Trying to get aid in Gaza: Killed while lining up for food

Times of Oman

2 days ago

A little over a week ago, Mahmoud Qassem lost his son, Khader. The 19-year-old had been trying to reach a food distribution center run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central Gaza.
"The last time his mother and I heard from him was at 11 p.m. that night. He told me he was in a safe place — he had gone to the Netzarim distribution center — and I told him to take care," Qassem told DW from a tent in Gaza City, where the family has been displaced.
"At 1 a.m., I tried calling him again, but his phone wasn't receiving calls. I started to feel anxious. There was no word the whole time, and I waited until 2 p.m. on Friday. I felt like a fire was burning inside me," said the 50-year-old.
On Friday, Qassem went to central Gaza and checked the hospitals until he discovered that Khader had been killed. When the body was eventually recovered, after coordination with the Israeli military, it showed that his son had died from several gunshot wounds.
"A 19-year-old boy who hadn't even begun to live his life, all for fetching a box," he said, barely holding back tears. He added that he hadn't wanted Khader to go, but his son had felt that he needed to provide for his family.
"The situation here is beyond description. People are sacrificing themselves to make it. Only God knows what we are going through. No one feels for us — not Hamas, not Israel, not the Arab countries, not anyone."
Food, other supplies extremely scarce in Gaza
Almost daily reports of violence, injuries and killings tied to food and aid distribution highlight the unbearable reality facing Gaza's 2.3 million residents, who have become almost completely dependent on supplies entering through the crossings with Israel. Nearly the entire population has been displaced, and around 57,000 Gazans, many of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. An analysis in May found that 93% of the remaining population is experiencing acute food insecurity.
Food and other supplies are extremely scarce in Gaza, even with the resumption of aid deliveries by the UN and new distribution centers — three of which are currently open — run by the GHF, a US-Israeli organization, after an almost three-month Israeli blockade.
Israeli officials justified the blockade by claiming that Hamas is stealing aid and using it to finance its operations. This claim has been rejected by the UN and other international and local aid groups, which have had a well-established network and distribution mechanism in Gaza for many years.
But aid trucks have repeatedly been looted, either by armed gangs or by ordinary people desperately trying to get hold of food. Meanwhile, the Israeli army has intensified its airstrikes, issuing widespread evacuation orders for large parts of northern and southern Gaza.
Saeed Abu Libda, a 44 year-old father of five, recently managed to pick up one sack of flour when a truck passed by near Khan Younis. "I know it was risky but we need to eat," he told DW by phone, since foreign journalists are not allowed in Gaza.
Abu Libda said there were thousands of people waiting for the trucks, when suddenly he heard two shells being fired. "I saw people on the ground, some were injured, some were cut to pieces. I was injured by a shrapnel in my abdomen, but luckily it was a light injury."
Young men carry sacks of food they have collected from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.Young men carry sacks of food they have collected from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza has put the number of people killed in recent weeks by Israeli airstrikes, shootings and bombardments at more than 500. Most of these victims were waiting at food distribution sites or trucks carrying aid, or nearby, health officials said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed these claims in a post shared on X on Tuesday, and accused Hamas of firing on civilians. It claimed that testimonies from Gaza residents showed that Hamas "spreads false claims blaming the IDF, inflates casualty numbers, and circulates fake footage."
On Tuesday, about 130 of the world's largest charities and NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, urged that the GHF be shut down. They said the foundation forced thousands of starving people into militarized zones, where they faced gunfire while trying to access lifesaving aid.
GHF's chairman Johnnie Moore stated on Wednesday during a press conference in Brussels that GHF would not cease operations. He said the foundation had delivered more than 55 million meals to date and was willing to work with the UN and other aid agencies. He added that the Gazan health ministry "every single day issues a statistic of civilian casualties and simultaneously attributes 100% of those civilian casualties to waiting for aid — virtually every time, waiting for our aid."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has on multiple occasions stated that it has fired "warning shots" at individuals approaching military positions near aid distribution sites. It has not released any information on casualty numbers.
But on June 27, left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article alleging Israeli soldiers had been given the green light to open fire on crowds near food distribution sites, in order to keep them away from Israeli positions within the militarized zones.
Unnamed soldiers interviewed in the article said they had used lethal force against unarmed individuals who posed no threat. Haaretz also reported that the military was investigating whether these actions breached international law and constituted potential war crimes.