Hamas: 3 killed by Israeli fire near Gaza aid center; IDF: Troops fired on ‘suspects who approached them in threatening way’

Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian “suspects who approached forces” overnight, around a kilometer away from an aid distribution site in southern Gaza’s Rafah and hours before it was set to open to hand out food to Gazans, the military says.

According to Hamas’s government media office, the Israeli gunfire killed three and wounded a further 35. The tolls could not immediately be verified.

The IDF says that it is aware of the reports of casualties and is investigating the incident.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the US- and Israel-backed body in charge of the aid distribution, has repeatedly warned Palestinians in its announcements that the aid sites are only open from 5 a.m., and approaching the area beforehand poses a risk due to ongoing Israeli military activity.

GHF also insists that the aid was handed out today without any incident.

The IDF says that it is allowing GHF to operate “independently to distribute aid to Gaza residents and prevent it from reaching the Hamas terror organization.”

“IDF troops do not prevent the arrival of Gaza residents to the distribution sites. The shooting was carried out about a kilometer from the distribution site, toward individual suspects approaching the forces in a way that threatened them,” the military says.

The IDF says Hamas is doing “everything it can to prevent the success” of the new aid distribution system, adding that “Hamas is a brutal terror organization that starves the population and puts it in danger to preserve its rule in the Gaza Strip.”

GHF has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones. “Despite several inaccurate and in some cases, blatantly false, news reports, there have been no injuries nor fatalities during the first full week of GHF operations,” it said this morning.

The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions outside the distribution centers, including yesterday, when troops fired at Palestinians around a kilometer away from an aid site, hours before it was set to open, killing 31 according to Hamas.