By Abdallah Aljamal – Gaza

“My younger brother Mohammed felt that he would be martyred. He felt he was pursued by the occupation’s missiles. And indeed, he was killed at a distribution center”.

The systematic targeting of distribution centers has become a new tactic routinely employed by the Israeli army, along with the so-called ‘flour massacres’, in order to further implement a policy of starvation against the population of the besieged Strip.

On Thursday morning, Israeli forces bombed a building managed by the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), serving as a distribution center. The attack killed at least five people and injured many more. 

On that same day, the Israeli military targeted another distribution center, belonging to the Palestinian  Ministry of Social Development, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the Central Gaza Strip. 

The Palestine Chronicle has spoken with relatives of four victims of the Israeli bombing.

‘My Husband Went to Buy Bread’ – Palestine Chronicle Speaks to Bereaved Gaza Women

Feeling Death

“My 15-year-old brother Mohammed went to collect a packet of diapers for my young cousin at the distribution center in Nuseirat,”  Muath al-Hour told The Palestine Chronicle. 

“While he was waiting for his turn to get the diapers, the occupation bombed the distribution center, and my brother Mohammed was instantly killed,” he continued. 

Like many people in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed’s family had been displaced more than once during the ongoing aggression. 

“We were displaced from our home in Nuseirat three months ago, and we lived in a tent in Rafah City, in the south, for about a month. But when the Israeli forces withdrew from the camp, we realized that the bombing was everywhere, and we decided to return home,” al-Hour told us. 

“Our house was hit by a shell from the occupation artillery one day, and by God’s grace, we managed to survive,” he noted.

“But my younger brother Mohammed felt that he would be martyred. He felt he was pursued by the occupation’s missiles. And indeed, he was killed at a distribution center,” al-Hour said, with a broken voice.

‘Greater than Any Love’ – Gaza Children Who Wants Their Parents to Come Back from Death

The Dearest People to Me

Israeli bombing has not spared social workers and volunteers, who are relentlessly trying to help the civilian population amid the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“I am a social worker at the Ministry of Social Development, which is dedicated to caring for the poor in the Gaza Strip,” Mohammed al-Dashat told The Palestine Chronicle.

Al-Dashat’s brother, 42-year-old Osama, used to work at the vocational training center in Khan Yunis, affiliated with the ministry. At the beginning of the war, however, he was assigned to the distribution center in the Nuseirat camp. 

His younger brother Raed, 29 years old, decided to go with him to volunteer at the center, along with their 21-year-old nephew, Amir.

“Every day, we saw thousands of displaced people searching for food for their children, and we distributed the supplies we received, which were very limited anyway,” al-Dashat told us. 

“On Thursday morning, I went to the headquarters of the ministry in Deir al-Balah city to attend an emergency meeting regarding aid distribution. I was still there when we received news of the bombing in Nuseirat,” al-Dashat said.

‘Airdrops are Ineffective’ – People in Gaza Urge to Open Crossings, Stop the War

“I left the meeting and went there immediately. The distance between Deir Al-Balah and Nuseirat is about five kilometers. Along the way, I could not stop thinking of my brothers and nephew, and I was overwhelmed by fear,” he told us. 

“I could not stop crying, I knew that the bombing had taken away the dearest people to me.”

“As I arrived at the scene, I found traces of the bombing, with blood scattered everywhere. The aid packages that were supposed to be distributed were mixed with the blood of the martyrs,” al-Dashat continued.

“I asked about my brothers and my nephew, and they told me they were injured and were transferred to Al-Awda Hospital. I rushed running to the hospital, which is about 700 meters away, but when I entered, I was shocked to see the bodies of my brothers and nephew”.

Al-Dashat told us that after the bombing, there is no place to receive aid in Nuseirat. He called for an investigation into this heinous crime. 

“More than 200,000 displaced people have lost the only distribution center in the area. The occupation is implementing a starvation war parallel to the bombing, and this must be stopped.

(The Palestine Chronicle)