News- Middle East: At least 30 Palestinians were killed on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire on desperate families waiting for food at Gaza’s last remaining US-backed aid distribution center in the southern city of Rafah, according to medical sources.

More than 130 others were reportedly wounded and transported to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Families from northern Gaza have been making the perilous journey south in hopes of receiving aid at the only functioning distribution point in Rafah, but they have encountered chaos, long waits, and indiscriminate shooting by Israeli forces.

The controversial US-backed program of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been tasked by the Israeli regime and the US to distribute aid in Gaza since late May.

Hundreds of Palestinians have lost their lives in the weeks since GHF began its “dehumanizing, militarized ‘distribution hubs’ in coordination with Israeli forces,” stated Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), remarked earlier this month that the program “provides nothing but starvation and gunfire to the people of Gaza.”

More than 230 NGOs — including Amnesty International, Oxfam International, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council — have signed an open letter denouncing the GHF and calling for a return to the UN-led aid delivery model.

While the UN previously operated over 400 aid centers across Gaza, GHF initially set up just four for a population of 2.1 million.

Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, has said that it is “immoral and inhuman when those committing the genocide take responsibility to feed those whom they have starved.”

UN: Gaza aid workers face deadly threat from Israeli attacks

In a separate statement on Saturday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric warned that Israel’s ongoing attacks continue to endanger aid workers on the ground.

“On Wednesday and again yesterday, a total of five strikes hit just a few hundred meters from areas where aid workers operate — including a UN staffer. Thankfully, none were injured,” he said.

The UN says 126 of its personnel have been killed in Gaza so far in 2024.

Dujarric also said that on Friday, “members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies were shot at and injured while trying to reach a colleague who had been wounded and unreachable since last week.”

According to him, all aid worker movements had been “coordinated with the Israeli authorities.”

Humanitarian workers in Gaza have constantly been targeted by Israeli forces amid the regime’s ongoing attacks on hospitals and health facilities. As of July 9, more than 224 aid workers — including 179 UNRWA staff — have been killed, according to UN figures.

Source: Press TV