War on Gaza: GHF aid scheme is 'orchestrated killing,' says MSF
The Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is "a system of institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.
In a report published on Thursday titled "This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing", MSF said that the GHF lacks experience in conducting safe relief deliveries and that the mechanism has resulted in extreme violence and killings.
Due to the pattern of violence reported at these aid distribution sites, MSF teams began monitoring the GHF's social media for announcements about site openings to ensure medical teams were stationed in those areas.
The GHF-run distribution sites have been largely condemned by international organisations and rights activist as "death traps".
At least 1,700 people have been killed while seeking aid since 27 May, most of whom were killed near GHF sites, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
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Though the GHF has said it only uses pepper spray or fires warning shots to control crowds, testimonies presented by MSF show that attacks on civilians have been both "indiscriminate and targeted".
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians at an aid site in Gaza on Monday.
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Nearly 1,400 people have been killed at GHF aid sites since Israel replaced the UN system in May.
Israeli soldiers and a US contractor have called the sites "killing fields" and "death traps". pic.twitter.com/EHPD5DnUvp
"Our teams were mentally prepared for responding to conflict - but not to civilians killed and maimed while seeking aid," the report noted.
"They were not prepared for treating starving and unarmed Palestinians who had been gunned down as if they were animals, often while penned into metal-gated areas."
'Anatomical precision' in gunshots
According to one testimony from an MSF nurse activity manager in July, there was an undeniable link between the distribution sites and subsequent woundings of starving aid seekers.
"I see people on carts with bags of food, then the injured begin arriving, almost at the same time," they said.
"I have patients with gunshot wounds who are literally carried in on the same plastic bags they used to collect food."
According to MSF data, 96 percent of those wounded at GHF sites were young men, the majority of them under the age of 30.
Moreover, the report highlights that aid is not reaching vulnerable populations - such as the elderly, chronically ill or disabled.
The organisation's nurse activity manager noted that men arriving at MSF clinics are often covered in sand and dust due to lying on the ground to avoid shelling.
"The GHF system represents a further dehumanisation of Gazans - particularly of young Palestinian men - that is tolerated, and even facilitated, under the guise of providing humanitarian aid," the report read.
It added that the "anatomical precision" in gunshot wounds suggests the intentional targeting of civilians at these sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire.
Cases received from distribution site 2 in Rafah, southern Gaza, found that 11 percent were to the head and neck, while 19 percent were to the thorax, including the chest, abdomen and back.
Meanwhile, injuries to the lower limbs were more commonly recorded in patients coming from distribution site 3, located in Khan Younis.
Though the Israeli military has asserted that shelling is only directed at suspects posing a threat to guards, MSF says it is "deeply implausible" when children are amongst the wounded.
Furthermore, the report stresses that sites are under the control of the Israeli military, "making the presence of armed Palestinian groups in these areas highly unlikely".
The report concludes with demands for Israel to end the GHF aid mechanism, lift the siege on Gaza and re-engage with the UN to resume its operations.
"Humanitarian aid is an expression of our shared humanity. It exists to relieve suffering, protect life and uphold dignity - grounded in the simple, profound truth that every human life matters. In complex settings where humanitarians operate, there are minimum standards that guide how aid is delivered to those most in need," it said.
"Any 'aid distribution' that results in mass death, injury and trauma, repeatedly over more than two months, is a brutal mockery of the term 'humanitarian'."
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