to feed his extended family, now about 200 members living together in a displacement camp in the southern city of Khan Younis.

“Hunger has hit home. I can’t wait around to watch my family die of hunger,” the 41-year-old said.

It’s a reality faced by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, plagued by rising hunger and malnutrition after a nearly three-month Israeli blockade barring all food and supplies from Gaza.

Israel has let in a trickle of aid this month for the United Nations to distribute through its networks — nearly 1000 trucks the past 12 days, the military says, far below the rate even at the highest times during the war when several hundred trucks a day would enter.

Israel says Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will eventually take over all food distribution, despite opposition from the UN and most humanitarian groups.

In its first week of operations, three distribution sites have been plagued by turmoil.

Multiple witnesses have reported Israeli troops opening fire.

At least six people have been killed and more than 50 wounded around the sites, according to Dr Ahmmed al-Farrah at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, where casualties were taken.

Giant crowds of tens of thousands of people have overwhelmed the facilities, sometimes breaking fences to reach food boxes that they say quickly ran out.

Israel demanded the new system, saying it must prevent Hamas from siphoning off supplies, though it has provided no evidence of systematic diversion.

The UN and other aid groups have refused to participate in the new system saying it violates humanitarian principles.

Witnesses reported that there were no ID checks at the new centres and that in the free-for-all, men muscled forward to take cartloads of multiple food boxes.

Mr Hijazi and others said it appeared organised gangs were taking the food to sell and that already boxes are in the markets going for exorbitant prices.

“This farce and humiliation are by design,” he added.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had distributed food boxes capable of producing more than two million meals this week.

The boxes contain basics like sugar, lentils, pasta and rice.