Government Media Office in Gaza: Death toll at aid distribution centers rises

The Government Media Office in Gaza reported that Israeli occupation forces committed a new massacre on Tuesday near a distribution center for so-called "American-Israeli aid" in Rafah Governorate, killing 27 starving civilians and wounding more than 90 others with varying degrees of severity. This is the latest in a series of systematic attacks on what it describes as "mass death traps."

According to the statement, the death toll from these centers since they began operating in the Rafah and Wadi Gaza Bridge areas on May 27 has risen to 102 martyrs and 490 wounded, in what the office described as a "suspicious project run under the supervision of the occupation and promoted under a false humanitarian guise."

The office noted that these centers are located in exposed, red zones under the control of the occupation, and are managed by the occupation and an American security company. This, according to the statement, makes them direct targets for the deliberate killing of civilians starving due to the siege and famine. Residents are lured to obtain food, then shot in cold blood.

The statement stressed that these crimes are being committed without any independent humanitarian oversight, and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and crimes against humanity that amount to genocide under the 1948 Convention.

The media office held the Israeli occupation and the US administration fully and directly responsible for these massacres, accusing them of using "food as a weapon of war" as part of what it described as an "ongoing war of extermination" against the residents of the Gaza Strip.

The statement called on the United Nations, the Security Council, and human rights organizations to take urgent action to halt these violations and ensure the delivery of aid through official crossings under the supervision of neutral international institutions, away from the "lethal aid" model imposed by the occupation.

He also called for the formation of an independent international investigation committee to document these crimes and bring those responsible to justice before international courts, warning that continued international silence gives the occupation a green light to perpetrate further massacres.

Concluding its statement, the office affirmed its categorical rejection of the so-called "buffer zones" and "humanitarian corridors" established by the occupation, noting that they have turned into "bloody traps" in which civilians are killed daily. It considered the continuation of these crimes a stain on humanity, calling on the international community to end its complicity and silence.