Dozens of Palestinians killed near Gaza aid distribution point, health officials say, in third day of shooting

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: CNN

Palestinians on their way to receive aid from a distribution site in southern Gaza have come under fire for a third consecutive day, with nearly 30 people killed and dozens wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Nasser hospital.

The ministry said Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians as they made their way to the distribution site in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah early Tuesday.

The Israeli military said its forces opened fire multiple times after identifying “several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated access routes.”

“The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, which also said they are looking into reports of casualties.

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/03/middleeast/gaza-rafah-shooting-aid-distribution-point-intl

---

This is separate from the shooting at the same site on Sunday. And from other incidents on Monday. An explanation of why the GHF method of food distribution risks this:

The UN model is to take the aid to population centres – at 400 sites around the Gaza Strip. The new model – organised by the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and overseen by American security contractors – is based on big distribution centres to which Palestinians need to go.

These hubs are secured by the Israeli military so by design they are located behind the front line. That, at least, is the case with the one in southern Gaza where the shootings have happened.

This means thousands of hungry civilians are forced into close proximity to Israeli soldiers.

There is also a certain amount of chaos built into the system. The UN distributes aid based on a registry of the population, so everyone is guaranteed to get food. That doesn’t happen at the new distribution hubs.

Video issued by the GHF shows that boxes of food are stacked and Palestinians take what they can on a first come, first served basis.

This means they begin gathering shortly after midnight to secure a place at the front of the line, and race to the food supplies when the aid site opens hours later. All of which combines to create a volatile scenario in the middle of an ongoing war.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg5vyp33j1t?post=asset%3Aa9b8f676-23b0-4ced-b3cd-48e9e4e4e172#post

[Goddessartist]

1. These poor people,

Harassed and murdered trying to get food. It's wild that some think that pariah state has nothing to do with these slaughters.

[Beastly Boy]

3. Any confirmation to the rumors contributing the latest violence to the "pariah state"?

Indeed, the Gazans are poor people, and spreading false rumors doesn't help them one bit.

[Beastly Boy]

2. Any confirmation of the Hamas health ministry and alleged eyewitnesses attributing the casualties and violence to IDF?

As far as I know, all the claims to that effect from the past three days turned out to be false.

Also, half of your post is not LBN and is not related to the LBN article you posted.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. The IDF says they "directed" shots "near" Palestinians, after their "warning fire"

which sounds, to me, like there was a high risk of actually hitting the Palestinians - since they didn't regard the later shots as just "warning".

I suspect your knowledge of these incidents is far from complete.

Half of my post, appearing "below the line" as is standard LBN practice, is an explanation of the situation for the Palestinians approaching these few GHF aid points. And thus is extremely relevant to this situation of IDF soldiers deciding that the Palestinians are "suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated access routes". I cannot for the life of me think why you're whining about what hundreds of DUers do when posting in LBN in line with rules and practices.

[Beastly Boy]

13. For accuracy, here is the full quote you are referring to:

“The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, which also said they are looking into reports of casualties.

Quite a lot you left out of your quotation marks, no? Not to mention that the quote is referring to events taking place outside the food distribution centers. Of course, if you are that selective with what sounds you want to hear and what sounds you are deaf to, it would sound to you exactly as you want it to sound to you.

So this is not a matter of sounding like, it is a matter of facts on the ground not matching what you hear, and not innuendo in your post.

As for the second part of your post, "below the line":The line below separates the article you cite from your comments, not from the quotes from posts that are ineliginle to be posted in LBN:

Statement of Purpose

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.

and

Your comments: You may add your comments about the story here:

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. You have repeated the exact paragraph I gave in the OP

It's amazing how much of everyone's time you're wasting here. No, not a lot left out, when I gave the particular parts that indicate Israeli soldiers fired warning shots, and then shot near the Palestinians. The facts match exactly what I said.

"events taking place outside the food distribution centers" - yes, so what? The Palestinians do not live in the distribution centres. They have to approach them. As I actually explained in the below-the-line part you continue to irrationally whine about. I gave the explanation from the BBC, published, as it happens, in the last 12 hours, about the problems with the GHF concept of a few aid points that thousands of Palestinians have to congregate at to try and get at the front of the queue. As my comments, I am passing this on, to people who may have a bad understanding of what is going on in Gaza.

This is how LBN is used. You know this. You may as well complain that I use a subject, a verb, and an object in a sentence, because you can also write a sentence without an object.

[Beastly Boy]

18. My responses are not found in any OPs in LBN.

And I wouldn't be wasting anyone's time were I not invited to waste it in the first place.

But once I see BS, you bet I will waste your time to call it out. Sorry for the inconvenience, but that's my call to make.

[mopinko]

5. a lot of what is being reported from that region is bullshit.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1134143736

[iemanja]

27. The IDF admitted to doing the shootings

The bullshit isn't the news article.

[questionseverything]

34. Sadly after reading mo's link, it looks like there was a massacre the evening before too

[Richard D]

6. People so want to believe...

.. The good old blood-thirsty Jew antisemitic trope that propaganda from a source known to be a distributor of false information is still believed without question, and with glee.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Who is the "source known to be a distributor of false information" you're talking about?

Are you saying the hospital is making up stories about receiving the casualties? Or that the IDF saying that, after warning shots, it directed shots near the Palestinians is "false information"?

A reminder that the Israeli government bars all external journalists from entering Gaza. The people inside are therefore the best source of information on what happens there.

[Beastly Boy]

17. Tell me this is a rhetorical question

In case there is a remote possibility it is not, let me give you a hint: the sources distributing false information are quick to blame Israel on the basis of false rumors and innuendo. Some of these sources don't even bother to base it on anything and just presume Israel is guilty by default.

There is no shortage of these sources and you don't have to go far to find them. so you can use the above descriptions to easily identify them one by one. To get you started, a couple of them make prominent cameo appearances in your OP.

[Richard D]

23. Yes.

The hospitals, aka Gaza Health Ministry, AKA Hamas, are known liars, as are orgs like Al Jazeera, etc.

Your unquestioning belief in any and everything they say should be questioned.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. So you don't believe the workers in the hospitals, who are there, trying to save lives.

I guess that means you trust no-one in Gaza at all. Not the doctors, not the IDF, not the inhabitants. Outside journalists are banned by the Israeli government, so you must think there's nothing known about what's going on at all.

It seems a quite nihilistic attitude. Just to see Gaza as this blank on the map where nothing can be known. And you object to people claiming that some things are known.

[Richard D]

36. It's an enteresting question

Do you believe them all? Even with the knowledge that a large percentage of "news" is coming through Hamas channels? And, do you automatically not believe the IDF?

You are probably aware or not of the reality that many of the journalists in Gaza were also Hamas, some of whom even participated in the Oct 7 horror?

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. The people trying to save lives don't have an incentive to lie; those trying to take them do.

Doctors are allowed to enter Gaza from outside. They report the same things as the native Gaza doctors, and general Gazan inhabitants.

The Hamas health ministry was acknowledged, by the Israeli government as well as by international institutions, to have provided reasonably accurate figures before October 7th.

[Chi67]

20. Knock it off!

Criticism of the Israeli government’s actions is not anti-semitism. Plenty of Israelis themselves are against their government’s actions in Gaza. Does that make them anti-semitic? Good god, I was against our actions in Iraq. Does that make me anti-American? No, of course not.

[Richard D]

21. Perhaps true, perhaps not true . . .

. . . I'm sure you must be aware of the murders and attacks happening against Jews that are not Israelis, usually in direct correlation to fake news stories from Hamas that the world instantly believes. I'm sure you are aware that all over the world, posters of the hostages who are being tortured and starved even as we speak have been ripped from walls by virtue signaling "anti-zionists".

And no, sorry. As long as I see antisemitism in this world, no matter how hidden, I will not "knock it off".

[Chi67]

22. WTF?!

That has nothing to do with my post. Criticism of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza is not anti-semitic. Period. End of story.

[Richard D]

24. Is it antisemetic . . .

. . . to believe any and every piece of news that is filtered through Hamas, and then to insinuate or call anything Israel says something like Zionist propaganda?

[questionseverything]

30. The bbc is reputable, nameless, faceless internet posters are not

[Chi67]

42. I never said that.

Don’t put words in my mouth.

[58Sunliner]

26. Thank you!! It's crazy making and I think intentional.

[iemanja]

29. The source is the IDF

[Goddessartist]

7. It's amazing

how the Palestinian eyewitnesses are dismissed. Is it because they're Palestinians? Are all of the IDF's outrageous statements accepted as true when they have lied about almost everything because they're Israelis?

Seems to be the case.

They've been slaughtering the Palestinians for over 70 years now, stealing their land, and more. They're building an empire of lies on the bodies of the Palestinians.

[Richard D]

8. There are plenty of

Palestinians who are telling the truth about Gaza and Hamas that are not spreading lies and antisemitic hatred. But people believe what they want to believe, and few do any real research that goes a micron beyond their set beliefs. People believe the lies of Hamas because that is in the comfort zone of their cognitive bias--damn the real facts and real history.

[Goddessartist]

10. The same

could be said of the lies of the IDF. People believe them because it's in their comfort zone.

[Richard D]

11. And yet...

Were I to ask "people" to name the lies without referencing known sources of antisemitic propaganda, I have a feeling that the only sound (if approached honestly) would be crickets.

[Goddessartist]

14. It seems

that you see much as antisemitism, when it's critical of Israel, and you seem to conflate anger towards Israel as anti-Jewish. My sweet hubby who is Jewish condemns Israel for this genocide as does his family, one of whom is a spiritual counselor at a Jewish nursing home.

Why can't you condemn the extreme violence that the Israeli government is doing? Do you agree with the proposed expansion of all of Gaza for a Jewish state? Do you agree with having streets where only Jews are allowed to be there? Isn't that apartheid in a sense?

[Mosby]

25. Claiming that Israel is engaged in genocide is antisemitic.

Lots of people feel that way.

YMMV.

ETA:
The Genocide Libel: How the World Has Charged Israel with Genocide
https://isca.indiana.edu/publication-research/research-paper-series/norman-jw-goda-research-paper.html

[58Sunliner]

28. Is it anti-american to criticize the US for Trump?

[Goddessartist]

33. So my

Jewish husband and in laws are antisemitic. Laughable. And exactly what nuttyyahoo says.

Israel is committing genocide.

[iemanja]

31. You mean objecting to shooting of people seeking food aid

Is antisemitic, in your view? So only approving of mass killings is not antisemitic?
The IDF admitted to doing the killings. Your dissembling doesn't 'negate reality.

[Richard D]

37. The IDF did not admit to doing the killings

And we'll see who did it. We already know that Hamas was likely involved. Even the BBC backpedaled the story.

The fact that you want to believe it so strongly . . . I would say that could be self-investigated for antisemitism.

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. You are misinformed. The BBC has not "backpedaled the story".

And there's been nothing to make your personal belief that "Hamas was likely involved" definite, so, no, we don't "know" that. The IDF did admit that, after warning shots, they aimed "near" the people, and then the people died. This is not an explanation that would help a defence in court.

[Richard D]

40. Check again

Both the BBC and the Washington Post are backpeddling.

And shouldn't that make you happy, if true? Or is it, as it seems to be, that you are really rooting for Hamas? Because if a shooting happened, no matter where in Gaza, and the IDF didn't do it, well, that leaves Hamas.

[muriel_volestrangler]

41. As it happens, I already had. And the BBC did nothing that anyone could call "backpedalling"

I'm certainly not going to do your work and try and show something about the Washington Post. Give us exactly what you claim is backpedalling.

"If true"? Well, that would depend on what you claim has been backpedalled. You didn't specify. Are you saying that no one was killed on Tuesday after all? That would be good news. But the BBC certainly isn't saying that.

"Or is it, as it seems to be, that you are really rooting for Hamas?"

Anyone that actually thinks I am "rooting for Hamas" could fuck off. You know that I am not, and I can't think why you'd put such a silly question on DU. It's a waste of our time.

[Richard D]

43. Recent.

Link to tweet

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. (a) who cares?

(b) It's the Washington Post, getting neurotic about its tone. It's not disputing any fact reported; it's just deciding to put the IDF claims more prominently. That's the WP's problem.

[Richard D]

12. And no,

I'm not inviting you into a link war. Boring and a waste of my time. Maybe consider it food for anti-reflexive thought.

[Goddessartist]

15. Was that

directed at me? Imagined link wars. Yes, you are quite reflexive on this subject, as are many here. Perhaps because we all gaf. We may not agree, but we can have productive conversations, sans accusations of antisemitism and Jew hating.

[iemanja]

32. The loss of human life is boring to you?

Noted.

It's so boring you responded multiple times to this thread.

[Beastly Boy]

19. But they are not dismisseed. Their reliability as witnesses is being scrutinized, and often proven ouright defective .

[Richard D]

45. It's looking more and more that the world was duped (again)

From Honest Reporting: https://honestreporting.com/48-hours-two-blood-libels-aid-site-massacres-faked-by-hamas-spread-by-the-media/

As of now, the only evidence that Israel killed the civilians is from the words of Hamas.

If this turns out to be so, and it looks more and more like Israel was innocent here, it means that people were duped.

It also points to what we've been saying for a long time now: Hamas lies. Over and over and over.

That's part 1, Part 2 is that most uncritically believe the lies.

Some get all insulted, like when the lie is pointed out, and still they will believe the lies.

Others got murdered because of the manufactured outrage.

Virtue signaling is at an all-time new high.