Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians as they waited for food at a distribution point set up by a US-led organization in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
Gaza’s Government Media Office has said Israeli forces committed “a horrific, intentionally repeated crime” by having lured starving Palestinians to aid centers run by Tel Aviv-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and killed 102 of them in the past eight days.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Civil Defense agency said, “Twenty-seven people were killed and more than 90 injured in the massacre targeting civilians who were waiting for American aid in the Al-Alam area of Rafah.”
“Israeli forces opened fire with tanks and drones on thousands of civilians who had gathered since dawn near al-Alam roundabout in the al-Mawasi area, north-west of Rafah,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The director of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Atef Al-Hout, described 24 dead and 37 wounded arriving with gunshot injuries.
He confirmed that Israeli forces had opened fire on “crowds of civilians waiting for aid in western Rafah.”
A foreign medic described the scene as “total carnage,” with overwhelmed doctors struggling to treat the flood of casualties.
For more than three months, Gaza has been under a total Israeli blockade, with all border crossings shut and humanitarian aid, food, and fuel severely restricted.
International aid groups and the United Nations have rejected the Israeli-controlled aid plan led by the GHF, warning it is being used as a tool to “weaponize” humanitarian relief.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged an independent investigation into Israel’s killing of Palestinians at aid distribution sites, saying it’s “unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food.”
“Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime,” Guterres has said.
The aid scheme, managed by the GHF, currently operates with significantly fewer distribution points—only four compared to hundreds previously under the UN-coordinated system.
Most of these sites are reportedly not operational on any given day.
The United Nations has expressed strong opposition to the new system, arguing that it puts civilians at risk by requiring them to travel long distances through Israeli military zones to access food.
Critics also fear that the new aid plan has been devised to contribute to displacement in northern Gaza, as all aid distribution sites are now located in the south.
