UN rights office says more than 600 people killed near Gaza aid sites since late May

The UN human rights office says it has recorded at least 613 killings both at aid points run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups since GHF began operating in the Strip in late May.

“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 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), tells reporters in Geneva.

She says the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings, but adds that “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by GHF.

Of the 613 people killed, 509 were killed near the GHF distribution points, the OHCHR says, and the others were near other aid distribution sites or trucks.

The OHCHR says its figure is based on a range of sources such as information from hospitals, cemeteries, families, Gaza health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground. It says it is verifying further reports and cannot yet give a breakdown of where they were killed.

Death tolls provided by Hamas-run Gaza health authorities cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also tells Reuters that there have been some instances of violent looting and attacks on truck drivers, which it describes as unacceptable.

GHF operations have since been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect aid.

The IDF acknowledged earlier this week that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at the aid distribution sites, but that troops only used live fire when a threat was posed to them, including when dozens of suspects approached forces outside of the designated routes to the aid sites operated by the GHF, or outside operating hours.