UPDATE - White House says it is reviewing reports of civilian casualties at Gaza aid distribution site

ADDS REMARKS FROM STATE DEPARTMENT'S SPOKESWOMAN

​​​​​​​By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House said Tuesday that it is reviewing reports of civilian casualties at a Gaza aid distribution site after officials said dozens were killed and injured.

"The administration is aware of those reports, and we are currently looking into the veracity of them. Because unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don't take the word of Hamas with total truth. We like to look into it when they speak," spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Hamas said Israeli forces opened fire early Tuesday on civilians awaiting humanitarian aid at a distribution point in Rafah in southern Gaza, leaving 27 dead and more than 90 injured.

The group appealed to the UN to intervene to stop the “killing mechanism” and to open humanitarian corridors under international oversight, without Israeli control.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the killings.

"We are witnessing unthinkable loss of life in Gaza," said Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. "The secretary-general condemns the loss of lives and injuries of Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza. It is unacceptable. Civilians are risking, and in several instances losing, their lives to get food." 

US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce lashed out Tuesday at reporters over questions on the casualties at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid site.

"Everyone has wanted food and aid to go through into Gaza. It is a war zone, and different kinds of decisions have to be made. People put their lives at risk to get the aid into those kinds of regions, and this is one of those cases," she said.

"We’ll find out through the IDF (Israeli army) investigation what occurred, but the fact of the matter is I think we are now at 7 million meals distributed to date.”

Insisting on the number of meals delivered to Gaza, she said: "And I thought after three months of being harangued in this room by many of you about, 'Don't you care about the starving Gazans?' Seven million meals, and now we're being harangued about, 'It's not by the right people.' We have to move on from that."

Asked whether there are any US personnel working for GHF or with it, Bruce said: "I have said – I think we’ve all been saying that in fact the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is an independent organization. It does not receive US government funding."

Israel has pursued a devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, killing nearly 54,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, following a Hamas-led cross-border raid that killed around 1,200 people. Amid the offensive, aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million people.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.

*Diyar Guldogan from Washington, DC contributed to this report