In the week since Israel launched food distributions under the auspices of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Israeli forces have turned the aid distributions into killing fields almost every day.
In a statement published Tuesday, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that over the past week, over 600 Palestinians have been killed or injured in Israeli attacks on crowds at the food distribution points.
Prior to the launch of the US-Israeli “aid” operation, humanitarian and human rights groups, including the UN, warned that the scheme was merely a means to lure Gaza’s remaining population to the south, where they could be trapped in concentration camps in preparation for the US-Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza by expelling its population.
It has since emerged that the purpose of the “aid” centers is even more sinister: they are launching points not only for indiscriminate massacres of aid-seekers, but for what appear to be targeted assassinations of members of the crowd. Rather than being a humanitarian lifeline, they are killing fields.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces carried out yet another massacre near an aid distribution site in Rafah, killing 27 people and injuring 90. On Monday, 3 people were killed and dozens were wounded in nearly the exact same circumstances. This followed a massacre on Sunday in which 30 people were killed and 170 were wounded.
In its report, the Euro-Med Monitor stated that, “According to testimonies and information collected by Euro-Med Monitor’s field researchers, Israeli army snipers deliberately targeted starving civilians with direct gunfire, mostly to the head, despite no apparent threat to Israeli forces.”
One survivor told the monitor, “At around 3:50 a.m. today, an Israeli quadcopter flew over and photographed the civilian crowd. Then, the army opened fire from a crane in the area. I personally carried three people who had been shot in the head. Most of the injuries were to the head. People came looking for food to ease their hunger, but they went back dead or wounded.”
In another testimony, A. B., 38, told the Euro-Med Monitor team, “Around 5:45 a.m., we managed to enter the center, and I was able to get an aid package. On my way out, I met a woman in her 40s who said she couldn’t continue forward and that she and her children were suffering from hunger and poverty. I gave her my package and returned to try to get another one, but there was nothing left. A quadcopter was overhead, broadcasting insulting remarks: ‘You animals, go away, the supply is out.’”
He continued, “As I was leaving and nearing the chute’s exit, I saw a child crying out loudly, ‘Mom, get up, Mom, get up.’ I went closer and found the woman I had given my package to lying in a pool of blood. She was dead,” he said. “A group of young men and I carried her outside and placed her in an ambulance. I accompanied her son to the hospital. On the way, along the sea road, I saw seven bodies lying on the side of the road.”
Aid-seekers attempting to access food are forced to wait in long lines before being subjected to facial recognition scans. The testimony presented by the Euro-Med Monitor could indicate that the ongoing massacres are not random killing sprees, but that the facial recognition scans are being used for targeted assassinations at the aid distribution sites.
On Wednesday, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – the fifth time it has done so. Fourteen other members of the Security Council voted for the ceasefire, which called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic” and called for the lifting of restrictions on food aid.
“Israel has a right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel,” said U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Sheato. “In this regard, any product that undermines our close ally Israel’s security is a non-starter.”
Sheato openly endorsed the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” declaring, “We instead urge the UN and NGOs to support the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to help it safely deliver aid without being diverted by Hamas.” In an open embrace of the massacres as the GHF aid centers, she said the foundation is delivering aid “consistent with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”
The US vetoed a similarly worded UN Security Council resolution under the Biden administration, using essentially the same rationalization.
Riyad Monsour, Palestine’s representative to the UN, told the Security Council, “the engineered starvation that has brought an entire civilian population, 2 million people, among them 1 million children, to the edge of famine and then used aid to lure them and confine them to an extremely limited area of the Gaza Strip, clearly to facilitate their expulsion and annexation.”
Last week, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian office, told reporters in a briefing that “One hundred percent of the population is at risk of famine,” and that Gaza is the “hungriest place on earth.”
He added that Israel’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza has made the UN’s efforts to feed the population “one of the most obstructed aid operations, not only in the world today but in recent history.”
On Wednesday, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in a statement that he is “shocked” by the extent of malnutrition in Gaza, saying, “I’m seeing teenage boys in tears, showing me their ribs.”
He condemned Israel’s daily massacres of aid-seekers, saying, “Imagine knowing there’d be a massacre, but being so desperate to feed your family that you still go.”
Gaza’s health ministry said Wednesday that 95 Palestinians had been killed in the last 24-hour period and that 440 had been injured. Its official Gaza death toll has risen to 54,607 killed with 125,341 injured since October 7, 2023.