Humanitarian Disaster Deepens As US-Backed Aid Sites Become Killing Grounds

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Gaza City, Bassam Zaqout, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, said that the current aid distribution system has replaced 400 aid points with just four.

"I think there are different hidden agendas in this aid distribution mechanism," he said.

"The mechanism does not cater to the needs of the people, such as the elderly and people with disabilities."

According to Zaqout, while international and UN agencies are ready to operate hundreds of aid points, access remains blocked.

"Currently, only about 1 percent of the aid distribution points are available in Gaza," he said.

"Meanwhile, various UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations are prepared to operate 400 distribution points to facilitate aid delivery."

"One hundred percent of the population is hungry."

He described scenes of desperation and violence at the remaining aid locations, now tightly controlled by Israeli forces.

"People walk for miles from early morning, trying to reach the limited aid points, now just four across Gaza … and all surrounded by Israeli soldiers," Zaqout said.

"When they sense the crowds grow and are not controllable, soldiers open fire on those waiting for supplies."

The humanitarian crisis is compounded by the collapse of Gaza's health system.

"The hospitals are operating with extremely limited resources," Zaqout said.

"Medical staff are forced to focus only on life-saving procedures for the wounded.

Those patients with non-critical or mild injuries receive basic treatment so they can recover."

"But those with severe injuries who require more advanced treatments … doctors work with them to put them in a stabilization situation," he explained.

"Some of them will go on a waiting list with other thousands of wounded people to reach the health assistance outside Gaza Strip."

Meanwhile, the Gaza Government Media Office issued a statement confirming the killing of at least 22 people and the wounding of 115 others at a US-backed aid site in Rafah.

It warned the toll is likely to rise.

According to the office, more than 39 people have been killed and over 220 wounded at such aid sites in less than a week.

The statement condemned the sites as "mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points."

"We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war," the statement said.

The office accused Israel of blackmailing starving civilians, gathering them in exposed areas under the watch of the Israeli military.

"These killing points are managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by the occupation and the US administration, which bears full moral and legal responsibility for these crimes," it added.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,381 Palestinians and wounded 124,054, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Gaza Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.