Militarized Gaza aid system shows Israel's continued use of starvation as weapon of war, Amnesty report says
CBC
A new Amnesty International report says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed group that took over aid distribution in the territory more than a month ago — uses a militarized aid mechanism that enables Israel to use starvation as a weapon of war and inflict genocide against Palestinians.
The report published Thursday points at testimony gathered from medical staff, parents of children hospitalized for malnutrition and displaced Palestinians struggling to find food in the war-torn enclave.
"Their accounts provide further evidence of the catastrophic suffering caused by Israel's ongoing restrictions on life-saving aid and its deadly militarized aid scheme coupled with mass forced displacement, relentless bombardment and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure," Amnesty says in its report.
The latest report comes as at least 45 Palestinians were killed overnight on Wednesday in an attempt to find aid, Gaza's Health Ministry said.
Five people were killed while outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), while 40 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces were taking precautions to mitigate harm to civilians as it battled Palestinian militants throughout Gaza.
CBC News reached out to GHF for comment but it did not immediately hear back.
Since late May, when GHF launched operations, at least 650 Palestinians have been killed in shootings and more than 4,500 have been injured near GHF aid sites or on routes to the sites guarded by Israeli forces, according to Gaza's Health Ministry in an update on Thursday.
Amnesty said Israel has "turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians" through GHF's militarized hubs, creating conditions of "a deadly mix of hunger and disease pushing the population past breaking point."
"This devastating daily loss of life as desperate Palestinians try to collect aid is the consequence of their deliberate targeting by Israeli forces and the foreseeable consequence of irresponsible and lethal methods of distribution," said Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.
"Not only has the international community failed to stop this genocide, but it has also allowed Israel to constantly reinvent new ways to destroy Palestinian lives in Gaza and trample on their human dignity."
The report comes on the heels of nearly 170 non-governmental organizations calling for the dismantling of the GHF-run aid system, saying it forces Palestinians to be caught between starvation and danger, in a joint statement Tuesday. The GHF said on Wednesday it was planning to shut its branch in Geneva after Swiss authorities launched proceedings to dissolve it.
Israel's foreign minister denounced the Amnesty report, saying the organization has "joined forces with Hamas and fully adopted all of its propaganda lies."
The Israeli army says it has fired warning shots to control crowds and only fires at people it says are acting suspiciously.
