Israeli tank and gunfire was heard Tuesday while giant crowds of Palestinians tried to reach a newly opened aid distribution centre in southern Gaza, according to reports from CBC News and The Associated Press journalists.
There was no immediate word on whether there were any injuries.
The firing came as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians walked through Israeli military lines to reach the distribution hub set up on the outskirts of Rafah by a U.S.-backed group that Israel has slated to take over food distribution in Gaza. It was the second day of operations at the hub.
The AP journalist, positioned some distance from the distribution point, heard gunfire and rounds of tank fire. Smoke could be seen rising from where one round impacted.
CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife said gunshots were fired into the air and the water but did not appear to injure anyone.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
By late afternoon on Tuesday, The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals, after an almost three-month Israeli blockade of the enclave.
Palestinians, including women and children, some on foot or in donkey carts, flocked toward one of the distribution sites in the southern city of Rafah, which is under full Israeli army control, to receive food packages.
Footage, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed lines of people walking through a wired-off corridor and into a large open field where aid was stacked. Later, images shared on social media showed large parts of the fence torn down as people jostled their way onto the site.
“What happened today is conclusive evidence of the occupation’s failure to manage the humanitarian crisis it deliberately created through a policy of starvation, siege, and bombing,” the Hamas-run government media office said in a statement.
Some of the recipients showed the content of the packages, which included some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits and sugar.
Although the aid was available on Monday, Palestinians appeared to have heeded warnings, including from Hamas, about biometric screening procedures employed at the foundation’s aid distribution sites.
“As much as I want to go because I am hungry and my children are hungry, I am afraid,” said Abu Ahmed, 55, a father of seven.
“I am so scared because they said the company belongs to Israel and is a mercenary, and also because the resistance [Hamas] said not to go,” he said in a message on the chat app WhatsApp.
