[News] Gaza aid contractor tells BBC he saw colleagues fire on hungry Palestinians

[Dr.Legénd]

The man we spoke to, who said he had worked at all four of the GHF distribution sites, described a culture of impunity with few rules or controls.

 

He said contractors were given no clear rules of engagement or standard operating procedures, and were told by one team leader: "if you feel threatened, shoot – shoot to kill and ask questions later".

 

The culture in the company, he said, felt like "we're going into Gaza so it's no rules. Do what you want."

 

"If a Palestinian is walking away from the site and not demonstrating any hostile intent, and we're shooting warning shots at them regardless, we are wrong, we are criminally negligent," he told me.

 

He told us that each site had CCTV monitoring the activity in the area, and GHF insistence that no one there had been hurt or shot at was "an absolute bare-faced lie".

 

GHF said that gunfire heard in footage shared with the BBC was coming from Israeli forces.

 

Team leaders referred to Gazans as "zombie hordes", the former contractor said, "insinuating that these people have no value."

 

The man also said Palestinians were coming to harm in other ways at GHF sites, for example by being hit by debris from stun grenades, being sprayed with mace or being pushed by the crowds into razor wire.

 

He said he had witnessed several occasions in which Palestinians appeared to have been seriously hurt, including one man who had a full can of pepper spray in his face, and a woman who he said was hit with the metal part of a stun grenade, improperly fired into a crowd.

 

"This metal piece hit her directly in the head and she dropped to the ground, not moving," he said. "I don't know if she was dead. I know for a fact she was unconscious and completely limp."

LINK