The 27 dead were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis.
Yasser Abu Lubda, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian from Rafah, said the shooting started about 4am in the city’s Flag Roundabout area, about 1 kilometre from one of the GHF distribution sites. He said he saw several people killed or wounded.
An Israeli military vehicle drives along the Israel-Gaza border as smoke from Israeli bombardment envelops buildings in the northern Gaza Strip.Credit: AP
The entire area is an Israeli military zone where journalists have no access outside army-approved embeds.
Neima Aaraj, a woman from Khan Younis, gave a similar account, saying the shooting by Israeli forces was “indiscriminate”.
She said she managed to reach the hub but returned empty-handed. “There was no aid there,” she said.
Rasha Nahal, another witness, described “gunfire from all directions”. She said she counted more than a dozen dead and several wounded along the road. She said she also found no aid when she arrived at the distribution hub, and that Israeli forces “fired at us as we were returning”.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that a leading US management consulting firm hired to help design the GHF program and run its business operations withdrew its team operating on the ground in Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for the firm, Boston Consulting Group, said the company had terminated its contract with the GHF and placed one of the senior partners leading the project on leave, pending an internal review.
Three people closely connected to both the GHF and BCG told the Post it would be difficult for the foundation to continue to function without the consultants who helped create it.
In its first weeks of operation, the GHF has also struggled with the resignation of two top executives and the ongoing refusal of the United Nations and humanitarian partners to join back it.
Soldiers killed in northern Gaza
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said three of its soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on Israel’s forces since a ceasefire with Hamas ended in March.
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The military said the three soldiers, all in their early 20s, fell during combat in northern Gaza on Monday, without providing details. Israeli media reported that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area.
Israel ended the ceasefire in March after Hamas refused to change the agreement to release more hostages sooner. Israeli strikes have killed thousands of Palestinians since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage in the October 7, 2023 attack into Israel that ignited the war. They are still holding 58 hostages, a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports to the Hamas-run government.
Its toll is seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
About 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the October 7 attack, including more than 400 during the fighting inside Gaza.
