Gaza – Saba:
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Sunday called on the international community to take immediate, decisive action to compel the Israeli entity to halt its inhumane aid distribution mechanism in the Gaza Strip, following the bloody massacre of starving civilians this Sunday morning.
The monitor noted in a statement that this massacre resulted in the death and injury of more than 220 civilians, including women, by Israeli army fire near a US-backed aid point south of Rafah.
It said its field team documented the Israeli army opening fire on thousands of civilians who had gathered at dawn today in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, near an aid point established by the army. This resulted in the death of at least 30 civilians, including two women, according to a preliminary, non-final toll. More than 200 others were injured, and an unspecified number remain missing.
The statement pointed out that the death toll is likely to rise, given the large number of critical injuries and the severe decline in healthcare due to the blockade and Israeli targeting of the medical system.
It stated that the Israeli army and the American organization it founded directed Palestinians to receive aid from the area, asking them to wait until 6:00 a.m. today to pass through the inspection gates to receive the aid. They were then targeted with direct fire from quadcopter drones and then with tank shells. Members of the American company also fired tear gas canisters at the starving crowds, resulting in dozens of casualties and a massive stampede to escape death and gunfire.
According to eyewitnesses interviewed by the Observatory's team, the American organization brings a limited amount of aid parcels and directs tens of thousands of Palestinians to the dangerous distribution area. There, Israeli forces target them with bullets and shells. Those who survive and manage to reach the distribution area are surprised to find that the amount of aid is limited, and citizens are therefore scrambling to obtain it.
The Observatory noted that Israel's insistence on continuing with this aid distribution mechanism, locating distribution points in dangerous locations, and bringing in small amounts of aid daily without a distribution system or beneficiaries, indicates a deliberate policy to create chaos and provoke conflict among the starving population for three months.
The Observatory urged all relevant countries and entities to exert all possible pressure on Israel to dissuade it from its plans to bypass and nullify the work of experienced UN agencies in the Gaza Strip.
It called for emphasizing the vital and neutral role of these institutions in implementing humanitarian interventions and managing the humanitarian response to provide relief to more than 2.2 million Palestinians struggling with death and hunger in the Gaza Strip.
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