More than two dozen Palestinians killed as IDF fires on people it says left approved route to aid site
Gaza medics say 27 killed at distribution point in Rafah as IDF confirms it fired on group it saw as threat
At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in southern Gaza on Tuesday, health officials said, in a third day of chaos and bloodshed that has accompanied the week and a half old Israeli-run aid operation.
The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of people they viewed as a threat after they left a designated access route near the distribution centre in Rafah and approached their positions.
It added it was still investigating what had happened.
The deaths came hours after Israel said three of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, as its forces pushed ahead with a months-long offensive against Hamas militants that has laid waste to much of the enclave.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports in northern and southern Gaza.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters that its field hospital in Rafah received 184 casualties, adding that 19 of those were declared dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after.
Video showed injured people, including at least one woman, being rushed to a medical centre on carts drawn by donkeys.
Health officials said at least 18 more Palestinians were killed in other military strikes in the territory on Tuesday.
Obstacles to aid access could amount to war crime: UN
The United Nations human rights office in Geneva said on Tuesday the impediment of access to food relief for civilians in Gaza might constitute a war crime and described attacks on people trying to access food aid as "unconscionable."
The head of the UN agency, Volker Turk, urged a prompt and impartial investigation into the killings.
More than 35 patients required immediate intervention, the spokesperson added.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer denied that civilians had been targeted.
"The IDF is doing everything in its power to allow Gazans to get to the humanitarian aid. The IDF is not preventing the arrival of Gazans at humanitarian aid sites. Indeed, we are encouraging it," Mencer said.
Chaos at distribution sites
The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) launched its first distribution sites last week in an effort to alleviate widespread hunger amongst Gaza's war-battered population, most of whom have had to abandon their homes to flee fighting.
The GHF's aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and established charities which say it does not follow humanitarian principles.
The private group, which is endorsed by Israel, said it distributed 21 truckloads of food early Tuesday and that the aid operation was "conducted safely and without incident within the site."
However, there have been reports of repeated killings near Rafah as crowds gather to get desperately needed supplies.
On Sunday, Palestinian and international officials reported that at least 31 people were killed and dozens more injured. On Monday, three more Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire.
The Israeli military has denied targeting civilians gathering for aid and called reports of deaths during Sunday's distribution "fabrications" by Hamas.
On Tuesday, it said IDF forces had identified "a number of suspects" moving toward them while deviating from the access routes. "The forces fired evasive shots, and after they did not move away, additional shots were fired near the individual suspects who were advancing toward the forces," it said.
Difficulties accessing water persist
Nimer Al-Sharbasi, 38, said he can only get his hands on clean water twice a week for his family of six.
"Finding water here is really difficult," he told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Tuesday from Gaza City.
"We wait sometimes for water trucks and chase them so we can fill up on water."
Al-Sharbasi said one of his daughters was hospitalized for seven days as a result of the lack of water and food during the 11-week blockade on Gaza.
"She was a human skeleton. It's because of the lack of water, the lack of filtered water."
Muhammad Abu Shamala, 39, says his family of 11 struggles daily to find clean water to drink, saying they have to wait hours in line to fill up on water.
In April, Palestinian and UN officials said most of Gaza's desalination plants were either damaged or had stopped operations because of Israel's power and fuel cuts.
The Gaza Strip's only natural source of water is the Coastal Aquifer Basin, which runs along the eastern Mediterranean coast from the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, through Gaza and into Israel.
Its salty tap water is severely depleted, with up to 97 per cent deemed unfit for human consumption due to salinity, over-extraction and pollution.
The Palestinian Water Authority stated that most of its wells had been rendered inoperable during the war. More than 85 per cent of water and sanitation facilities and assets in Gaza were completely or partially out of service, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics and the Water Authority in March.
Evacuation orders issued in southern Gaza
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents of several districts in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip late on Monday, warning that the army would act forcefully against militants operating in those areas.
The military told residents to head west toward the Mawasi humanitarian area. Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave, and that most of its 2.3 million population has become internally displaced.
Gaza's Health Ministry said on Tuesday that the new evacuation orders could halt work at the Nasser Hospital, the largest, still-functioning medical facility in the south, endangering the lives of those being treated there.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, assault in which Hamas-led gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
In the subsequent fighting, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, local health authorities say.
With files from CBC's Mohamed El Saife and Sara Jabakhanji