Gaza aid contractor tells BBC he saw colleagues fire on hungry Palestinians

A former safety contractor for Gaza’s controversial new Israel- and US-backed assist distribution websites has instructed the BBC that he witnessed colleagues opening fireplace a number of occasions on hungry Palestinians who had posed no risk, together with with machine weapons.

On one event, he stated, a guard had opened fireplace from a watchtower with a machine gun as a result of a bunch of girls, youngsters and aged individuals was shifting too slowly away from the positioning.

When requested to reply the Gaza Humanitarian Basis (GHF) stated the allegations have been categorically false.

They referred us to an announcement saying that no civilians ever got here beneath fireplace on the GHF distribution websites.

The GHF started its operations in Gaza on the finish of Could, distributing restricted assist from a number of websites in southern and central Gaza. That adopted an 11-week whole blockade of Gaza by Israel throughout which no meals entered the territory.

The system has been extensively criticised for forcing huge numbers of individuals to stroll by way of energetic fight zones to a handful of web sites. For the reason that GHF began up, Israeli forces have killed greater than 400 Palestinians making an attempt to retrieve meals assist from its websites, the UN and native medical doctors say. Israel says the brand new distribution system stops assist going to Hamas.

Persevering with his description of the incident at one of many GHF websites – through which he stated guards fired on a bunch of Palestinians – the previous contractor stated: “As that occurred, one other contractor on location, standing on the berm overlooking the exit, opened up with 15 to twenty pictures of repetitive weapons fireplace on the crowd.

“A Palestinian man dropped to the bottom immobile. After which the opposite contractor who was standing there was like, ‘rattling, I feel you bought one’. After which they laughed about it.”

The contractor, who spoke to us on situation of anonymity, stated GHF managers had disregarded his report as a coincidence, suggesting that the Palestinian man may have “tripped” or been “drained and handed out”.

The GHF claimed the person who made these allegations is a “disgruntled former contractor” who they’d terminated for misconduct, which he denies. He confirmed us payslips suggesting that he continued to be paid for 2 weeks after leaving the publish.

The person we spoke to, who stated he had labored in any respect 4 of the GHF distribution websites, described a tradition of impunity with few guidelines or controls.

He stated contractors got no clear guidelines of engagement or normal working procedures, and have been instructed by one staff chief: “should you really feel threatened, shoot – shoot to kill and ask questions later”.

The tradition within the firm, he stated, felt like “we’re going into Gaza so it is no guidelines. Do what you need.”

“If a Palestinian is strolling away from the positioning and never demonstrating any hostile intent, and we’re taking pictures warning pictures at them regardless, we’re flawed, we’re criminally negligent,” he instructed me.

He instructed us that every web site had CCTV monitoring the exercise within the space, and GHF insistence that nobody there had been harm or shot at was “an absolute bare-faced lie”.

GHF stated that gunfire heard in footage shared with the BBC was coming from Israeli forces.

Staff leaders referred to Gazans as “zombie hordes”, the previous contractor stated, “insinuating that these individuals haven’t any worth.”

The person additionally stated Palestinians have been coming to hurt in different methods at GHF websites, for instance by being hit by particles from stun grenades, being sprayed with mace or being pushed by the crowds into razor wire.

He stated he had witnessed a number of events through which Palestinians appeared to have been severely harm, together with one man who had a full can of pepper spray in his face, and a lady who he stated was hit with the metallic a part of a stun grenade, improperly fired right into a crowd.

“This metallic piece hit her straight within the head and he or she dropped to the bottom, not shifting,” he stated. “I do not know if she was useless. I do know for a reality she was unconscious and fully limp.”

Earlier this week greater than 170 charities and different NGOs called for the GHF to be shut down. The organisations, together with Oxfam and Save the Youngsters, say Israeli forces and armed teams “routinely” open fireplace on Palestinians in search of assist.

Israel denies its troopers intentionally shoot at assist recipients and says the GHF’s system offers direct help to individuals who want it, bypassing Hamas interference.

The GHF says it had delivered greater than 52 million meals in 5 weeks and that different organisations “stand by helplessly as their assist is looted”.

The Israeli army launched a marketing campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault on Israel, through which about 1,200 individuals have been killed and 251 others have been taken hostage.

No less than 57,130 individuals have been killed in Gaza since then, in response to the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.

Further reporting by Gidi Kleiman and Samantha Granville