GAZA\/CAIRO
\nWhen university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of hungry people and finally left empty handed.
\nShooting first started shortly after he left his family\u2019s tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 to join crowds on the coast road heading towards the aid site in the city of Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new U.S.-based organization working with private military contractors to deliver aid in Gaza.
\nThe second time Salama came under fire was at Alam Roundabout close to the aid delivery site, where he saw six dead bodies.
\nTwenty-seven people were killed that day by Israeli fire on aid seekers, opens new tab, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel said its forces had shot at a group of people they viewed as a threat and the military is investigating the incident.
\nAt the aid delivery site, known as SDS 1, queues snaked through narrow cage-like fences before gates were opened to an area surrounded by sand barriers where packages of supplies were left on tables and in boxes on the ground, according to undated CCTV video distributed by GHF, reviewed by Reuters.
\nSalama said the rush of thousands of people once the gates opened was a \u201cdeath trap.\u201d
\n\u201cSurvival is for the stronger: people who are fitter and can make it earlier and can push harder to win the package,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt my ribs going into each other. My chest was going into itself. My breath…I couldn\u2019t breathe. People were shouting; they couldn\u2019t breathe at all.\u201d
\nReuters could not independently verify all the details of Salama\u2019s account. It matched the testimonies of two other aid seekers interviewed by Reuters, who spoke of crawling and ducking as bullets rattled overhead on their way to or from the aid distribution sites.
\nAll three witnesses said they saw dead bodies on their journeys to and from the Rafah sites.
\nA statement from a nearby Red Cross field hospital confirmed the number of dead from the attack near the aid site on June 3.
\nAsked about the high number of deaths since it began operations on May 26, GHF said there had been no casualties at or in the close vicinity of its site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAZA\/CAIRO When university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of hungry people and finally left empty handed. Shooting first started shortly after he left his family\u2019s tent at 3 a.m. on June 3 to join crowds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-483448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n