At least 600 Palestinians have been killed over the past five weeks at food distributions operated by the US and Israeli-backed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), Gaza’s government media office said this week.
The killings took place in over 20 separate massacres, which have become an almost daily occurrence as a critical component of the ongoing Gaza genocide.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Associated Press and BBC published reports, based on firsthand interviews, that American private military contractors working for the GHF opened fire on Palestinian civilians, contradicting claims by the GHF, the US, and Israel that the contractors had not taken part in the mass killings.
The reports by the Associated Press and BBC present a picture of the aid distributions as a type of dehumanizing target practice, in which the “humanitarian” employees laugh at killing civilians and egg each other on to commit violence.
One former employee who spoke to the BBC said that the contractors were given license to kill with impunity. “We’re going into Gaza so it’s no rules. Do what you want,” he said. He said he was told, “If you feel threatened, shoot—shoot to kill and ask questions later.”
The Palestinians were referred to by the US contractors as “zombie hordes,” the source told the BBC, “insinuating that these people have no value.”
The AP reported, “Each contractor was equipped with a pistol, stun grenades, tear gas and an Israeli-made automatic rifle capable of firing dozens of rounds within seconds, said the contractor who took the videos.”
Each aid distribution is regularly accompanied not only with lethal rounds, but stun grenades and rubber bullets. The AP reported, “During a single distribution in June, contractors used 37 stun grenades, 27 rubber-and-smoke ‘scat shell’ projectiles and 60 cans of pepper spray, according to internal text communications shared with the AP. That count does not include live ammunition.”
The reports by the BBC and AP further substantiate allegations that the GHF distributions are being used to identify people for arrest or murder using artificial intelligence. The AP reported that “some cameras are equipped with facial recognition software.”
In March, Israel initiated a total blockade of all food, water, and electricity entering the Gaza Strip, effectively shutting down the operations of humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations and MSF in the enclave. In May, the GHF began its food distributions, accompanied by near daily mass killings. Last month, the Trump administration announced that it was providing $30 million in funding to the GHF.
On Tuesday, a group of over 150 humanitarian organizations issued a statement condemning the GHF. It declared, “Concentrating more than two million people into further confined areas for a chance to feed their families is not a plan to save lives.”
The statement added, “The humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the Government of Israel’s blockade and restrictions, a blockade now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favor of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs.”
It added, “Under the Israeli government’s new scheme, starved and weakened civilians are being forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites with a single entry point. There, thousands are released into chaotic enclosures to fight for limited food supplies.”
Last week, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an investigation featuring interviews with Israeli troops, who said they were repeatedly ordered to open fire on unarmed crowds of aid seekers in an operation whose name apparently references the homicidal “red light, green light” game in the fictional Squid Games television series.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Dr. Mads Gilbert, an emergency medicine doctor who has practiced in Gaza for decades, said that the operation of the GHF “is part of the [Israeli military forces] and the Israeli government plan to ethnically cleanse and to fulfill their goal of genocide in Gaza.”
He added, “The distribution organization is aimed at using food as bait to attract starving people, to terrorize them and to kill them. The shooting of people in food lines is a war crime.”
At least 66 children have died of malnutrition in Gaza during the US-Israeli genocide, Gaza’s government media office said this weekend, as mass hunger continues to skyrocket in the besieged enclave.
In June alone, over 5,000 children between 6 months and 5 years of age have been diagnosed with malnutrition. This represents a 50 percent increase from May and a 150 percent increase from February.
On Tuesday the Israeli Maariv publication reported that last month, on their way back from attacking Iran, Israeli fighter pilots dumped their unused munitions over Gaza, allowing the mass killing to continue despite the onslaught being waged against Iran.
More than 300 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops over the past two days, the Gaza Government Media Office said Thursday. The attacks took place throughout the whole of Gaza, and included refugee camps, homes, and markets.
On Wednesday, Dr. Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home in western Gaza.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and the real death toll is likely to be far higher.