More than two dozen people were killed early Tuesday after the Israeli military opened fire close to an aid distribution point in southern Gaza, local health officials said, the third time in three days that Palestinians were killed in the area.
Video captured by NBC News' crew on the ground showed dead and injured being rushed to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. At one point, medical workers gathered around a young child whose head was wrapped in bandages.
Dr. Ahmed Abu Sweid, an Australian emergency physician, told NBC News that patients' injuries included "multiple gunshot wounds, thoracic injuries to the chest, mangled limbs."
“This is the third such event in the last few days,” he said, describing what he called “another mass casualty event from a food aid center” in Rafah.
“The hospital’s overwhelmed,” Abu Sweid said.
A 5-year-old girl was among the wounded, he added, before abruptly ending the interview to treat a patient being rushed into the room.
At least 27 people were killed Tuesday and more than 160 injured as they waited for aid at a designated site in the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, according to health officials in Gaza, which has been run by Hamas since 2007.
NBC News was not immediately able to verify the number of casualties. The World Health Organization has said it considers the Health Ministry’s data reliable.
The Israeli military said its troops had fired what it described as “warning fire” at a number of people about a half kilometer, or 0.3 miles, away from an aid distribution site in Rafah, and that it was aware of and looking into reports of casualties.
Troops identified several people moving toward them “in such a way that posed a threat to them” and appearing to deviate from designated aid access routes, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Tuesday.
“After the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,” it said.
It did not expand on what perceived threat those people posed.
The group in charge of dispensing the aid, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said that while it was distributed “safely and without incident" at the Rafah site, it understood that the IDF was investigating whether "a number of civilians were injured after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed military zone.”
“This was an area well beyond our secure distribution site and operations area,” the U.S. and Israel-backed group added. “We recognize the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when traveling to our distribution sites.”
The new effort run by GHF has been condemned by established humanitarian groups, including the U.N. They warn that using a few distribution centers falls drastically short of what is needed and forces many Palestinians to travel long distances to access desperately needed supplies, risking further displacement. It also threatens the independence of humanitarian work while handing Israel more control over Gaza, critics say.
On Monday, Gaza health officials said at least three people were killed and dozens more injured when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians trying to get to a food distribution site in Rafah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that troops had fired “warning shots” to “prevent several suspects approaching them,” adding that the incident took place around 1 kilometer, or 0.6 miles, from a distribution site in the Tel al-Sultan area in Rafah. It said it was aware of reports of casualties and was looking into the incident.
'Dropped to the ground'
On Sunday, more than 30 people were killed in a similar event in Rafah, with hundreds injured, according to local health officials and aid workers. Speaking with NBC News' crew on the ground, four witnesses described coming under fire from the air and on the ground while they were waiting to collect aid near a distribution site.
Several witnesses said the violence broke out just before 4 a.m. (9 p.m. Saturday ET), while another said it was around 6 a.m. (11 p.m. Saturday ET). At least three people described shelling from tanks, in addition to gunfire. Only the IDF is known to use tanks in Gaza.
Speaking from a hospital bed in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, an intravenous drip attached to his hand and bandages swaddling his right leg, Khaled Ellaham said Israeli soldiers shot at the crowd of hungry Palestinians as they neared a Rafah aid site Monday.
“They opened fire directly at us,” he said Monday. “A lot of people were injured — and a lot of people were killed.”
Ellaham, 39, was among thousands of people who walked, many for miles, to reach the distribution center early that morning, desperate to get there in time to collect some of the limited supplies being distributed.
"Today, you throw yourself to death to eat," Ellaham said.
In video shared on social media Sunday and verified by NBC News, a crowd of people can be seen running as what sounds like gunshots ring out. A strip of light on the horizon signals the approaching sunrise.
"We dropped to the ground and when the shooting paused for a moment, I stood up — only to be hit in the arm by an explosive bullet," Naji Al-Nahal, 30, from Rafah, told NBC News on Monday as he received care at Nasser Hospital.
"Fortunately, I had an empty flour sack with me," he said. "People around me used it to wrap my wound.”
Footage captured by NBC News showed the bloodied bodies of dead and injured as they were rushed to Nasser Hospital on Sunday.
At least 31 people were killed near the Rafah aid site Sunday, Mohammed Zaqout, Gaza hospitals director, said.
Nasser Hospital treated some 200 people, dozens in critical condition, he said. Many of these injuries were "direct gunshot" wounds "to the head, to the chest, to the abdomen," Zaqout added.
Vigorous denials
On Sunday, the Israeli military denied that its forces had fired toward Palestinians "in the area of the humanitarian aid distribution site," citing an initial inquiry. GHF said it had yet to see “concrete evidence” of the alleged attack.
Separately, an Israeli military official told NBC News that there had been an incident in which soldiers had fired warning shots “toward several suspects” about a half-mile from an aid distribution center — but they maintained that there was no connection between this and what they described as “false claims” made against the military.
In a statement Monday, the GHF said “there were no injuries, fatalities or incidents” during their operations Sunday.
“We have yet to see any concrete evidence that there was an attack at or near our facility yesterday and that evidence-based reporting should be at least the minimum requirement for news outlets,” GHF said.
In its statement Tuesday, the IDF said it allowed GHF to operate independently in order to enable the distribution of aid to Palestinian residents in Gaza “and not to Hamas.”
Israeli officials have long claimed that Hamas diverts aid from civilians, which is one of the main reasons for the new aid system run by GHF.
Aid groups, including the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, have said they have not seen instances of aid being diverted to Hamas during the war.
Israel launched its war in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel has since killed over 54,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
