{"id":298002,"date":"2025-07-07T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=298002"},"modified":"2025-07-06T07:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T06:47:15","slug":"un-says-613-gaza-killings-recorded-at-food-distribution-sites-near-humanitarian-convoys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/07\/un-says-613-gaza-killings-recorded-at-food-distribution-sites-near-humanitarian-convoys\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Says 613 Gaza Killings Recorded at Food Distribution Sites Near Humanitarian Convoys"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_298003\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gaza-palestine-israel-genocide-food.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-298003\" class=\"wp-image-298003\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gaza-palestine-israel-genocide-food.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gaza-palestine-israel-genocide-food.webp 770w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gaza-palestine-israel-genocide-food-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gaza-palestine-israel-genocide-food-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-298003\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">People carrying aid parcels walk along Salah al-Din Street, near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on 25 Jun.\u00a0 [Eyad Baba\/AFP]<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><em>An OHCHR spokesperson says the figure is as of 27 Jun, adding that more incidents have taken place since then.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>4 Jul 2025\u00a0<\/em>&#8211;\u00a0The United Nations human rights office has said it recorded at least 613 killings of Palestinians, both at controversial aid points run by the Israeli and United States-backed <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/5\/20\/what-is-the-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-and-why-has-it-been-criticised\" >Gaza Humanitarian Foundation<\/a> (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a figure as of June 27. Since then \u2026 there have been further incidents,\u201d Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The OHCHR said 509 of the 613 people were killed near GHF distribution points. The Gaza Health Ministry has put the number of deaths at more than 650 and those wounded as exceeding 4,000.<\/p>\n<p>The GHF began distributing limited food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries which the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral, as killings continue around the organisation\u2019s sites, which rights groups have slammed as \u201chuman slaughterhouses\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Mahmoud Basal, a civil defence spokesperson in Gaza, said they \u201crecorded evidence of civilians being deliberately killed by the Israeli military\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 600 Palestinian civilians were killed at these centres,\u201d he said. \u201cSome were shot by Israeli snipers, others were killed by drone attacks, air strikes or shootings targeting families seeking aid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Medical sources have told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces have killed 51 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Israeli military killed at least 15 Palestinians following a series of deadly attacks on makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi coastal area, which was once classified as a so-called humanitarian safe zone by Israel. Attacks there have been relentless.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli army also issued new forced displacement threats for several areas of Khan Younis. The warnings for parts in the city\u2019s east and centre include the area where the Nasser Hospital is located.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"i-lost-everything\">\u2018I lost everything\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>A mother, whose son was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/fact-check\/2025\/7\/4\/are-israeli-soldiers-intentionally-firing-at-aid-seekers-in-gaza\" >killed<\/a> while trying to get food, told Al Jazeera that she \u201clost everything\u201d after his death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy son was a provider, I depended totally on him,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cHe was the pillar and foundation of our life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The woman called the GHF\u2019s aid distribution centres \u201cdeath traps\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are forced to go there out of desperation for food; we go there out of hunger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of coming back carrying a bag of flour, people themselves are being carried back as bodies,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The World Health Organization said on Friday that Nasser Hospital in\u00a0 Khan Younis is operating as \u201cone massive trauma ward\u201d due to an influx of patients injured around GHF sites.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to medical staff at the hospital, Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva: \u201cThey\u2019ve seen already for weeks, daily injuries \u2026 (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peeperkorn said health workers at Nasser Hospital and testimonies from family members and friends of those wounded confirmed that the victims had been trying to access aid at sites run by the GHF.<\/p>\n<p>He recounted the harrowing cases of a 13-year-old boy shot in the head, as well as a 21-year-old with a bullet lodged in his neck, which rendered him a paraplegic.<\/p>\n<p>According to the UN, only 16 of Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, their collective capacity merely above 1,800 beds \u2013 entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli army has targeted the health institutions and medical workers in the besieged enclave since the beginning of its war on Gaza in October 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe health sector is being systematically dismantled,\u201d Peeperkorn said on Thursday in a separate statement, citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment and personnel.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"video-player-facade-container\">\n<div class=\"aj-video-player in-article-bc-video-player aj-parsed-component\">\n<div class=\"vjs-poster\" aria-disabled=\"false\"><picture class=\"vjs-poster\" tabindex=\"-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cf-images.eu-west-1.prod.boltdns.net\/v1\/static\/665003303001\/500d4677-c5d2-4067-beae-c243a04a54ea\/2fa2cac4-3ade-4c3e-a2b9-d1ef3b287ed3\/1920x1080\/match\/image.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<div class=\"vjs-text-track-display\" translate=\"yes\" aria-live=\"off\" aria-atomic=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"ghf-condemned\">GHF condemned<\/h2>\n<p>The UN, humanitarian organisations and other NGOs have repeatedly slammed the GHF for its handling of aid distribution and the attacks around its distribution sites.<\/p>\n<p>More than 130 humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International, on Tuesday demanded the immediate closure of the GHF, accusing it of facilitating attacks on starving Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>The NGOs said Israeli forces and armed groups \u201croutinely\u201d open fire on civilians attempting to access food.<\/p>\n<p>The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which was carrying out aid distribution for decades before the GHF, has called for investigations into the killings and wounding of Palestinians trying to access food through the GHF.<\/p>\n<p>UNRWA noted that while it operated about 400 sites across the territory, the GHF has set up only four \u201cmega-sites\u201d, three in the south and one in central Gaza \u2013 none in the north, where conditions are the most severe.<\/p>\n<p>The GHF has denied that incidents surrounding people killed or wounded at its sites have occurred involving its contractors, without providing any evidence, rejecting an investigation by The Associated Press that said some of its United States staff fired indiscriminately at Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>A recent report from Israeli outlet <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/6\/27\/israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-at-unarmed-gaza-aid-seekers-report\" >Haaretz<\/a> detailed Israeli soldiers, in their words, confirming that Israeli troops have deliberately shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being \u201cordered\u201d to do so by their commanders.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s war in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave\u2019s Health Ministry, while displacing most of the population of more than two million multiple times, triggering widespread hunger through a punishing blockade and leaving much of the territory in ruins.<\/p>\n<p>The war began after Hamas-led fighters crossed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 captives back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/7\/4\/un-says-613-gaza-killings-recorded-at-aid-sites-near-humanitarian-convoys\" >Go to Original &#8211; aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 Jul 2025\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0An OHCHR spokesperson says the figure is as of 27 Jun, adding that more incidents have taken place since then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":298003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1854,2242,87,3505,865,1966,715,2571,427,1714,124,965],"class_list":["post-298002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-famine","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-ghf","tag-genocide","tag-hunger","tag-massacre","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-palestine","tag-right-to-food","tag-united-nations","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298004,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298002\/revisions\/298004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}