34 killed in deadliest day of shootings near Gaza's new food distribution centers, authorities say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops opened fire Monday as crowds tried to reach Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution centers in Gaza, witnesses said. The 34 people killed, according to health officials, made it the deadliest day of such shootings since the new aid system launched last month.

The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on Monday's shootings. But after some previous ones that have been a near-daily occurrence since the aid centers opened three weeks ago, it said its troops had fired warning shots at what it called suspects approaching their positions, though it didn't say whether those shots struck anyone.

Palestinians say they face the choice of starving or risking death as they make their way past Israeli forces to reach the distribution points, which are run by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centers opened.

The ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed Monday trying to reach the GHF center near the southern city of Rafah and another was killed while headed to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people who weren't trying to get to distribution centers were killed elsewhere.

Palestinians are desperate to feed their families after most food ran out during the 2½ months this year when Israel barred all supplies from entering the territory. Israel has eased the blockade since last month to let in a trickle of aid.

Witnesses describe crowds under fire

Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed around 4 a.m. at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food center, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd.

People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. ''Fire was coming from everywhere,'' said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. "It's getting worse day by day," she said.

The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 injured Monday, the highest single mass casualty event it has seen, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF center. The Health Ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed.

The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of meters (yards) from the GHF center, has been the scene of repeated shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the center.

Palestinians over the past weeks have said Israeli troops open fire to prevent people from moving past a certain point on the road before the scheduled opening of the center or because people leave the road.

A GHF spokesperson told The Associated Press on Sunday that ''none of the incidents to date have occurred at our sites or during operating hours.'' It said the incidents have involved aid-seekers who were moving ''during prohibited times ... or trying to take a short cut.'' It said it was trying to improve safety measures, including by recently moving the opening times from nighttime to daylight hours.

A new aid distribution system

Israel and the United States say the GHF system is intended to replace the U.N.-led humanitarian operation that has delivered aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel contends that the new mechanism is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid.

U.N. agencies and major aid groups deny that there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas and have rejected the new system. They say it can't meet the population's needs and turns food into a weapon for Israel to carry out its military goals, including moving the more than 2 million Palestinians into a ''sterile'' enclave in the southern Gaza.

Speaking at Britain's House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, an official with Doctors Without Borders said Israel's claims of extensive diversion by Hamas were ''specious and cynical,'' and were intended ''to undermine a humanitarian system which was actually functioning.''

''This is neither a humanitarian enterprise nor a system. This is basically lethal chaos,'' Anna Halford, a field coordinator for the group, said when asked by lawmakers about the GHF centers.

Experts warn that Israel's ongoing military campaign and restrictions on aid entry have put Gaza at risk of famine.

Israel's military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.

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This story was corrected to reflect that authorities said 34 people, not 38, were killed near the food centers. Follow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war