Palestinians said that the Israeli military shot at them while they waited to receive food near the same US-backed aid distribution hub in southern Gaza visited by US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday.
The nearby Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said it had received at least three people who were killed and six who were injured by gunfire near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution center in al-Shakoush, Rafah. It said many other injured people were being treated at a Red Cross field hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it fired warning shots to prevent a group of people advancing toward its troops, after calling on the group to distance itself. The IDF said it was not aware of any casualties as the result of its fire but was investigating the incident.
A US embassy spokesperson said it had not received “reports of clashes or injuries of any kind in the vicinity of the visit.”
Eyewitnesses told CNN the Israeli military shot at people who had gathered at Al Tina, where residents wait before moving on to the distribution site at al-Shakoush.
“As soon as Witkoff was in the area, there was random gunfire. The shooting intensified, along with drones and quadcopters in the air, and they started firing at people,” Ahmad Abu Armanah told CNN shortly after the incident. Bodies were “scattered all over the place,” he said.
CNN has reached out to the GHF for comment. Since the group began operating in Gaza at the end of May, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, hundreds of them near GHF sites, according to the United Nations. The GHF disputes these statistics.
