Gaza officials say Israeli forces killed 27 heading to aid site. Israel
says it fired near suspects
[June 03, 2025]
By MOHAMMAD JAHJOUH, SAMY MAGDY and FATMA KHALED
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian health officials and witnesses say
Israeli forces fired on people as they headed toward an aid distribution
site on Tuesday, killing at least 27, in the third such incident in
three days. The army said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who
left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning
shots.
The near-daily shootings have come after an Israeli and U.S.-backed
foundation established aid distribution points inside Israeli military
zones, a system it says is designed to circumvent Hamas. The United
Nations has rejected the new system, saying it doesn't address Gaza's
mounting hunger crisis and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon.
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of casualties on
Tuesday. It previously said it fired warning shots at suspects who
approached its forces early Sunday and Monday, when health officials and
witnesses said 34 people were killed. The military denies opening fire
on civilians or blocking them from reaching the aid sites.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the sites, says there
has been no violence in or around them. On Tuesday, it acknowledged that
the Israeli military was investigating whether civilians were wounded
“after moving beyond the designated safe corridor and into a closed
military zone,” in an area that was “well beyond our secure distribution
site.”
‘Either way we will die’
The shootings all occurred at the Flag Roundabout, around a kilometer
(1,000 yards) from one of the GHF’s distribution sites in the now mostly
uninhabited southern city of Rafah. The entire area is an Israeli
military zone where journalists have no access outside of army-approved
embeds.
Yasser Abu Lubda, a 50-year-old displaced from Rafah, said the shooting
started around 4 a.m. on Tuesday and that he saw several people killed
or wounded.
Neima al-Aaraj, a woman from Khan Younis, said the Israeli fire was
“indiscriminate." She added that when she managed to reach the
distribution site there was no aid left.
“After the martyrs and wounded, I won’t return,” she said. “Either way
we will die.”
Rasha al-Nahal, another witness, said “there was gunfire from all
directions.” She said she counted more than a dozen dead and several
wounded along the road.
When she reached the distribution site, she also found that there was no
aid left, she said. So she gathered pasta from the ground and salvaged
rice from a bag that had been dropped and trampled upon.
“We’d rather die than deal with this," she said. "Death is more
dignified than what’s happening to us.”
UN human rights official condemns shootings
At least 27 people were killed early Tuesday, according to the Gaza
Health Ministry.
Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red
Cross, confirmed the toll, saying its field hospital in Rafah received
184 wounded people, 19 of whom were declared dead on arrival and eight
more who later died of their wounds. The 27 dead were transferred to
Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis.
Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that it also had
information indicating that 27 people were killed.
There were three children and two women among the dead, according to
Mohammed Saqr, head of nursing at Nasser Hospital. Hospital director
Atef al-Hout said most of the patients had gunshot wounds.
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Palestinians carry bags filled with food and humanitarian aid
provided by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed
organization approved by Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza
Strip, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
An Associated Press reporter who arrived at the Red Cross field
hospital at around 6 a.m. saw wounded people being transferred to
other hospitals by ambulance.
Outside, people were passing by on their way back from the aid hub,
mostly empty-handed, while empty flour bags stained with blood lay
on the ground.
“Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from
starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre
food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized
humanitarian assistance mechanism,” Volker Türk, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it distributed 21 truckloads
of food at the Rafah site on Tuesday, while its other two
operational sites were closed.
During a ceasefire earlier this year, some 600 aid trucks entered
Gaza daily. The territory's roughly 2 million people are almost
completely reliant on international aid because Israel's offensive
has destroyed nearly all of Gaza's food production capabilities.
3 Israeli soldiers killed in northern Gaza
The Israeli military meanwhile said three of its soldiers were
killed in northern Gaza, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack
on Israel's forces since it ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March.
The military said the three soldiers, all in their early 20s, fell
during combat on Monday, without providing details. Israeli media
reported that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area.
Israel ended the ceasefire after Hamas refused to change the
agreement to release more hostages sooner. Israeli strikes have
killed thousands of Palestinians since then, according to Gaza's
Health Ministry. Israel also imposed a complete blockade on food and
other imports for 2 1/2 months, leading to warnings of famine before
the restrictions were loosened in May.
Israel says the restrictions and the new system are designed to
prevent Hamas from stealing aid. The U.N. says its ability to
deliver aid across Gaza has been hindered by Israeli restrictions,
the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting, but that
there's no evidence of systematic diversion of aid by Hamas.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and
took 251 people hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel that
ignited the war. They are still holding 58 hostages, a third of them
believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in
ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel's military campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians,
mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry,
which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or
combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports
to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable
by U.N. agencies and independent experts, though Israel has
challenged its numbers.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing
evidence. Around 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the
Oct. 7 attack, including more than 400 during the fighting inside
Gaza.
___
Magdy and Khaled reported from Cairo. Associated Press reporters
Julia Frankel and Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem and Jamey Keaten in
Geneva contributed.
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