London-at least 27 people were killed and more than 90 wounds by Israeli forces while waiting to collect humanitarian aid in a distribution center in southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, according to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, directed by Hamas.
Many of the victims, 24 killed and 37 wounds, arrived at Nasser’s medical complex in Khan Younis, according to Atef al-Hout, general director of the hospital, who said that most of the victims were shot.
The Israel Defense Forces published a statement that recognizes a shooting about 500 meters from one of the help sites led by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation backed by the United States and Israel.
“Today early, during the movement of the crowd on the regulated routes on the road to the distribution complex, approximately half a kilometer of the complex, the FDI forces identified several suspects that moved towards them while they deviate from the access routes,” said the statement.
“The forces fired evasive shots, and after they did not move away, they shot near the individual suspects that advanced towards the forces,” he added.
The Palestinians displaced by Israeli air and the ground offensive on the Gaza Strip walk on an area in an impromptu camp during the city of dusk in the city of Gaza on June 2, 2025.
JEHAD ALSHRAFI/AP
“Victims reports are known, the details of the incident are under investigation,” said the IDF.
The IDF said that GHF “operates independently to distribute help to Gaza residents and prevent Hamas terrorist organization from reaching.”
“The FDI forces do not prevent Gaza residents from reaching the help distribution complexes,” he added. “The shooting was carried out about half a kilometer from the distribution complex in individual suspects that approached the forces in a way that endangered them.”
The GHF issued a statement on Tuesday morning saying that “the aid distribution was carried out safely and without incident on our site today.”
However, the organization acknowledged that the IDF “is investigating whether several civilians were injured after going beyond the designated safe corridor and in a closed military zone.”
“This was an area far beyond our safe distribution site and area of operations,” GHF said. “We recognize the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians who remain in the safe corridor when traveling to our distribution sites.”
GHF’s help distribution operation, in which the United Nations and other help groups have refused to participate, citing concerns that GHF is not operating independently of Israeli forces, it has been harassed by reports of violence.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Health of Gaza, led by Hamas, said that dozens of people were shot dead and more than 200 wounds by Israeli fire around a kilometer of a help distribution site in the south of the strip near Rafah’s city.
The FDI and GHF played the account given by the Ministry. The United Nations Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, requested an independent investigation into the incident on Monday.
A GHF spokesman told ABC News on Monday: “There has not been what we would consider an important incident in our distribution sites or in the surrounding facilities and so far it is relatively well.”
“However, we are looking for ways to improve it so that we can deliver more meals,” added the spokesman. “Our operations encourage us in the first week and the fact that we could provide almost six million meals in the first full week.”
Morgan Winsor, Guy Davies, Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller of ABC News, contributed to this report.
