At Least 27 Killed After Israeli Soldiers Open Fire Near Gaza Aid Site

Israeli soldiers opened fire on Tuesday morning near crowds of Palestinians walking toward a new food distribution site in southern Gaza, the Israeli military said.

The Gaza health ministry said that the troops killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens.

The military said the troops fired near “a few” people who had strayed from the designated route to the site and who did not respond to warning shots. The statement called them “suspects” and said they had “posed a threat” to soldiers, but a military spokeswoman declined to explain the nature of the perceived threat. It added that was “aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into.”

The shootings, which the military said occurred roughly half a kilometer, or some 550 yards, from the food distribution site, were the latest turmoil surrounding a contentious new Israeli-backed system for food distribution in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers also opened fire on Sunday near an approach to the same food distribution site, in an incident that Palestinian officials said killed at least 23 people. It followed several episodes of unrest last week.

Much is riding on the fate of the new aid system. Aid agencies say Gaza faces widespread starvation following an 80-day Israeli blockade on food deliveries between March and May.

The new aid program is overseen by a new and untested private aid group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which pays American contractors to distribute food from a handful of sites that are mostly in Israeli-occupied areas of southern Gaza. It replaced a system overseen by the United Nations, which distributed food from roughly 400 sites across the entire territory.

The foundation said it was aware of the reports of shootings “well beyond” the area of the aid site on Tuesday. But it said the site itself had operated “safely” throughout the morning.

Israel says the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from stealing and stockpiling food, and from financing its war effort by selling food to civilians at elevated prices.

The United Nations opposes the new system because it says it endangers civilians by forcing them to walk for miles to get food and could facilitate an Israeli plan to displace the population of northern Gaza. The organization has also warned of the risk of forcing civilians to seek food by passing near Israeli military lines.

Aid groups said the bloodshed in recent days demonstrated the risks of the new system.

“Today’s events have shown once again that this new system of aid delivery is dehumanizing, dangerous and severely ineffective,” Claire Manera, an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement released on Sunday.

“It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively.”

Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, a senior administrator at Nasser Hospital, a medical center in Khan Younis a few miles from the site of the shootings, said in a phone interview that the hospital had received 19 of those killed, starting from about 6 a.m.

Dr. al-Farra said that most of the victims were children aged between 10 and 13, many with gunshot wounds to the head or chest. Their bodies were carried much of the way to the hospital, he said, because ambulances could not safely reach the area where the shooting occurred.

The hospital’s ability to treat the wounded had been hindered by critical equipment shortages, Dr. al-Farra said.

“For three days now, we haven’t even had sterile gauze,” he said, adding that they’ve been forced to borrow basic supplies from a nearby field hospital.

Some Israelis said that Hamas was trying to undermine the new system by instigating chaos and encouraging people to riot.

“Hamas is under pressure due to the food distribution operation managed by an American company, and is trying in every way to sabotage it,” Naftali Bennett, Israel’s former prime minister, wrote on social media. “Hamas wants to control the food, and through it, to control the people. Israel is denying Hamas this control.”

Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel, and Bilal Shbair from Deir al-Balah, Gaza.