Reuters
Over the past three days, there have been a series of deadly incidents on the route to an aid distribution site in Gaza run by a controversial group backed by the US and Israel.
The three incidents took place on roads approaching one of the new sites in the extreme south-west of Gaza, which is under full Israeli military control. The facility is being operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The first incident took place early on Sunday morning when 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency. Another three people were killed by gunfire on Monday morning, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Meanwhile, a further 27 people were killed by Israeli fire near the site on Tuesday morning, according to health officials.
Israel has denounced what it called “false reports” that its troops fired on civilians at or near the sites. It said that some soldiers fired warning shots on Sunday 1km away, and that they also opened fire after identifying “several suspects” on Monday and Tuesday.
Very few videos have emerged from Gaza that show the incidents themselves, but BBC Verify has examined footage has surfaced and attempted to map how they unfolded.
Where have the incidents taken place?
All three are reported to have taken place near an aid distribution centre in the south-west of Gaza, in the Tal al-Sultan area.
The site, named Safe Distribution Site 1 (SDS 1) by the GHF, opened on the 26 May. It is one of four such facilities, three of which are based in southern Gaza.
The facilities are part of a new aid system – widely condemned by humanitarian groups – aiming to bypass the UN, which Israel has accused of failing to prevent Hamas diverting aid to its fighters. The UN says that has not been a big problem and that the GHF’s system is unworkable and unethical.
However, only SDS 1 has been open and operational since Friday, according to official GHF posts online. It follows a chaotic opening week which saw the site overrun by desperate civilians, and projectiles being thrown towards Gazans at another facility at the GHF’s northern site near Nuseirat on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the foundation did not respond to messages asking why the other facilities have been closed for several days.
The GHF has also encouraged civilians to follow a set route when approaching SDS 1, directing them along a coastal road called al-Rashid Street.
The instructions have been issued on the foundation’s official Facebook page.
Chris Newton, a senior analyst at the Brussels-based think tank Crisis Group, said the route was neither “safe nor effective”.
He added that directing civilians down a single route towards the site was “a very far cry from what was possible” under the UN-based system, which saw 400 distribut
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