A Palestinian describes 15 minutes of terror trying to get food in the new Gaza distribution system

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Shehada Hijazi woke at dawn. It was his best chance, he thought, to get his hands on a package of food at a new distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of others, equally desperate to feed their hungry families, had the same idea.

By the time Hijazi walked the 7 kilometers (4 miles) to the southern tip of the territory, a militarized zone that has 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, earth berms and checkpoints. When it opened, the crowd charged, rushing toward hundreds of boxes left stacked on the ground on wooden pallets.

Hijazi described what he called 15 minutes of terror Thursday at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the U.N. in feeding Gaza's more than 2 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.

The ''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 center Hijazi visited Thursday. It acknowledged firing in the vicinity of another center in central Gaza that day.

On Friday, 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.

Turmoil at food-distribution sites

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 1,000 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 GHF will eventually take over all food distribution, despite opposition from the U.N. and most humanitarian groups.

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

Multiple witnesses have reported Israeli troops opening fire at GHF centers. 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.

At a center in central Gaza on Thursday, Associated Press videos showed smoke bombs arching through the air and an Israeli tanks moving amid audible gunfire. The military said it fired artillery because of a threat to its troops in the area but that it was not in the direction of the GHF center or civilians. It also acknowledged firing warning shots Tuesday near another center to control a crowd.

GHF said in a statement Friday that ''no civilians or individuals involved with the distribution of aid were injured, no lives were lost.'' It has previously said that no shootings took place at its distribution sites.

Israel demanded the new system, saying it must prevent Hamas from siphoning off supplies, though it has provided no evidence of systematic diversion. U.N. agencies say their mechanisms already prevent significant diversion.

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

Hijazi and others said it appeared organized 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,'' Hijazi said.

A staff member working on the ground for GHF told The Associated Press on Friday that the system is evolving. The staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said that given people's desperation and hunger, the focus is on safely distributing as many supplies as possible, and once the situation stabilizes, more emphasis will be placed on managing who receives it.

GHF said it had distributed food boxes capable of producing more than 2 million meals this week. The boxes contain basics like sugar, lentils, pasta and rice.

''This is just the beginning," said John Acree, interim executive director of GHF. "Our commitment to safely and effectively supplying food directly to a large, hungry population is unwavering.''

The difficulty of distributing aid

The U.N. and other aid groups have refused to participate in the GHF system saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it puts aid under Israel's control to use to carry out its announced plans to move Gaza's entire population to the south.

They also say it cannot meet the massive needs of the population and endangers those seeking food.

There have been unruly crowds around Gaza's communal kitchens, but scenes like those at GHF hubs have been rare at U.N. distribution sites. The U.N. and other aid groups have run hundreds of distribution points around Gaza and often use a coupon system to organize when families pick up aid — to ensure it is handed out equitably and to avoid large crowds at a single location.

A few times, hungry crowds have broken into aid warehouses, when the flow of aid has plunged particularly low, usually because of Israeli military restrictions, U.N. workers say. U.N. aid trucks have also come under attack by what the U.N. says are armed criminal gangs, or crowds of desperate people have swarmed trucks taking supplies. The U.N. says such attacks virtually stop when the aid flow is well.

''People don't understand why it is difficult to give out food'' in crises, said Ruth James, humanitarian coordinator for Oxfam.

Managing large crowds and preventing stampedes takes planning and clear communication, she said. In a crowd, usually the most powerful get to the food or parcels, and the people most in need are overlooked.

Despite his frustration, Hijazi said he will try again on Sunday.

''People are ready to eat each other to provide for their families,'' he said, adding that the new system is moving people around like chess pieces. ''It is an unimaginable tragedy.''

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El Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.