Four people killed after starving Palestinians burst into UN food warehouse in Gaza

Four people have died as thousands of Palestinians burst into a United Nations warehouse in Gaza, tearing away sections of the building’s metal walls in a desperate attempt to find food.

Two people were fatally crushed and two others died of gunshot wounds after the crowd forced its way into the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday afternoon, health officials said.

It was not immediately clear if Israeli forces, private contractors or others had opened fire. A Red Cross field hospital said injuries from the scene included women and children with gunshot wounds.

Footage showed throngs of people shouting and pushing into the building while others threw bags of flour and boxes into the crowd.

“Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution,” WFP said in a statement, which warned of “alarming and deteriorating conditions on the ground”.

“Humanitarian needs have spiralled out of control after 80 days of complete blockade of all food assistance and other aid into Gaza,” the statement said. “Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve.”

A UN envoy compared the limited aid being allowed into Gaza to “a lifeboat after the ship has sunk”. Sigrid Kaag, the acting UN special coordinator for the Middle East, told the UN security council that people facing famine in Gaza “have lost hope”.

The 11-week siege and a continuing tight Israel blockade mean most people in Gaza are desperately hungry. Medics and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said for months that malnutrition is spreading. Bakeries operated by the UN World Food Programme have closed owing to a lack of cooking gas, and prices are soaring for the limited food available in shops and markets.

The chaotic scenes came as Gaza health officials said at least one civilian was killed and 48 injured in a separate incident at a food distribution point in the south of the territory. Israeli troops opened fire at the newly established site as a large crowd gathered there on Tuesday.

Witnesses to that incident said Israeli forces started shooting after crowds of Palestinians broke through the fences around the centre managed by a US-backed group, chosen by Israel to ship food into Gaza, which lost control of its distribution site. An Israeli military helicopter was seen firing flares and bursts of gunfire were heard in the distance. In one video, a large crowd of panicked civilians, including women and children, can be seen running away, trampling the fencing.

Footage showed hundreds of Palestinians queueing alongside barbed-wire fences shortly before the incident. As the food distribution began, thousands of starving Palestinians rushed into the site, causing at least two of the fences at the entrance queue to collapse quickly. Later footage shows all the entrance row fences collapsed in the panic that followed.

Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN human rights office for the Palestinian territories, said most of the injured people were hurt by gunfire. Gaza’s health ministry said at least one person was killed.

The Israeli military said it fired “warning shots” near the compound to restore control, but denied firing towards people.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been authorised by Israel to take over food distribution operations to bypass the UN aid mechanisms into the Palestinian territory, said: “No shots were fired at Palestinian crowds and there were no casualties.”

The accounts of the events of Tuesday came as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said an airstrike earlier this month had killed Mohammed Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza who took the position after the death of his elder brother Yahya last year. Both were planners of the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. Tuesday also marked the 600th day in captivity for the remaining Israeli hostages seized that day.

Satellite imagery of the Gaza food distribution centre, reviewed by the Guardian, suggests the incident took place inside an area marked by the IDF for evacuation as recently as Sunday.

Images and videos shared by the IDF in preparation for food distribution showed a large clearing constructed with fortifications around it, amid the bombed-out ruins of southern Gaza. Two routes with fencing were erected for entrance and exit, with the ones for entrance having five narrow fenced rows that crowds squeezed themselves into.

Recent imagery shows tables lined up end to end inside the clearing, where several armoured IDF vehicles and at least 8 aid trucks were visible. Interior photos of the aid trucks showed stacks of brown boxes shabbily packed, with stickers bearing “GHF”.

Children and women were caught up in the crowd, and a large dust cloud from the scrambling was visible. Some Palestinians managed to get their hands on boxes of food and run away, while others grabbed what food items they could and left.

Two of the boxes opened appeared to contain oil, pasta, beans, noodles, biscuits, flour, tinned food, sugar and tahini. Some videos appeared to show people lugging away bits of wood on foot and on the back of donkey carts.

Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters, which the group denies. Earlier this month, a global hunger monitor said half a million people in the strip faced starvation.

The IPC estimated that nearly 71,000 children under the age of five were expected to be “acutely malnourished”, with 14,100 cases expected to be severe in the next 11 months.

The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system for food distribution, saying it would not be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allowed Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. They have also said there was a risk of friction between Israeli troops and hungry people seeking supplies.

The organisations added that the newly formed group had no experience and so would not be able to handle the logistics of feeding more than 2 million people in a devastated combat zone, a prediction the dangerous scenes on Tuesday appeared to confirm.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Wednesday that the new – US-backed – distribution model was a waste of resources and a distraction from “atrocities”.

“We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose,” Lazzarini said. “The humanitarian community in Gaza, including Unrwa, is ready. We have the experience and expertise to reach people in need. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards famine, so humanitarian [work] must be allowed to do its life-saving work now.”

GHF said on Wednesday there were “many parties” that wished to see them fail. The US president, Donald Trump, said his administration was working on accelerating food deliveries to Gaza.

A group of NGOs, including ActionAid, said this month: “Aid that is used to mask ongoing violence is not aid, it is in fact humanitarian cover for a military strategy of control and dispossession.”