More Chaos at Food Sites in Gaza       05/30 06:18

   Chaos erupted again Thursday as tens of thousands of desperate Palestinians 
in the Gaza Strip tried to collect food from distribution sites run by a new 
U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation. Multiple witnesses reported a free-for-all 
of people grabbing aid, and they said Israeli troops opened fire to control 
crowds.

   NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Chaos erupted again Thursday as tens of 
thousands of desperate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip tried to collect food 
from distribution sites run by a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation. 
Multiple witnesses reported a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and they 
said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds.

   In central Gaza, Associated Press video showed smoke bombs arching through 
the air around a distribution center, and gunfire was audible as an Israeli 
tank moved nearby. Witnesses said it was Israeli troops who fired the 
projectiles to clear large crowds of Palestinians after the center ran out of 
supplies Thursday.

   "I came to get a sack of flour ... a sardine tin or anything," said Mahmoud 
Ismael, a man on crutches from an earlier leg injury who said he walked for 
miles to get to the center, only to leave empty-handed.

   "There is no food in my house, and I can't get food for my children," he 
said.

   Turmoil has plagued the aid system launched this week by the Gaza 
Humanitarian Foundation, which runs three distribution centers in the 
territory. Israel has slated GHF to take over food distribution in Gaza despite 
opposition from the United Nations and most humanitarian groups.

   Over the past three days, there have been reports of gunfire at GHF centers, 
and Gaza health officials have said at least one person has been killed and 
dozens wounded.

   The Israeli military said it has facilitated the entry of nearly 1,000 
truckloads of supplies into Gaza recently and accused the U.N. of failing to 
distribute the goods. It claimed Hamas was responsible for the crisis by 
stealing aid and refusing to release the remaining hostages.

   The military's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effei Defrin, said the army will 
continue "to provide for the humanitarian needs of the civilian population 
while taking necessary steps to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of 
Hamas."

   With media not allowed to access the centers, the circumstances remain 
unclear. The distribution points are guarded by armed private contractors, and 
Israeli forces are positioned in the vicinity. On Tuesday, the Israeli military 
said it fired warning shots to control a crowd outside one center.

   Dr. Khaled Elserr, a surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan 
Younis, told the AP he treated two people wounded at distribution centers on 
Thursday -- a 17-year-old girl and a man in his 20s. Both had gunshot wounds in 
the chest and stomach, he said, adding that other casualties had come in from 
the centers but that he did not have an exact number.

   In a statement Thursday, GHF said no shots had been fired at any of its 
distribution centers the past three days and there have been no casualties, 
saying reports of deaths "originated from Hamas."

   Separately on Thursday, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 34 people, 
according to local health officials. Israel said it would establish 22 more 
Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Most of the international 
community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the 
decades-old conflict.

   Turmoil at aid distribution sites

   Hunger and malnutrition have mounted among Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians 
since Israel barred entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies nearly 
three months ago, allowing a trickle of aid in only the past two weeks.

   GHF has opened hubs in three locations -- two in the far south around the 
city of Rafah, and the other in central Gaza near the Netzarim corridor, a 
strip of territory controlled by Israeli forces. The large crowds have to walk 
miles to reach the locations.

   More than a dozen Palestinians described chaos at all three Thursday.

   At one of the Rafah sites near the Morag Corridor, another Israeli-held 
strip, one man told the AP he and his cousin arrived at 5:30 a.m., and found 
thousands of people massed outside, waiting to be let in. When it was opened, 
the crowd flowed into an outdoor area ringed by barbed wire and earth berms, 
where pallets of food boxes had been left.

   Armed contractors stood on the berms watching, and beyond them Israeli 
troops and tanks were visible, said the 41-year-old man, who spoke on condition 
he be identified only by his first name, Shehada, for fear of reprisals. The 
crowd descended on the food boxes, and pushing and shoving got out of control, 
he said.

   Shehada said the contractors pulled back and Israeli troops shot at people's 
feet. His cousin was wounded in the left foot, he said. "The gunfire was very 
intense," he said. "The sand was jumping all around us."

   At the other Rafah site, several people told AP of a similar scene of 
pallets of food boxes left on the ground for the crowds to take whatever they 
could with no control by staff. Mohammad Abu-Elinin, said "gangs" carried off 
cartloads of flour bags and multiple aid boxes.

   Samira Z'urob said by the time she arrived at 6.a.m, "the thieves had stolen 
people's aid." When she begged, one person gave her a bag of pasta and a can of 
beans. "I said, Thank God, and took it to my children," she said. "I haven't 
had flour for more than a week."

   Another woman, Heba Joda, said people tore down metal fences and took wooden 
pallets. When the food boxes ran out, staff told people to leave, then fired 
sound grenades to disperse them, she said.

   As people fled through a nearby roundabout outside the center, Israeli 
troops fired gunshots, causing a panic, she said. Abu-Elinin said he saw one 
man wounded by shrapnel.

   At the center in central Gaza, witnesses told the AP that Israeli troops 
fired tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse the crowds when aid ran out. AP 
video showed crowds of people returning from the site, some with carts full of 
boxes and many with nothing.

   Aisha Na'na said all she managed to grab were some sticks to use as 
firewood. "We had come to get food for our children, but it was all in vain -- 
we returned with nothing," she said.

   Israel says the GHF system will replace the massive aid operation that the 
U.N. and other aid groups have carried out throughout the war. It says the new 
mechanism is necessary, accusing Hamas of siphoning off large amounts of aid. 
The U.N. denies that significant diversion takes place.

   In its statement Thursday, GHF said it has distributed more than 32,200 
boxes of food since Monday. It says each box, which contains basics like sugar, 
lentils, pasta and rice, can make 58 meals. It said it will scale up to start 
operations at a fourth center and will build additional hubs in the weeks ahead.

   The U.N. and other aid groups have refused to participate in the mechanism, 
saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it allows Israel to use 
food as a weapon, forcing people to move to the hubs, potentially emptying 
large swaths of Gaza. They also say it cannot meet the massive needs of the 
population.

   Israel has allowed in some trucks of aid for the U.N. to distribute, but the 
U.N. has struggled to deliver the material amid looting and Israeli military 
restrictions.

   U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday that Israeli 
authorities hadn't given permission for U.N. trucks to move to the border to 
retrieve the arriving supplies for the previous three days.