21 Palestinians killed in stampede after Israel opens fire on aid seekers

Twenty-one Palestinians were killed in a stampede on Wednesday as Israeli forces fired lived rounds and tear gas at aid seekers in a Khan Younis Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Six people were immediately killed due to gunshot wounds and 15 died of asphyxiation, Gaza officials said. 

The incident marks the first time that aid seekers have been killed in a stampede at a GHF center, according to the ministry, which described the foundation’s sites as "death traps." At least 400 people have been killed by Israeli forces firing at crowds of aid seekers since the GHF centers opened, according to the United Nations.

Thousands of aid seekers had waited for hours by the distribution center before being allowed into the barbed-wire enclosed corridor that leads to the GHF yard. Once inside, US security personnel closed the outer gate behind them while the yard door remained closed, leaving people trapped in a crush, according to testimonies received by Mada Masr from aid seekers.

"Many people were inside the corridor, and many others were trying to enter from outside so they couldn’t turn back, causing many in the crowd to suffocate," Mounir Gouda, a witness to today's fatal distribution operation, told Mada Masr. 

He estimated that thousands were crowded into the narrow corridor trying to reach the distribution center. Occupation soldiers and US security personnel ignored the crowd’s pleas to open the doors to give them a chance to catch their breath, leaving many to fall in the crush and to asphyxiate. 

Mohammed al-Akhras, another witness to the stampede, indicated that both ends of the corridor were closed.

GHF “deliberately closed the iron gates after gathering thousands of starving people in narrow iron corridors deliberately designed to suffocate them,” the Gaza Government Media Office said on Wednesday.

The office said that employees and Israeli soldiers then fired pepper spray and live rounds at aid seekers, leading to 15 people’s asphyxiation and killing six from gunshot wounds immediately, adding that the closed space was “designed to kill."

Akhras described seeing dozens of bodies lying on the ground after the stampede as Occupation soldiers opened fire on those of their fellow aid seekers who attempted to rescue them. 

The bodies of some of the deceased exhibited signs of suffocation such as blue discoloration of the skin, while survivors had severe bruising, a source at western Khan Younis’s Nasser Medical Complex told Mada Masr. 

The nearest medical facility is located several kilometers away from the distribution center in southern Khan Younis, according to Akhras, who added that the closest was the Red Cross field hospital, which did not have an oxygen station to treat those suffering from suffocation.

Transporting the injured to the hospital took approximately 40 minutes on foot, he said, adding that many had died before reaching the hospital. Most of of the deaths were among starving children and teenagers, he said.