Jerusalem – Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured today, 1 June, as they waited for food at the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centres in Rafah and close to the Netzarim Corridor, according to the Ministry of Health. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams joined the mass casualty response in Nasser hospital, Khan Younis. Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground.
“Today’s events have shown once again that this new system of aid delivery is dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective. It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organisations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively,” states Claire Manera, MSF emergency coordinator.
MSF teams at Nasser hospital treated patients with serious injuries today. Some patients in critical condition are still undergoing surgery. But with the blood banks almost empty, medical staff themselves have had to donate blood.
“The hospital corridors were filled with patients, but unlike what I have witnessed before, where most of the patients were women and children, today it was mainly men. They lay in their beds in the hallways because the rooms are already packed with injured people. They had visible gunshot wounds in their limbs, and their clothes were soaked with blood,” says Nour Alsaqa, MSF communications officer. “They looked shattered and distraught after trying to secure food for their children, returning instead injured and empty handed. Outside, there was shouting, sirens, a constant rush of new arrivals to the emergency room. Amid the chaos, we received confirmation that a colleague’s brother had been killed while attempting to collect aid from the distribution centre,” she adds.
Mansour Sami Abdi, a father of four, described the chaos: “People fought over five pallets. They told us to take food—then they fired from every direction. I ran 200 metres before realising I’d been shot. This isn’t aid. It’s a lie. Are we supposed to go get food for our kids and die?”
