At least 27 Palestinians were killed while travelling toward an aid distribution site near Rafah, according to Gaza health officials and witnesses, in the third reported shooting connected to food collection in three days. The Israeli military said troops fired near people who had left a designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots.
The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the death toll through its field hospital in Rafah. The hospital received 184 wounded people, spokesperson Hisham Mhanna said. Nineteen were dead when they arrived, and eight more later died from their wounds. The bodies were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where a nursing official said three children and two women were among the dead. Most patients had gunshot injuries, according to the hospital director.
Witnesses placed the shooting around 4 a.m. at Flag Roundabout, roughly one kilometer from a distribution point operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. They described gunfire as crowds moved along the route and said they saw people killed or wounded. One woman said she reached the site but found no aid remaining. Journalists could not independently access the area because it was inside an Israeli military zone.
The military said it fired to drive away what it called suspects and disputed the casualty numbers released by Gaza authorities, while saying the incident was under investigation. Army spokesperson Effie Defrin maintained that Israeli forces were enabling access to distribution areas rather than blocking it.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said no violence had occurred in or around its sites. It acknowledged the military inquiry into whether civilians were hurt after moving outside the designated corridor and into a closed zone, which it described as well beyond the distribution point. The organization said it was saddened by reports of deaths and injuries.
The incidents followed the introduction of distribution hubs backed by Israel and the United States. The foundation said the model was intended to prevent Hamas from controlling supplies. The United Nations rejected the arrangement, arguing that it could not meet the population’s needs and did not follow humanitarian principles.
Nearly all of Gaza’s roughly two million residents depended on aid after the war destroyed much of the territory’s capacity to produce food. Israel had blocked supplies beginning in March, then allowed limited deliveries to resume in late May after pressure from allies and warnings of famine. That scarcity forced large crowds to travel toward a small number of points under hazardous conditions.
The deaths highlighted both the immediate danger facing people seeking food and the unresolved dispute over responsibility for keeping aid routes safe.
