UN officials say new Gaza aid system leads to mass killings

GAZA, June 28 (AFP): United Nations officials on Friday said a US- and Israeli-backed distribution system in Gaza was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid and urged Israel to let UN humanitarian supplies to the war-stricken territory resume.
Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians seeking aid at distribution centres over recent weeks in the territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants.
The Israeli military has denied targeting people seeking aid and the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites.
But following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid.
"The new aid distribution system has become a killing field," with people "shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA).
"This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA," he wrote on X.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.
The country's civil defence agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid.
"People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"The search for food must never be a death sentence." Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid".
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected a newspaper report that the country's military commanders ordered their soldiers to fire at Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza.