613 killed at Gaza aid distribution sites, near humanitarian covoys, says UN

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. human rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 613 killings both at aid points run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups including the U.N.

The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid. The United Nations has called the plan "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.

"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 GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May and has repeatedly denied that incidents had occurred at its sites.

Of the 613 people killed, 509 were killed near the GHF distribution points, the OHCHR said.

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

The GHF previously told Reuters it has delivered more than 52 million meals to hungry Palestinians in five weeks, and said other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted." Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19.

The U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Reuters that there have been some instances of violent looting and attacks on truck drivers, which it described as unacceptable.

"Israel, as the occupying power, bears responsibility with regards to public order and safety in Gaza. That should include letting in far more essential supplies, through multiple crossings and routes, to meet humanitarian needs," OCHA spokesperson Eri Kaneko said in a statement to Reuters.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, was not immediately available for comment.

The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution centres in Gaza, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called "lessons learned".

Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the centres in order to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after a nearly two-year-old military campaign by Israel against Hamas militants in Gaza that has reduced much of the enclave to rubble and displaced most of its two million inhabitants.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Friederike Heine, William Maclean)