NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that hungry people in Gaza seeking food must not face a “death sentence” as controversy swirls around a new US- and Israeli-backed distribution system.
“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters, without explicitly naming the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose operations have led to near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people desperate to get food.
“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres added.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.
GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.
