‘It looked like a large prison’: Chaos ensues at U.S.-Israeli-backed aid distribution site in Gaza
After hours of waiting under the scorching sun, starving Palestinians stormed the militarized aid distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Live fire was reportedly opened on the crowd, as people struggled to get their hands on aid.
On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli media published photos of a long queue lined up in barbed-wire-fenced passageways waiting to receive aid in Rafah. The harrowing scenes were part of the initial attempt by the U.S.-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to implement its project to distribute assistance to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
After hours of waiting under the scorching sun, people began to push into the long, narrow passageways, which were fenced on both sides and marked with signs directing those queuing to the distribution point. The chaos quickly devolved into a stampede, and people began rushing the scene, grabbing whatever aid boxes they could find. Within hours of the opening of the aid distribution point, news quickly spread of people securing aid, and thousands had gathered near the checkpoint.
Amidst the chaos at the distribution center, the American team working at the site lost control over the crowds. Although some of them carried weapons and fired in the air, according to eyewitnesses, the hungry families did not stop. The Israeli media reported that an army force was called in to protect the foreign employees of the aid distribution company, with reports of fire being opened on the crowd.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement on Tuesday that “the Israeli occupation is failing miserably in its aid distribution project in the apartheid zones, amid the collapse of the humanitarian process and the escalation of the crime of starvation.”
‘It looked like a large prison‘
People began arriving at an area called al-Alam, west of Rafah, which is under complete Israeli military control. According to testimonies, people went to the area after receiving information to go there to receive the food parcels. As some families headed out, others followed.
When people in the Rafah area saw scores of people heading to al-Alam and returning carrying boxes of food aid, everyone who could reach the area went to get food.
Muhammad Abu Hadi, 34, was in his tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis when he saw his neighbor carrying a food box and returning to his tent around 3:00 p.m. He immediately asked him where he got it. His neighbor told him a point had opened in Rafah for the distribution of food parcels.
Muhammad headed to the point immediately. When he arrived, “it felt like a desert,” he said. “You walk a long way, then you find the fence. There were two lines, one for men and one for women.”
“There were about five American employees; the rest were Arabs who spoke like us,” Muhammad added. “They treated us respectfully, and we received a food box and returned the same way through the barbed wire.”
Muhammad says they were not searched or harassed, but cameras were installed in several places, capturing each person from every angle.
“I arrived at the distribution point. It looked like a large prison, with common paths and vast spaces between us and the distribution point. But people removed the fence and stormed the place without anyone attacking them later.”
Muhammad explains that the Israeli army was not far from them when chaos first broke out; they were stationed near the distribution center, but they did not shoot anyone until he left, carrying a box of food aid at around 4:30 p.m.
Some reports have emerged suggesting that the U.S.-backed aid distribution centers are already being used to detain civilians seeking food parcels. According to Drop Site News, at least one person was detained near the Morag Corridor “after he failed to provide information on a relative.”
Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill said that the family of the detained man received a call from him while he was being detained by Israeli intelligence in Rafah, and that they were “demanding information about one of our relatives with whom we’ve had no contact since the beginning of the war.”
According to Scahill, when the family was unable to provide the information the army requested, “communication was cut off,” and they were later informed that he was transferred to a detention center, and is “now considered missing.”
Late Tuesday evening, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Displaced Persons released a statement saying that a number of people had been reported missing by family members after leaving to go retrieve aid at the distribution point and not returning home since.
Starvation as a weapon of war
Tuesday’s events are the latest development in what international humanitarian organizations have described as a policy of engineering famine and starvation, with Israel using the control over aid as a weapon in its genocide.
Since March 3, Israel has closed all crossings into the Gaza Strip and prevented the entry of food and medical supplies. This has led to the return of widespread hunger to the Strip, with the threat of famine looming once again.
According to the March 2025 report of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the UN body tasked with monitoring famine, 470,000 people in Gaza have reached “Phase 5: Catastrophe/Famine,” with 96% of all Gazans experiencing “acute food insecurity,” and 22% of the population suffering from “catastrophic levels.”
The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip described Israel’s policy as one of “engineered starvation.”
“During the 84 days of siege, at least 46,200 trucks loaded with aid and fuel were supposed to enter Gaza to meet the population’s minimum needs,” the Media Office said on May 24. “The occupation has been promoting a misleading narrative claiming that it has allowed the entry of ‘aid.’ Reality shows that only about 100 trucks have entered, representing less than 1% of the population’s basic needs.”
The UN’s humanitarian chief has made similar statements, saying that the aid Israel has allowed through in recent days represents “a drop in the ocean of what’s needed.”
Leading up to the creation of the GHF, Israel was not only undermining existing agencies like UNRWA but was also targeting and killing aid personnel on the ground in Gaza. This has been part of Israel’s method of fomenting chaos and the collapse of local aid delivery networks.
Over the past several months, the army’s targeted assassinations of community leaders and Gaza officials in charge of aid distribution have led to the emergence of armed gangs that steal aid, allegedly under the protection and facilitation of the Israeli army.
The most recent example of this tactic was evident on May 24, when Gaza officials said that the Israeli army ordered aid trucks to pass through specific routes where these gangs were present, only to be looted. The Government Media Office said that the Israeli army bombed security personnel protecting the aid on May 23, killing six of them.
How the GHF will supposedly distribute aid
Prior to Tuesday, which was the first official day of aid distribution by the GHF, several Israeli reports published the supposed plans of the American company to distribute aid, in coordination with the Israeli army. According to reports, the GHF was to distribute assistance to Gaza residents according to Israeli military instructions and in four main distribution areas that the Israeli military would establish within the Strip. Aid would be given to residents according to a specific distribution mechanism, and the Israeli military would be stationed a few meters away to “protect” the distribution centers.
The plans did not mention a center for residents of northern Gaza or any other place within the north. Residents of Gaza City and the north would have to go to their designated points south of the Netzarim axis, which divides Gaza between north and south. This means that residents seeking aid may be prevented from returning to northern Gaza.
Food parcels would be distributed from the ports of Ashdod and Jordan and brought into the Gaza Strip via the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. Each parcel would supposedly contain enough food for a family for approximately one week. According to Israel’s Channel 12, one person from each family will receive the parcel after undergoing a comprehensive security check.
According to Israeli media reports, the food basket to be distributed to families is sufficient for a whole week and includes basic food items. This has angered Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who believe this method guarantees a slow and silent death for Palestinians in the Strip.
According to local reports, Gazans received an announcement from the GHF that the “emergency situation” that arose from the aid distribution on Tuesday would lead to the postponement of distribution on the following day. The announcement reportedly also cited “the need to fully secure the aid” and to perform “necessary maintenance procedures on site to ensure the smooth running of the operation” as additional reasons for the suspension of aid delivery tomorrow. Mondoweiss could not independently ascertain the veracity of the statement.
Public and international rejection of the American plan
The United Nations, along with numerous other international aid agencies and humanitarian officials, has condemned the formation of the GHF, saying the Israeli and American plans do not meet the basic standards and principles of humanitarian aid delivery.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza stated that the Israeli plan “appears designed to strengthen control over essential supplies as part of a military pressure strategy,” which is a “violation of humanitarian principles.”
The UN team warned that implementing the plan would force civilians to travel to dangerous military areas to obtain food rations, endangering their lives and the lives of relief workers, as well as making it difficult for people with special needs and the elderly to reach distribution points.
In a surprise move on Monday, Jake Wood, Executive Director of the GHF, announced his resignation in a statement, saying “it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” which Wood said he “will not abandon.”
Gazans divided over aid distribution plan
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, as thousands of hungry families are awaiting food, opinions are divided among people. Some want to obtain food by any means necessary, regardless of how it will reach their children’s mouths. Others view the American plan as a new chapter in the strangulation Israel is imposing on the Palestinians.
Ahmad Ghanima, 42, a father of six, says he doesn’t care where the food comes from. All he wants is to feed his children, who scream day and night with hunger. “I watch them shrink due to the lack of food,” he told Mondoweiss.
“Give me bread for my children, and I won’t ask where you got it from or how it got to us,” Ghanima added. “I’m dying watching my children groan with hunger. They’ve lost their ability to scream and speak. They groan day and night, and I can only get a plate of lentils once a day, which isn’t enough for three of my children.”
Ghanima lives in a tent with his family at a displacement center in Gaza City. Some residents of the center view the American food distribution plan as a new kind of siege imposed on Palestinians in Gaza.
“They set our calorie needs, giving us the minimum. It’s as if they’re telling us, ‘We don’t want to kill you now. You can wait a little while before we kill you,'” said Osama Abu Matar, a displaced person and father of three in Mawasi, Khan Younis.
“The United States and Israel want to eliminate us,” Abu Matar added. “They are devising subtle ways to kill us because the barbaric and brutal killing throughout the war has exposed them to the world. Now, they will kill us by controlling our food.”
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