Gaza’s Nasser hospital is operating as "one massive trauma ward" due to an influx of patients wounded at non-United Nations food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The US and Israeli-backed GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries that the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It has repeatedly denied that incidents involving people killed or wounded at its sites have occurred, Reuters reports.
Referring to medical staff at the Nasser hospital, Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva: "They've seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward."
Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19.
The United Nations human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 613 killings both at aid points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near humanitarian convoys.
"We have recorded 613 killings, both at GHF points and near humanitarian convoys - this is a figure as of June 27. Since then ... there have been further incidents," Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
The OHCHR said 509 of the 613 were killed near GHF distribution points.
The GHF has previously said it has delivered more than 52 million meals to hungry Palestinians in five weeks "safely and without interference", while other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted."
The UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there have been some instances of violent looting and attacks on aid truck drivers, which it described as unacceptable.
bd-pratidin/GR
