At Least 14 More Palestinians Killed at Aid Points as Israel Detains Humanitarian Volunteers

As activists who had been headed for Gaza with humanitarian aid remained in Israeli custody Monday, Palestinian rights advocates condemned reports that the death toll at aid distribution points set up by a private Israel-backed company continued to grow.

The Associated Press reported that "Israeli forces and allied local gunmen" were behind gunfire that killed at least 14 Palestinians who were taken to local hospitals on Monday, and roughly 100 people were injured.

The people killed were the latest among a total of at least 127 Palestinians who have been killed as they've approached distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group staffed by U.S. defense contractors and supported by the Israeli and U.S. governments—but rejected by the United Nations and groups that have long provided aid in Gaza, who say the GHF is not a neutral party and is endangering Palestinians by forcing them to walk several miles through their war-torn enclave to retrieve food boxes weighing 44 pounds each.

At Al Jazeera, Hind Khoudary reported that as Palestinians have approached the aid points in recent days, "the Israeli army starts opening fire, Israeli quadcopters hover above their heads, and Israeli tanks proceed to bear down on the aid seekers."

Among the people killed at a distribution point in Rafah near al-Mawasi was "a woman named Hanan who was solely responsible for feeding her kids and family," reported Khoudary.

"These distribution sites are in the middle of nowhere, where Israeli bulldozers destroyed residential homes," Khoudary added. "It's totally chaotic. Israeli forces have been firing live ammunition as well as tear gas canisters to disperse starving Palestinians."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously admitted to opening fire on Palestinians at GHF sites, but have claimed "shots were directed near individual suspects who advanced toward the troops."

The AP reported that men from a local militia called the Popular Forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, opened fire at a distribution site in Khan Younis after the men tried to organize the crowd and people "pushed forward."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that his government has armed Abu Shabab's militia as part of an effort to undermine Hamas. Abu Shabab denied the claim. Aid workers have said the Popular Forces have long looted trucks carrying humanitarian relief—something Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of doing as it has entirely cut off aid to Gaza since March.

An eyewitness named Hussein Shamimi told the AP that his 14-year-old cousin was killed in the attack on Monday.

"There was an ambush," said Shamimi, "the Israelis from one side and Abu Shabab from another."

At least four people were shot in the neck, another witness told the outlet.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in the U.S., called for an "immediate end" to the U.S. government's "complicity" in Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, and in the attacks on people at GHF aid points.

"The almost daily massacres of starving Palestinian families desperately seeking food denied to them by the Israeli-imposed campaign of intentional starvation are crimes against humanity carried out with the complicity of our own government," said Awad. "Food and other humanitarian supplies must enter Gaza unimpeded, without Israel being allowed to use starvation as a weapon of war and a tool for ethnic cleansing."

Also in Khan Younis on Monday, a Palestinian child became the latest to die of malnutrition at the Children's and Maternity Hospital.

At least 58 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition since Israel began its total blockade of aid in early March.

Meanwhile, organizers with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition reported Monday they had been unable to contact 12 international activists and volunteers who were aboard the Madleen, bound for Gaza, for 19 hours.

The activists, including Swedish climate leader Greta Thunberg, had been sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.

"These citizens were sailing peacefully under international law, in international waters, and Israel went and forcibly abducted them," Huwaida Arraf told Al Jazeera. "This was done, as Israel puts it, to 'maintain a maritime closure of Gaza'—which it has no authority to do."