Roads leading to Gaza’s aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones” Wednesday, the Israeli military warned shortly after the controversial organization tasked with running the sites announced they would close for the day.
Palestinians would be “prohibited” from entering the centers and traveling on the roads leading to them throughout Wednesday, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that they would be considered “combat zones.”
His comments came after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — the Israel and U.S.-backed organization overseeing aid distribution in Gaza — said that all distribution centers in the enclave would be closed for “update, organization and efficiency improvement work.”
The closures were announced following a string of deadly incidents which saw the Israeli military accused of firing at Palestinians as they sought to collect aid. Health officials in the enclave said dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured.
With electricity and internet access limited, it is unclear how many Palestinians will have received the message about both the closures and the fact they could be targeted if they go near the centers after several attacks near the aid sites in recent days.
Israeli forces have been accused of firing at Palestinians as they made their way toward aid distribution sites, most recently in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday when more than two dozen people were killed and scores injured as they waited to collect aid according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
Video captured by NBC News’ crews on the ground showed bloodied Palestinians being rushed into Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.
“I hadn’t even reached the distribution point yet when the aircraft opened fire on us. I was hit in both legs,” one of them, Ahmad Hassan Bashnaq, said as he lay on a hospital bed in the hospital’s emergency room. “I only went there to bring food for my children, and I was shot for it,” he added.
In a separate interview, Dr. Ahmed Abu Sweid, an Australian emergency physician, said it was “the third such event in the last few days.”
Similar incidents were reported by health officials Sunday and Monday with Palestinian health officials reporting dozens killed and hundreds more injured.
More than 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to health officials in the enclave. Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following the Hamas-led attacks that day, when 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
GFH and the new aid distribution strategy have also been roundly condemned by leading humanitarian groups and the United Nations who have warned that Palestinians could be further displaced if they are forced to make their way to distribution sites. They have also suggested it could pose a threat to the independence of humanitarian work.
GHF said Tuesday that the Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader who has been an adviser to President Donald Trump, had been installed as its executive chairman.
His “appointment comes as GHF’s momentum on the ground in Gaza accelerates,” the organization said in a news release Tuesday, adding that since launching operations in the enclave May 26, its team had delivered more than 7 million meals “without incident.” It maintained that there had been “no incidents of violence recorded at distribution sites.”
But ahead of its operation in Gaza, GHF’s then-executive director, Jake Wood, quit the organization saying in a statement published by Reuters that it was impossible to implement the plan while also adhering to the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”
Humanitarian groups have warned that while aid has been distributed under GHF, not nearly enough food and other vital supplies are getting into the enclave, which has a population of around 2.1 million, under the new aid system.
“The basic needs of the population in Gaza are enormous and are not being met,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Tuesday as he called for the “unimpeded entry of humanitarian assistance at scale” to be restored.
