Video shows crowd of Palestinians climbing fence and rushing to aid site

Footage shared online shows hundreds of Palestinians climbing over a large mound of dirt - with some seen scaling a metal fence - as they rush to enter an aid site in Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Palestinians are first seen waiting behind a fence, before a voice - off-camera, with an American accent - shouts instructions. They are then seen entering the site and shouting as they run towards what is assumed to be aid.

BBC Verify geolocated the video to the SDS1 distribution site, west of Rafah. It is said to have been filmed on Tuesday.

The GHF is a controversial Israel- and US-backed group that aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to Palestinians.

The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the GHF system, saying it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.

The BBC has approached the GHF for comment.

The video was shared by Alon Lee-Green, an Israeli anti-war activist, who said he had obtained it from an employee of "the American company in Gaza". It was unclear if this referred to GHF or one of the private security contractors that staff its aid sites.

In a post on X, Green described the scene as "apocalyptic".

"But this is not a disaster movie, but the hell we created in Gaza," he wrote. "This is what starving people look like, rushing for food while risking their lives. This is what the dehumanization of millions of people looks like."

Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult.

Almost every day since the GHF began distributing aid on 26 May, Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid near one or other of the four centres it has so far opened.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says a total of 223 people have been killed and 1,858 others injured while trying to reach areas designated for aid distribution since then.

The US and Israel say the GHF's system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas, which the group denies doing.

On Wednesday, another six people were reportedly killed by Israeli fire near a GHF site in Rafah, in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

After reports of aid-related killings on Tuesday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's refugee agency for Palestinians, said "another day of aid distribution, another day of death traps".

"Day after day, casualties & scores of injured are reported at distribution points manned by Israel & private security companies.

"This humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry & desperate people to walk for tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable & those living too far."

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 55,104 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.