Israeli Attacks Kill Dozens at Aid Sites as Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 55,000

With chaos and violence persisting "by design" at aid sites set up by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed organization in Gaza, the death toll at the distribution points rose Wednesday, as did the overall number of deaths in the enclave since Israel began bombarding the civilian population 20 months ago.

At least 120 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours across the enclave, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 55,104. Gaza's Health Ministry added that at least 474 people have been injured over the past day.

The latest deaths include at least 57 people who were seeking humanitarian aid, which Israel is allowing to be accessed only at distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—staffed by U.S. security contractors and guarded by Israeli forces. More than 363 people were also injured at aid sites by Israeli forces since Wednesday morning.

In total, 224 people have been killed at GHF's distribution centers since they began operating over the objections of the United Nations, aid groups that have long worked in Gaza, and an executive who had been leading the initiative but resigned late last month, saying GHF's aid plan violated the "humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence."

Issam Wahdan, a Palestinian man whose brother was killed when he tried to retrieve aid near the Netzarim Corridor this week, toldAl Jazeera that he and his brother had attempted to obtain one of GHF's food boxes several times, "but we never got lucky."

"So, my brother and I decided to go early to the distribution center," Wahdan told Al Jazeera. "When we arrived, we were surprised to see quadcopters shooting at us. We didn't know what to do, we had never experienced this before. The quadcopter threw a bomb at us. There were many wounded and martyred people, including my brother, who was wounded yesterday and died today. One of our best friends was martyred on the spot."

Wahdan suggested he and his brother saw the GHF distribution hubs as dangerous, but had to try to retrieve aid to feed their families.

"We need humanitarian aid so we have to go to the center. My brother was married and had two boys and one daughter. His youngest is 18 months old," he said. "His children are hungry and that forced him to go there to get some aid. When your children are hungry, you need to do anything to provide them with food."

Israel has acknowledged firing "warning shots" to control large crowds of starving Palestinians at GHF sites, and have claimed that the Israel Defense Forces have shot only at "suspects" who approached the troops. Israel and its allies have also repeatedly claimed the IDF has been targeting Hamas in Gaza, even amid mounting evidence that they have deliberately killed civilians.

Palestinians have been forced to walk an average of 9.3 miles to retrieve boxes that Chris Newton, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said contain an amount of sustenance that is "closer to the ration given in a starvation experiment run in the 1940s in the U.S. than it is to Israel's own previous 2008 red line for the minimum calories needed to avoid malnutrition in Gaza."

"The violence, the chaos, and the complete inadequacy of the types and volume of aid being given out are not so much mistakes of the system, but really by design," Newton told Al Jazeera. "This is not the system you would design if your goal was to end mass starvation in the Gaza Strip."

The GHF sites were established more than 80 days after Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid in March, just before it broke a temporary cease-fire. In May, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released a report warning that the siege had placed the entirety of the Gaza Strip in "Phase 4," with the population suffering from "very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday posted on social media the story of a 5-year-old boy named Osama, who was "once a healthy child in Gaza."

"He now weighs only 5 kilograms, dangerously below the healthy weight for his age. Osama is being treated at Nasser Hospital but his full recovery depends on sufficient nutrition and follow-up care—both of which are at risk," said UNICEF. "The recovery of children like Osama is possible only with a long-lasting cease-fire and aid at scale being allowed into Gaza."

Gaza's Government Media Office said Wednesday that Israel is "deliberately creating chaos in the Gaza Strip by perpetuating a policy of starvation and deliberately targeting and killing starving people seeking food."

"This has been achieved," said the office, "through direct, often intentional, and sometimes random, killings by quadcopters, helicopters, or tanks, targeting young men, elderly people, and children who rushed to obtain whatever food aid was available to feed their children and families."