In the latest massacre, 15 Palestinians seeking food at GHF site die from suffocation after Israeli forces fire gas at aid seekers
Tareq S. HajjajJuly 16, 2025
Palestinians mourn loved ones who were killed in an incident on Wednesday while seeking aid in Khan Younis, at Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip July 16, 2025. (Photo: Moaz Abu Taha/APA Images)
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, young men carried bodies, and hungry children cried out in front of corpses wrapped in white shrouds laying on the ground, bidding them farewell for the last time. All these victims fell at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) center, which claims to distribute aid to the hungry.
“We received a call that there were a large number of martyrs and injuries at the aid distribution center in Rafah,” explained Ezzedine Abu Subha, a civil defense paramedic who headed to the incident scene in Rafah in the morning. He continued, “When our teams arrived at the location, more than twenty martyrs and dozens of injuries were recorded by the civil defense and Red Crescent teams there.”
But unlike previous “aid massacres” where Palestinian aid seekers have been shot by bullets, the Palestinians killed today faced a new threat: poisonous gas.
Abu Subha explained, “All the cases that were lifted into ambulances were proven by eyewitnesses to be cases of suffocation from poisonous gas, as their bodies were free of wounds or blood.”
He said that the apparent causes of death were a combination of toxic fumes and trampling in the stampedes that followed in the chaos. Still, he said he could not determine the cause of death officially and was waiting for the official report from the Ministry of Health to announce the exact causes.
That confirmation arrived hours later, when the Ministry of Health issued a statement saying that 21 citizens has been martyred, including 15 who died by suffocation due to gas being fired at the crowds, and the stampede that followed at the American-run aid distribution center.
“It is the first time that suffocation and stampede deaths were recorded at aid distribution centers,” the Health Ministry added.
Palestinian casualties, who were seeking aid on Wednesday in Khan Younis, are brought into Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 16, 2025. (Photo: Moaz Abu Taha/APA Images)
The ministry also said in its statement that the Israeli occupation and the American organization are deliberately committing systematic massacres against the starving.
In a testimony collected by Mondoweiss from one of the survivors at the scene, Ahmed Abu Amra recounted, “At 4:00 a.m., people gathered at the entrances of the GHF’s centers waiting for food distribution. The numbers were huge. At that time, armed American company employees, who stood not far from the civilians, used loudspeakers to order people to retreat and not enter the site.”
He continued: “When the people arrived, and with the repeated calls by the American company employees not to cross the fence, everyone stood still, crowded together due to their large numbers. Around 6:00 a.m., the Israeli army started shooting at the gathered people.”
Abu Amra added: “At the same time, while the Israeli army was firing bullets at the people, the American company employees were launching stun grenades directly at the individuals, hitting them in the head, causing many injuries. Then gas bombs began falling amid the crowd, leading to panic and a stampede. People were running in a terrifying scene, and anyone who fell to the ground could not stand up, as others trampled over them.”
Abu Amra lost his cousin today in the chaos at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site.
“This was not aid distribution,” Abu Amra said. “It was a real massacre committed against the hungry who came hoping to get some food.”
Abu Amra added that “even the American company employees were firing stun grenades at our heads.” He described the scene: “They launched more than 16 stun grenades directly at the people. I saw them with my own eyes. I was injured by shrapnel from one that exploded near sand and gravel, and the stones flew toward the people. I was hit in the head, but it wasn’t serious. But others were directly hit in the head by the grenades — some lost their eyes, some had their mouths injured, and noses broken.”
Abu Amra explains why he and others continue to go to GFH locations, despite the risks. “I’m a living example. For four days, my three children, my wife, and I have not eaten anything. Four days without food. That’s why we go for any option that gives even a small chance of getting food.”
“The only solution and alternative to this tragedy and these daily massacres is for all of us, the residents of Gaza, to agree not to go to those sites,” he said. “We must insist that aid comes to the doorstep of our tents. We have been displaced, our homes destroyed, and our children killed. To get food, we have to face death daily — this is unbearable. We deserve to eat and drink. My children don’t deserve to sleep without food for four days.”
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