Hamas is warning desperate Palestinians from heading to the controversial US-backed food distribution sites in Gaza, which saw chaos erupt upon opening Tuesday as thousands of hungry Gazans stormed the aid center.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was hit with a violent start at its first food distribution site in Rafah, with viral footage showing the hungry masses pushing back workers and removing boxes of aid from the site.
“The needs on the ground are great,” the GHF said in a statement. “At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the SDS was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate.”
The group and Israeli officials also claimed, without providing evidence, that Hamas had tried to block civilians from reaching the aid distribution center.
The terror group, which denied the allegations, had issued a warning Monday claiming the Israeli-approved sites were part of a plot to force Palestinians into concentrated neighborhoods in Gaza to ease the Jewish state’s military operation to take over the entire enclave.
Hamas also claimed the sites had biometric screenings and were secretly run by the Israel Defense Forces.
Hamas ultimately slammed Tuesday’s chaos as a result of “mismanagement” between the GHF and Israel, which resulted in the IDF firing warning shots to reestablish control of the aid center.
The Rafah site is the first of four established by the GHF with the goal of helping feed Gaza’s starving population while also keeping aid out of Hamas’ hands.
Anyone looking to get food must submit to facial recognition technology. Some Palestinians say they fear that such data will end up in Israeli hands.
Details on how the system operates have not been made public, with the GHF facing boycotts from the United Nations and other international aid groups who accused the group of undermining the independent principle of humanitarian aid.
The GHF also saw its head, US military veteran Jake Wood, resign on Sunday after expressing frustrations and concerns over the impartiality of the endeavor and lack of aid coming into Gaza.
“It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, which I will not abandon,” Wood said in a statement.
About 8,000 food boxes were distributed on Tuesday.
Gaza has nearly 2 million refugees, who are growing ever more desperate to find food, the UN says.
Hamas said it had executed four men for looting some of the aid trucks that were allowed to enter Gaza on Monday.
The men were allegedly part of a local gang that have been storming the trucks, which resulted in the death of six Hamas officers last week after the IDF allegedly misidentified them as the thieves, one source told Reuters.
Yasser Abu Shabab, a leader of a large clan in Rafah, has openly challenged Hamas and published pictures of his men assisting international aid groups in distributing food.
Hamas has accused Abu Shabab of looting from the trucks and conspiring with Israel to undermine the terror group.
With Post wires
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