Scores of Palestinian men, women and children raced across a dusty expanse toward an aid warehouse in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. A few minutes later, a few emerged with bags and boxes of food.
Those were the desperate scenes that marked the first turbulent week of a new U.S. and Israel-backed plan for aid distribution in the enclave.
The United Nations World Food Programme said in a statement Wednesday that “hordes of hungry people” broke into its Al-Ghafari warehouse in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah attempting to get supplies being prepared for distribution.
The UNWFP cited "initial reports" that at least two people were killed and several more injured in the incident. NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify those details.
An Israeli military spokesperson said they were not aware of their forces being connected to the reported deaths, or of any shots being fired by troops.
Those reported deaths came after chaotic events Tuesday, when thousands of hungry Palestinians flooded a controversial new aid distribution center set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — or GHF — which is tasked with distributing supplies in the U.S. and Israel-backed plan that came into effect Monday.
In that case, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds into the air to disperse crowds, with the GHF seeking to quell concerns over its rocky first week of operations in a news release Wednesday.
The GHF rejected the claims of Gaza's Hamas-run government media office that three Palestinians were killed, 46 others injured and seven people missing after the incident. The foundation said that no one was killed while trying to access its distribution site.
A spokesperson for GHF said in an email that the account was “completely false” and that nobody had been injured or killed during the foundation's first three days of operations.
NBC News was not immediately able to verify the facts on the ground.
GHF was tasked with distributing aid in Gaza after Israel earlier this month lifted an almost three-month-long blockade barring the entry of food, medicine and other vital supplies following warnings of rising starvation in the enclave.
Under the plan, aid will be distributed from at least four distribution points in southern Gaza, with the aim of expanding with additional sites.
The United Nations, which has refused to participate in the plan, has condemned the initiative as a “distraction” that undermines a long-standing humanitarian framework in Gaza. The U.N. says the effort poses a threat to the independence of aid operations, while simultaneously displacing Palestinians en masse to Gaza's south.
Israel has maintained that a new aid distribution system was necessary, alleging that Hamas was diverting supplies. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other humanitarian groups have told NBC News that they have not seen evidence of aid being diverted to Hamas or other armed groups during the war.
Israel has long been deeply critical of the United Nations and its work in the Gaza Strip and the broader Palestinian territories.
The recent aid overhaul comes after Israel's ban barring the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, from operating in Gaza, came into effect in January.
The Israeli government alleged that Hamas members had infiltrated the agency and that a number of staff members had taken part in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli counts.
Since Israel launched its ensuing offensive in Gaza, more than 51,000 people have been killed there, including thousands of children, according to the local Health Ministry.
An independent investigation commissioned by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres found that nine staff working for UNRWA may have been involved in the attacks.
Some Palestinians in Gaza have been left distraught by the ban.
“I want to receive aid through UNRWA, where I can talk to people in my own language, explain my situation, and get what I need,” Rund Al-Qassas told NBC News’ crew in Gaza on Wednesday.
She spoke through tears after she, her husband and small children were unable to get any food after making their way to a distribution site in southern Gaza.
Just under 900 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Israel said May 18 that it would lift its blockade, according to data from COGAT, the Israeli military's liaison with the Palestinians. Before the war, some 500 aid trucks entered Gaza daily, according to the British Red Cross and other aid organizations.
“This aid distribution system is a failure,” Al-Qassas said. “Only those who get there first receive food, the rest are left with nothing.”
