A woman gathers flour from the ground as Palestinians receive aid supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is supported by the United States, in central Gaza Strip, on August 1, 2025. (Credit: Reuters.)
Israeli forces have set up in Gaza a "defective and militarized" aid distribution system, turning this humanitarian operation into "real bloodbaths" and a "deadly trap," according to a report from the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"The killings by Israeli forces of Palestinians seeking food are war crimes," this new report published Friday says. "The disastrous humanitarian situation [in Gaza] is the direct result of Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war — a war crime — as well as its intentional and ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid and basic services," the human rights organization adds.
After 22 months of a devastating war sparked by a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza Strip is facing a "widespread famine," according to the United Nations, and is completely dependent on humanitarian aid distributed by trucks or airdrops. Israel partially eased, at the end of May, a total blockade imposed at the beginning of March on the Palestinian enclave, which had led to severe shortages of food, medicine, and other basic necessities.
"Deadly incidents have occurred almost daily at the four aid distribution sites managed" in Palestinian territory by the GHF [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,] an entity supported by Israel and the United States, but with which international organizations refuse to work. "At least 859 Palestinians have been killed while trying to obtain food at these GHF sites between May 27 and July 31, most by the Israeli army, according to the United Nations," HRW notes.
"Not only are Israeli forces deliberately starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but they are also shooting almost daily at those desperately seeking food for their families," accuses Belkis Wille, deputy director of HRW's Crisis and Conflict Division, quoted in the report.
"Israeli forces, supported by the United States and private contractors, have set up a defective and militarized humanitarian aid distribution system, turning aid distribution operations into real bloodbaths," Wille says. This "deadly trap" system backed by the United States must "be abandoned," the HRW report insists.
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