27 May 2025

Chaos ensued when the first of the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) aid distribution site opened in the in the Tal al-Sultan area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The UN Human Rights Office has said it believes 47 people were injured when crowds overwhelmed the centre. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said one person was killed and 48 others were wounded.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops had fired “warning shots in the area outside the compound” as thousands of starving Palestinians overran the site set up by the controversial US and Israeli-backed group. The GHF said “no shots were fired at Palestinian crowds” trying to obtain aid at its distribution centre, “and that there were no casualties”.

The BBC reported that the Head of OHCHR Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, told reporters in Geneva:

We are trying to confirm what has happened to them in the sense of seriousness [of the injuries]. What we know is that it was shooting from the IDF. What we saw yesterday is a very clear example of the dangers of distributing aid in the way GHF is doing this… Exposing people to death and injury trying to get food. There is a right to food, but also to distribution of food and humanitarian supplies in a safe and dignified manner.

As we have previously reported, Israel refuses to work with the aid organisations that have previously distributed aid in Gaza. Instead they have selected the GHF which is backed by the Trump administration. And the UN and other established aid agencies have refused to co-operate with the GHF, arguing that its operation does not comply with the humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality.

Even before distribution started, GHF Executive Director Jake Wood resigned, saying it was clear it wasn’t possible to implement the plan while sticking to humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.

Now it is clear that GHF cannot distribute aid in a safe way from the planned 4 or 5 distribution centres. As the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland said in the interview featured in our recent article. He said:

We give aid to women, children, families, according to needs. That’s what we do in all war zones, all over the world, and have done so for generations. We cannot have a party to a conflict, decide where, how and whom will get the aid. So let’s go back to the system that worked. It worked very well until the ceasefire ended in March by Israel and when Israel then sealed off yet again Gaza so that people have been besieged and starved since then.

28 May 2025

Thousands of Palestinians looted a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and two people may have died when its warehouse there was broken into. WFP statements said:

Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution. Initial reports indicate two people died and several were injured in the tragic incident. WFP is still confirming details. Humanitarian needs have spiralled out of control after 80 days of complete blockade of all food assistance and other aid into Gaza.

[WFP has] consistently warned of alarming and deteriorating conditions on the ground, and the risks imposed by limiting humanitarian aid to hungry people in desperate need of assistance. Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve. WFP urgently calls for safe, unimpeded humanitarian access to enable orderly food distributions across Gaza immediately,