By Quds News Network
Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least 21 starving Palestinians were killed Wednesday morning while seeking aid at a US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site in southern Gaza, after chaos broke out when American mercenaries trapped the crowd and used pepper spray.
What Happened?
According to local sources, when the GHF aid distribution point in northern Rafah opened, starving civilians rushed from long distances and were funneled through a narrow corridor to reach the site.
When they reached, American mercenaries closed the gate and sprayed pepper spray, causing mass panic and suffocation due to the gas and overcrowding. So far, more than 20 people have been killed.
According to survivors, the American mercenaries deliberately closed the gate as aid seekers arrived, causing crushing overcrowding. The Americans then began spraying pepper spray and tear gas, which led to panic and chaos, resulting in people being trampled and killed.
One survivor said there were thousands of aid seekers, adding that these are “not aid sites” but “mass death traps” designed to lure starving people.
Another survivor, while bidding farewell to a relative, said, “The Americans killed him.”
According to medical sources, the majority of the victims were children and fathers who have been starved for months by Israel.
False Accusations
The controversial foundation confirmed the killings, saying “at least 19 of the victims were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd.”
However, the GHF claimed that “elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest,” without providing any evidence.
GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, the organisation alleged, adding that a US worker was threatened with a firearm by someone in the crowd.
The GHF didn’t mention that American mercenaries attacked the aid seekers, leading to chaos and deaths.
In response, Gaza’s Government Media Office slammed GHF’s “false and misleading statement”.
The Office explained what happened:
- This morning, 21 people were killed — 15 from suffocation and 6 by direct gunfire, with dozens more injured.
- GHF called on hundreds of thousands of civilians to receive aid at a center named ‘SDS3’ in southern Gaza. Once thousands of starving people were gathered inside the narrow iron corridors, deliberately designed to restrict movement, the gates were locked.
- Staff of this “criminal organization”, along with Israeli soldiers, sprayed pepper gas and opened fire on the starving crowd, who had come seeking aid.
- This resulted in mass suffocation, stampedes, and immediate deaths within an enclosed area with no exits, a setting clearly designed to cause killings.
- Testimonies from 14 eyewitnesses consistently confirm what happened. The Government Media Office had earlier released verified video evidence showing members of this American-backed organization firing directly at civilians.
- GHF’s attempt to shift blame onto innocent civilians or Palestinian factions is a transparent and unacceptable tactic aimed at evading legal, ethical, and humanitarian responsibility for a deliberate massacre.
- This is not an isolated incident. To date, over 870 civilians have been killed near or at GHF aid sites, more than 5,700 injuried, and 46 others went missing, making it a “direct participant in the genocide and starvation campaign carried out by the Israeli occupation.”
“Mass Death Traps”
Since the GHF started its operations on May 27 in Gaza, over 800 aid seekers have been killed by Israeli forces and American mercenaries and over 5,200 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Additionally, 46 others have been reported missing after heading to the GHF sites to obtain food.
Israeli mass killings of aid seekers near GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces.
Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.
On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.
An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report in May warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.
After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza.
The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.”
“Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said.
The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”.
“It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said.
“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the US-backed aid distribution mechanism is “inherently unsafe” and “it is killing people.”
“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres told reporters.
Guterres said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themselves are starving and Israel, as the occupying power, is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave.
“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.
According to a Haaretz report, conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered forces to shoot at crowds waiting for food near or at the US-backed GHF aid sites to drive them away or disperse them, despite posing no threat.
“It’s a killing field,” one soldier said.
“Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”
In a recent statement, the Israeli military admitted that its forces “harmed” Palestinian civilians at US-Israeli aid distribution centers in Gaza. The army claimed new field instructions were issued based on “lessons learned.”
A new Associated Press report with leaked footage also detailed how American contractors at GHF aid sites used live ammunition, stun grenades and pepper spray against starving Palestinians seeking food.
16 July 2025
Source: countercurrents.org