Israel’s Netanyahu slams Haaretz’s Gaza ‘killing field’ story : NPR

The Palestinians include food packages near a distribution site operated by the Gaza Foundation supported by the United States in Khan Younis, Southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Abdel Kareem Hana / AP

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Abdel Kareem Hana / AP

A newspaper report published in Hebrew and English quoting Israeli soldiers saying that commanders had ordered them to shoot unarmed hungry crowds in Gaza trying to reach food distribution sites Friday by Israeli Prime Minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz published a joint declaration calling for the Haaretz Report “Blood Libel”.

“These are malicious lies designed to defame the FDI [Israel Defense Forces]The most moral army in the world, “they added.

The Gaza Ministry of Health says more than 500 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured by Israeli forces while looking for food aid in the last month.

THE Haaretz The report cites several anonymous Israeli soldiers describing what they say to be army attacks against people who have been trying to obtain food aid in Gaza since May 27. The soldiers say that they were ordered by the commanders to shoot unarmed civilians who approached food distribution sites during the hours excluding hours, even when the crowds did not put any threats.

The report is the last to shed light on what humanitarian workers and criticisms say they are a defective plan of Israel to control food in Gaza after 11 weeks of full Israeli blockade and continuous restrictions at the entrance to aid in the territory. This week, for the first time in months, the United Nations have been able to provide medical supplies to Gaza.

Israeli soldiers are driving an armored vehicle in a gathering area near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on May 26.

Ariel Schalit / AP

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Ariel Schalit / AP

NPR has not confirmed independently Haaretz Reports. The UN chief told journalists that the world did not need reports like this to recognize massive violations of international law in Gaza.

“Any operation that channels civilians in militarized areas is intrinsically dangerous. She kills people,” said UN secretary General António Guterres.

The troops describe the shot on the crowds of assistance seekers

A soldier quoted in Haaretz Said that the army draws machine guns, grenade launchers and crowd mortars – which constitute no threats – while waiting for the distribution sites to open. Distribution sites are occupied by American entrepreneurs inside, in areas under Israeli military control. The soldier says there are no measures to control the crowd, that only shots are slaughtered on crowds near these sites.

The soldier says that this is a deadly version of the children’s game “Light Red, Green Light” and calls him a “field of killing”.

Another soldier quoted in the report indicates that Israeli commanders take over in hand in Gaza.

The Israeli army says that it rejects the accusations Haaretz Article and that soldiers are not invited to deliberately draw civilians. The army indicates that reports from these “incidents are examined” by the military authorities. Haaretz Said that a military organization is invited to investigate incidents on these distribution sites for alleged war crimes.

These food distribution sites work at erratic moments and certain days, not at all. They are led by a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which receives $ 30 million from the Trump administration to strengthen its operations. The State Department says GHF offers a creative solution to prevent help from reaching Hamas, the group with which Israel is at war in Gaza.

A Palestinian wears a bag of food delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an organization supported by the United States, in Rafah, Southern Gaza Strip, June 11.

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Abdel Kareem Hana / AP

There are only four GHF sites distributing food in Gaza. These fenced installations were placed in large military “red zones”, where Israeli troops are positioned and where the Palestinians were invited not to be, outside of the erratic and often short operating times of the GHF.

The inhabitants of Gaza go to these sites, three of which are far south, and take food, without verification or identity verification, according to witnesses and survivors who spoke at NPR.

Inside these sites, people take what they can transport, tearing GHF boxes. Residents of Gaza have told NPR that some of the canned foods and other goods from these sites have been sold at exorbitant prices on the black market, suggesting that looters and merchants are among those who take food.

The GHF denies that the shots take place near its sites, but have recognized the challenges to obtain food from people, describing it as a “learning loop”. He called Israel to investigate the allegations made in the Haaretz History and publish the results.

Humanitarian workers and doctors call at the end of the GHF distribution plan

Doctors Without Borders, one of the many non -governmental aid groups in Gaza refusing to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, says that aid must not be controlled by a party at war to pursue its military objectives.

The medical NGO claims that one of its clinics has received 10 or more patients per day with injuries from GHF distribution sites, but that the clinic does not have the treatment of the life necessary for blood transfusions and surgery.

“This system is a fellows disguised as humanitarian aid, and it must be immediately dismantled,” said the aid group.

Adil Husain, a doctor from Dallas, Texas, who has volunteered at the Nasser Hospital in Southern Gaza for two weeks, told NPR that he treated people from GHF sites. He called it a horror film in rehearsal.

“I cannot tell you how many boys, young boys and adults who rush into my resuscitation bay, bleeding from their abdomen, bleeding from the head,” he said. “When I expose them to try to look for their injuries, what I find are empty bags. Empty bags that they only hoped to fill with food, just so that they can survive a few more days.”

He says instead, people find themselves without food and with injuries that change their life. Dr. Husain shared images with the NPR of a slim and fragile teenager who died after being killed in his head, and two young boys, one who lost his eye and another now paralyzed with the neck, which, according to him, was shot dead by the Israeli army near the GHF sites while he was trying to take food this week.