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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported that starving civilians in Gaza are facing intense Israeli attacks at aid distribution centers where they go, hoping to obtain food.
UNRWA issued a written statement including testimony from a Palestinian survivor of an attack on a distribution center in Rafah established by the Israeli-US guided "Gaza Humanitarian Aid Foundation" under the name of humanitarian aid.
The statement said starving Palestinians in Gaza risk their lives when they go to "distribution centers" hoping to get food, where they face intense Israeli attacks.
Palestinians who survived Israeli attacks were forced to return empty-handed, according to the statement, which said safe aid distribution to Gazans must resume through United Nations agencies, including UNRWA.
A Palestinian survivor of the distribution center attack said, "We went toward the humanitarian aid distribution site. We waited for a signal from the Israeli army to move, but endless fire was opened. We crawled on the ground for more than an hour. When the attack stopped, people got up and started running, but after a while, fire was opened again; many people were injured while running. I had never seen anything like this before."
Israeli forces have been conducting attacks on distribution areas established under the name of humanitarian aid by the Israeli-U.S.-guided "Gaza Humanitarian Aid Foundation" since May 27.
Israeli forces open fire on civilians flocking to distribution sites established in so-called "buffer zones."
According to data from Gaza's government media office, 110 people were killed and 583 were wounded in Israeli attacks on Palestinians at distribution centers between May 27 and June 6. Nine Palestinians' bodies could not be reached.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General: "There has been no safe, dignified and significant aid in Gaza for more than three months now. People’s suffering is unconscionable, deepening further daily. (…) Delaying the decision to properly respond to the deepening hunger will further push down people in Gaza to an endless bottom and deepen dehumanization."
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that Gaza's health system, under intense Israeli attacks and blockade, is collapsing.
"Gaza's health system is collapsing," Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media platform X. He emphasized that Nasser and Amal hospitals, the remaining most important referral hospitals, are at risk of becoming non-functional.
Ghebreyesus said that without these two hospitals, people will lose access to health services.
Noting that these hospitals are located within or just outside the evacuation zone announced on June 2, Ghebreyesus said, "Israeli authorities informed Gaza's Ministry of Health that access routes to both hospitals would be blocked. As a result, safe access for new patients and staff will be difficult, even impossible."
Ghebreyesus said hospitals going out of service would lead to terrible consequences for patients.
"The ruthless and systematic destruction of hospitals in Gaza has been going on for far too long. It must stop immediately," Ghebreyesus stated, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Ghebreyesus warned that people will lose access to health services without the two remaining major hospitals in Gaza.
Israeli authorities informed Gaza's Ministry of Health that access routes to both hospitals would be blocked, making safe access for patients and medical staff difficult or impossible.
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