Witnesses Say American Military Contractors Shot Tear Gas at Gaza Aid Seekers

American private military contractors used dangerous crowd control tactics on a crowd of Palestinian aid seekers in Gaza on Wednesday, witnesses say, causing a deadly stampede and adding to the nearly 1,000 Palestinians who have been killed in relation to the U.S.- and Israeli-backed “humanitarian aid” scheme thus far.

A crowd of thousands had gathered around a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) installation in hopes of receiving aid on Wednesday. According to a witness cited by Al Jazeera, the crowd realized the site was closed when they got to the gate.

“The Americans fired tear gas into the crowd to disperse them which caused a stampede and many people died while being crushed by the crowd,” the witness said.

The crowding and stampeding caused numerous deaths, witnesses said. In all, at least 21 people died while seeking aid at the site on Wednesday, according to Gaza health officials.

The Associated Press also reported witness accounts that said that American contractors threw stun grenades and fired pepper spray on people at the site, causing panic.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that numerous Palestinians died due to tear gas inhalation, while Israeli forces also opened fire on the crowd. Wafa says this is the first time tear gas has been used on the crowds near GHF sites.

These accounts line up with previous reports about GHF sites. Israeli soldiers have said that they are instructed to fire live ammunition as a form of communication with Palestinian aid seekers at GHF sites, and open fire at the crowds when sites aren’t open, Haaretz reported recently.

This violence happens with full coordination between GHF staff and Israeli forces, one contractor who served in Gaza under GHF said in a Zeteo op-ed last month.

The UN has tallied at least 875 Palestinians killed in GHF- and aid-related incidents since the first sites opened at the end of May.

GHF has denied these accounts, and claimed, without evidence, that Hamas “fomented” unrest among the crowd. The group said, however, that it did use pepper spray during the incident — which, alone, could cause panic among a densely-packed group of starving people.

Established humanitarian groups, including UN agencies, have shunned GHF since it was first announced and have called for the group to halt operations in the Strip to give way for the UN-run aid operation. Indeed, numerous human rights groups have observed that GHF is staffed almost exclusively with Israeli and U.S. military and intelligence personnel, rather than aid workers.

Earlier this week, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for President Donald Trump to bear criminal responsibility for complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, due in part to the U.S.’s backing of GHF. Euro-Med Monitor said that American military contractors have used tear gas numerous times around aid sites, indicating deeper involvement in Israel’s violence in Gaza by American contractors than has previously been reported.

The group said that international figures must hold Trump responsible for “his adoption and direct support of the Israeli aid distribution mechanism, imposed by force and transformed into arenas of mass slaughter against starving civilians, as well as his administration’s full-scale provision of military, financial, political, and diplomatic backing that enabled Israel to commit and expand the crime for over 21 months.”