Repeated fatal shootings by Palestinians seeking food at distribution centres in Gaza since late May were the result of the flawed design of aid projects, attracting enormous crowds and proximity to Israeli forces.
Shortly before the centre was opened, the UN warned in a briefing paper that the model, which was developed by a former US intelligence reporting agency and a group of defense officials and executives working in close consultations with Israel, could lead to violence caused by overcrowding. “Israeli military forces or civilian military guards may use force to control the crowd,” the UN Office for Humanitarian Cooperation said.
A post investigation in Washington says this happened at least three times in the first week of the operation, with witnesses saying Israeli forces were shot in the direction of the crowd.
The American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened the first four distribution centres in an Israeli military-controlled area in late May, causing Palestinians to be shot and killed near the site almost every day, killing more than 400 people and injuring thousands.
The post proved that the violence was a result of ignoring the aging norms for distribution of aid in Gaza and a predictable result of the dynamics burned into repeatedly culminated in Israeli forces with Israeli forces firing at crowds.
During the first week of the operation, Israeli forces said they fired warning shots at “subjects” at least five times, at the position of soldiers near the Rafa Distribution Center.
In the interview, 10 witnesses said they saw fired on May 27, June 1 and June 3 at or directly at a crowd of Palestinians from near where they saw Israeli forces, including tanks and drones. At least 48 people died when they arrived at the Red Cross field hospital at the time, or soon after, with the facility receiving about 400 additional people with gunshot wounds, according to the Red Cross Commission.
The Israeli Defense Force said in a statement it is considering reporting an incident in which civilians arriving at the GHF distribution centre were harmed and are working to “minimise the possibility of friction” between soldiers and local residents.
“As part of this effort, the Israeli military has recently worked to reorganize the area through fence installation, signage deployment, opening additional routes and other measures,” the military said in its statement. “Following the incidents that reported incidents that harmed civilians who arrived at distribution facilities, thorough inspections were conducted at Southern Command, and instructions were issued to the troops on the ground following the lessons learned.”
The route to the distribution centre, which GHF has been instructed to follow, including a Facebook post, took them within three-quarters of the two military locations visible in the satellite image, and along the same paths that witnesses said they saw the tank. Witness testimony and video evidence show that when the shooting broke out in the first week, some people who were following the approved route to the centre began to run towards it, thus further closer to the two military positions.
The GHF said the recent incident of violence in Gaza is unrelated to its aid centre, rejecting criticism from “so-called experts,” and in a statement it was unfamiliar with the “complexity” of the group’s operations.
Israel has been supporting the GHF project since late last year, saying existing systems that rely on a network of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations should provide support to Gaza.
Israel has not provided any public evidence that Hamas systematically stole the aid it brought to Gaza under the UN system, and despite requests from posts to officials from the Israeli military, Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office, no evidence has been provided demonstrating reports of widespread diversion of UN food aid.
The UN’s efforts to provide aid in Gaza have been reduced by Israel. Most of the organization’s aid trucks are prevented from entering enclaves that are primarily besieged by Israeli forces. Within Gaza, the UN says its activities are significantly limited.
Under that model, the GHF operates four distribution centres within the region of Gaza, occupied by Israeli forces. The Center relies on American civil contractors armed for security and logistics.
Food is served on a first-come, first-served basis without the requirement that recipients register. The centre has a variety of opening hours that were featured on social media the day before.
Since the end of last year, the architects of the plan have also been envisaged as the role of the Israeli military. The planner said that as a condition for deploying resources to Gaza, Israeli forces outside the borders of the aid site must target suspected extremists in a direct fire, according to internal documents reviewed by the Post.
Palestinian routing through militarized landscapes was just one of the flaws identified by experts on humanitarian issues in GHF design.
“The design, setup, layout and execution of the distribution all contributed to an environment that increased stress, tension, panic and dangerous situations among those receiving the item,” said Alex Davis of the Norwegian Refugee Commission (NRC).
Experts working for UN agencies and other aid groups say a small number of distribution centres located more than 1½ miles from the Palestinian camp is a recipe for extreme overcrowding and panic. The GHF also did not adopt other measures traditionally used by agencies to coordinate the provision of assistance and avoid overcrowding and chaos, such as registering recipients. Instead, GHF served meals on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Unless it’s properly managed, it can cause confusion, misinformation spread quickly, and panic and fear among those waiting to receive their food,” Davis said. “The biggest fear is that it’s not enough for everyone. Their survival is at stake.”
In its emailed statement, GHF defended the caliber of its operation. “Our team includes very experienced humanitarian experts who have designed models to avoid the pitfalls and failures of the United Nations and other groups where aid is not seeking assistance,” the group said.
The organization added that while the killing occurred, “to date there has been no single casualty around or around our site.” GHF said: “We continue to experience growth patterns of false and misinformation that appear to have been formulated by Hamas’s arm, Gaza Ministry of Health.
However, a GHF official admitted that violence was involved in the business, and in an interview the organization believes the repeated shootings occurred due to the lack of sufficient aid distribution sites.
Officials also said people either tried to take shortcuts to bypass the crowded designated routes, or they had drawn up Israeli military fires by arriving before dawn and lining up for rare food packages.
A hopeless crowd
Over the years, UN agencies and many other humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have developed procedures designed to provide assistance in a regulated and orderly manner.
For example, in a three-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations World Food Programme, for example, operated 400 aid stations throughout the Gaza Strip, with bakeries, hot meal centres and more. “People aren’t worried about getting there, so avoid confusion by making sure there are plenty of assistance and lots of places.
Recipients of the assistance have previously registered their assistance, have been informed through the community leaders where they will collect items through text messages and community leaders. Some agents provided e-vouchers, such as using mobile phone e-wallets, and gave them the right to acquire a certain amount of supplies based on the needs of their families.
“The level of needs was consistently high, so to alleviate crowd control issues and reduce what you’re seeing… many organizations were using smaller community-level distributions,” says Anne Marie Mackenzie, a humanitarian expert with 10 years of experience in Gaza.
According to humanitarian experts, GHF’s approach diverged from these standard practices.
“We can’t manage it with so many people who are hungering for death… and it was very foreseeable,” said another aid distribution expert who spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns about family safety.
In its statement, the GHF rejected the criticism, claiming that the United Nations and other humanitarian groups were unable to deliver aid to Gazan, citing the looting of the aid truck as proof. “The GHF is the only person who provides direct assistance to the Palestinian people. If the United Nations and others work with us, we can expand our business,” the organization said.
In response, Gaza’s UN spokesman Olga Celevko said her organization is not part of a programme that “violates humanitarian principles.”
Source: Washington Post