20 Palestinians who were killed on Gaza Aid Stampede, says a group backed by Israel – my country

Twenty Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in crushing a crowd of people at the food distribution site run by an Israeli -supported American organization in Gaza The group said that the first group had recognized fatal violence in its operations. The deaths came at a time when Israeli strikes were killed 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials.

The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas Armed Group of panic, which raises panic and spread the wrong information that led to violence, although it has not provided any evidence to support the claim.

She said that 19 people were ignored in a stampede and one person was stabbed in a center in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. The Gaza Ministry of Health and witnesses said that GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd, and incited panic. The ministry said it is the first time that people have been killed by a defend in relief sites.

This was the first time that GHF has confirmed deaths in one of its distribution sites, although Palestinian witnesses, health officials and United Nations agencies say hundreds of people were killed while they were going to the centers for food.

Witnesses say that thunderbolt bombs and pepper spray caused chaos

Some witnesses said that the crowd was panic after receiving messages stating that no assistance will be distributed or will be distributed only at a later time. Others said that people became trapped while trying to move through a roundabout, creating the bottleneck.

Omar Al -Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said that people are panting for the air, perhaps from tear gas.

Al -Najjar said: “The injuries were not” from the shooting, but from the people gathering and pushing against each other, “Al -Najjar said, with three other men, a stranger to the hospital.

“They used thunderbolt bombs and pepper spray against us,” said Abdullah Ayat, who was on the GHF.

“When they saw people killing each other, they opened the gate, turned to each other and strangled them,” he said, while he was standing in the hospital room with some of the injured.

The videos released earlier this year GHF showed the distribution of aid hundreds of Palestinians wandering in aid, running towards the sites when they are opened.

In other videos recently obtained by the Associated Press from an American contractor working with GHF, Palestinians who seek to reach crowded sites are photographed between metal fences, where contractors publish tear gas and thunderbolt bombs.

The sites are located within the Israeli military areas protected by private American contractors. Israeli forces are surrounded by sites, but the army says they are not directly in the vicinity.

The United Nations Office for Human Rights and the Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Tuesday that 875 Palestinians in the pocket were killed while searching for food since May, with 674 of GHF aid distribution sites.

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The ministry and witnesses say that most of the deaths came from the Israeli fire. The Israeli army says it shoots warning footage and uses live fire only if the crowd threatens its soldiers.

GHF, an American organization registered in Delaware, was established in February to distribute aid during the continuous Gaza crisis.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Gaza City, including 11 children and three women, and 19 others in Khan Yunis. The Israeli army said it hit more than 120 targets during the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including the military infrastructure and weapons storage facilities.

Israel blames Hamas for civil deaths because the group often operates in residential areas.

Also on Wednesday, the Israeli army announced the opening of a new corridor – the fourth – which drinks Khan Yunis, as Israeli forces seized the ground in what they said was a pressure tactic against Hamas. In the past, these narrow strips of the ground were a serious obstacle during the ceasefire negotiations, and Israel said it wanted to maintain the military presence in it.

Negotiations in the Qatari capital between Israel and Hamas stop, after 21 months of the conflict, which began with the attack across the border on October 7, 2023. On that day, the militants killed about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, kidnapped 251 people, and most of them have been issued since then in heads of heads or other pages.

There are still fifty hostages, less than half of them are believed to be alive.

The retaliation of Israel has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which said women and children were more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its balance.

The ministry is part of the Hamas government that it runs. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its numbers the most reliable number of injuries.

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