MEDICS IN GAZA, The Palestine Red Crescent, have said five people were killed and dozens wounded by gunfire and a stampede during an aid delivery in northern Gaza, where famine looms.
AFP video footage shows a convoy of trucks moving past burning debris near the distribution point in pre-dawn darkness as people shout and gunfire echoes – some of which was warning shots, witnesses said.
The Red Crescent said it happened after thousands of people gathered for the arrival of around 15 trucks of flour and other food, which was supposed to be handed out at Gaza City’s Kuwait roundabout, in the territory’s north.
The roundabout has been the scene of several chaotic and deadly aid distribution incidents, including one on 23 March in which the Hamas-run government said 21 people were killed by Israeli fire – a charge Israel denied.
The Red Crescent said three of the five killed today had been shot.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that Gazans overseeing the aid delivery shot in the air, but Israeli troops in the area also opened fire and some moving trucks hit people trying to get the food.
The Israeli military told AFP it “has no record of the incident described.”
A UN-backed report warned on 19 March that half of Gazans are experiencing “catastrophic” hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory unless there is urgent intervention.
The report estimated that 1.1 million people – half the population, according to UN data – were facing catastrophic conditions.
The situation is particularly dire in the north of Gaza, where the United Nations says there are about 300,000 people – and where the report said famine was “imminent… projected to occur anytime between mid-March and May”.
Israel’s defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs alleged the UN-backed assessment contained inaccuracies and questionable sources.
A second vessel carrying aid to Gaza set sail from Cyprus today, an AFP correspondent reported, more than two weeks after the last shipment arrived by sea.
Almost 400 tonnes of aid is being carried to Gaza on a flotilla organised by two charities — the US-based World Central Kitchen and the Spanish Open Arms.
The barge and two salvage vessels left the port of Larnaca following diplomacy by Cyprus to try to open a maritime corridor to the territory, under siege by Israeli forces since last October.
“There is not enough aid getting through to Gaza and we need to open as many ways as possible,” Juan Camilo of World Central Kitchen said in a video shot from the flotilla and posted on X (Twitter).
UN agencies have said repeatedly that overland deliveries are the only way of supplying aid in the volume needed.
World Central Kitchen said the shipment from Cyprus contains items like rice, pasta, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and proteins.
The United Arab Emirates provided a special cargo of dates, which are traditionally eaten to break the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the charity said.
Cyprus government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the flotilla would take roughly 65 hours to reach Gaza, where a makeshift dock has been constructed to unload humanitarian aid.
He said the Jennifer was carrying 282 pallets of foodstuffs totalling 237 tonnes, as well as a wheeled crane which will be used to unload the aid.
The barge ARES was carrying 109 aid packages weighing a total of 95 tons.
The support vessel Ledra Dynamic was carrying specialised support personnel who will operate the crane carried by the Jennifer, Letymbiotis added.
A first vessel, the Open Arms, reached Gaza with a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of food on 15 March, in a trial run for the maritime aid corridor.
Bad weather in the eastern Mediterranean held up the second voyage.
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