As starvation grips Gaza, which the United Nations (UN) called the "hungriest place on Earth," Israeli forces have killed or injured more than 600 Palestinians at U.S.-backed aid distribution sites, sparking international alarm over the military's conduct.
At least 102 Palestinians have been killed and more than 490 have been wounded in attacks at each of the four aid sites across the Gaza Strip, run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organization the UN accused of weaponizing aid. Additionally, the aid is minimal. Each box includes rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits, and sugar, according to Al Jazeera.
Hundreds have been killed or injured at Rafah, the deadliest of the aid sites. On Sunday, 31 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded in what many are calling the "Witkoff Massacre," a reference to President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is brokering a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal between Hamas and the Israeli government.
Violence continued into Monday, with three more killed and dozens injured, followed by a third consecutive day of bloodshed that left at least 27 dead and more than 160 others wounded on Tuesday.
"The so-called 'aid' distribution [centers], situated in exposed and perilous red zones controlled by the occupying forces, have become bloodbaths," the Government Media Office said in a statement obtained by Middle East Eye. "Starving civilians are lured there due to the crippling famine and tight siege. They are then deliberately and coldly shot, a scene that exposes the true malice of the operation and its real objectives," the statement continued.
One Palestinian child said he waited with his mother from 7 p.m. Monday evening until dawn on Tuesday to collect aid. Then, he watched his mother die after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire on the crowd, shooting "from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks, and Israeli soldiers on the ground," a Doctors Without Borders volunteer told The New Arab.
"We are not fighters. We are civilians. We were just sitting, and the gunfire started everywhere," Ahmad Mohammad Zaidan said in an Instagram video shared by Mint Press on Tuesday. "There were no fighters among us. No one from our side attacked the Zionists. Yet the Zionists started bombing us everywhere."
The young boy warned others to not go to the aid distribution centers because they will be putting their family members' lives at risk.
"For a coupon that's not even worth 50 shekels, it's not worthy to sacrifice our lives," the boy warned.
The Israeli military initially dismissed the massacres as fabrications by Hamas. After Tuesday's attack in Rafah, the IDF shifted its narrative, claiming that aid seekers had "deviated from the designated access routes," prompting warning shots that escalated into live gunfire, according to the BBC.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an "immediate and independent investigation" into the aid site massacres, writing in a statement obtained by the BBC that he was "appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza."
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