Amnesty accuses Israel, aid system of using starvation to commit Gaza genocide

AMNESTY International accused a controversial Israeliand US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza of using starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel's war with Hamas.

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The UK-based human rights group released a report Thursday condemning Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the US and Israel have backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near GHF distribution centres over the past month. The centres are guarded by private security contractors and located near Israeli military positions. Palestinian officials and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at crowds of people moving near the sites.

The Amnesty report said Israel has "turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians” through GHF's militarised hubs. The conditions have created "a deadly mix of hunger and disease pushing the population past breaking point.”

"This devastating daily loss of life as desperate Palestinians try to collect aid is the consequence of their deliberate targeting by Israeli forces and the foreseeable consequence of irresponsible and lethal methods of distribution,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Israel denies accusations

Israel's foreign minister denounced the Amnesty report, saying the organization has "joined forces with Hamas and fully adopted all of its propaganda lies.”

The Israeli army says it has fired warning shots to control crowds and only fires at people it says are acting suspiciously.