GAZA: Rescuers said the Zionist military killed at least 27 people near a US-backed aid center in Gaza on Tuesday, with the army reporting it had fired on “suspects who advanced toward the troops”. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday slammed as “unacceptable” the deaths of Palestinians seeking food aid in Gaza, a spokesman said, calling the loss of life in the territory “unthinkable”. The White House said it is aware of reports of Zionist troops firing on Palestinian aid seekers. The UN human rights chief condemned such attacks on civilians as “a war crime” after a similar shooting in the same area on Sunday killed and wounded scores of Palestinians seeking aid, according to the civil defense agency.

“We are witnessing unthinkable loss of life in Gaza (and) the secretary-general condemns the loss of lives and injuries of Palestinians seeking aid. It is unacceptable civilians are risking and in several instances losing their lives just trying to get food,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “We’re going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium or before we take action,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt at a press briefing.

Tuesday’s deaths in the southern city of Rafah came as rescuers reported 19 people killed in other Zionist attacks in the territory, and as the Zionist army announced three soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza. “Twenty-seven people were killed and more than 90 injured in the massacre targeting civilians who were waiting for American aid in the Al-Alam area of Rafah,” said civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal, who earlier told AFP the deaths occurred “when (Zionist) forces opened fire with tanks and drones”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Gaza’s Rafah city recorded 27 deaths on Tuesday, matching the toll given by rescuers. “Early this morning, the 60-bed Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 184 patients. This includes 19 cases who were declared dead upon arrival and eight more who died due to their wounds shortly after,” the ICRC said.

The organization added in a statement that survivors of the early morning incident said they had been “trying to reach an assistance distribution site”. The ICRC said Tuesday’s shooting caused “the highest number of weapon-wounded patients received in a single incident” since the field hospital opened more than a year ago. “The unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents treated at the field hospital is deeply worrying and illustrates the harrowing reality that civilians in Gaza are being forced to endure,” it added.

The Al-Alam roundabout is about a kilometer from a center run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a recently formed group that the Zionist entity has worked with to implement a new aid distribution mechanism in the territory. The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the group over concerns it was designed to cater to Zionist military objectives.

At Nasser Hospital, the husband and children of Reem Al-Akhras, who was killed at Al-Alam, were beside themselves with grief. “How can I let you go, mum?” her son Zain Zidan said through tears as he cradled her white-shrouded head outside the hospital. “She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her.” Akhras’s husband, Mohamed Zidan, said “every day, unarmed people” were being killed. “They carry no weapons or knives — just bags to collect aid. “This is not humanitarian aid; it’s a trap,” he said.

Rania Al-Astal, 30, said she had gone to Al-Alam with her husband to try to get food. “The shooting began intermittently around 5:00 am. Every time people approached Al-Alam roundabout, they were fired upon,” she told AFP. “But people didn’t care and rushed forward all at once — that’s when the army began firing heavily.”

Fellow witness Mohammed al-Shaer, 44, said at first “the (Zionist) army fired shots into the air, then began shooting directly at the people”. In the end, he said, “I didn’t reach the center, and we didn’t get any food.” The previous shooting on Sunday killed at least 31 people at the Al-Alam roundabout as they congregated before heading to the aid center, rescuers said. “Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza are unconscionable,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said after Tuesday’s deaths. “Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime.”

GHF on Tuesday named an evangelical Christian leader as its new chairman. The appointment of Reverend Johnnie Moore “underscores GHF’s determination to pair operational excellence with experienced, service-oriented leadership,” the group’s acting executive director John Acree said in a statement. “His insight will be invaluable as we build on our early success.”

Moore has had a confrontational approach to the United Nations. After Guterres expressed revulsion at “reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza” on Sunday, Moore responded angrily. “Mr Secretary General, it was a lie,” the reverend posted to Guterres on X, “spread by terrorists & you’re still spreading it. Correct this.”

On Tuesday a leading US management consulting firm that helped create the GHF said it has terminated its contract with the organization and placed the partner leading the project on leave. Boston Consulting Group helped establish the GHF in Oct 2024. “Unapproved follow-on work relating to Gaza lacked buy-in from multilateral stakeholders and was stopped on May 30. BCG has not and will not be paid for any of this work,” the group said in a statement. BCG said a formal review of the work has begun, and “the partner who led this work has been placed on administrative leave.”

The Zionist entity has come under mounting pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where people are facing severe shortages after the Zionist entity imposed a more than two-month blockade on supplies. The health ministry in Gaza said at least 4,240 people have been killed in the territory since the Zionist entity resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians. – Agencies