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Middle East Eye
7 hours ago
- General
- Middle East Eye
‘My journey to get aid in Gaza was like Squid Game'
Editor's note: The following personal account of Yousef al-Ajouri, 40, was told to Palestinian journalist and MEE contributor Ahmed Dremly in Gaza City. It has been edited for brevity and clarity. My children cry all the time because of how hungry they are. They want bread, rice - anything to eat. Not long ago, I had stockpiles of flour and other food supplies. It's all run out. We now rely on meals distributed by charity kitchens, usually lentils. But it's not enough to satisfy the hunger of my children. I live with my wife, seven children, and my mother and father in a tent in al-Saraya, near the middle of Gaza City. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Our home in Jabalia refugee camp was completely destroyed during the Israeli army's invasion of northern Gaza in October 2023. Before the war, I was a taxi driver. But due to shortages in fuel, and the Israeli blockade, I had to stop working. I hadn't gone to receive aid packages at all since the war started, but the hunger situation is unbearable now. So I decided I would go to the American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution centre on Salah al-Din Road, near the Netzarim corridor. I heard that it's dangerous and people were getting killed and injured, but I made the decision to go anyway. Someone told me that if you go once every seven days, you might get enough supplies to feed your family for that week. Dark and deadly route It was around 9pm on 18 June when I heard men in the next tent preparing to head out to the aid centre. I told my neighbour in the next tent, Khalil Hallas, aged 35, that I wanted to join. Khalil told me to get ready by wearing loose clothes, so that I could run and be agile. He said to bring a bag or sack for carrying canned and packaged goods. Due to overcrowding, no one was able to carry the boxes the aid came in. My wife Asma, 36, and my daughter Duaa, 13, encouraged me to make the journey. They'd seen in the news that women were going to get aid too, and wanted to join me. I told them it was too dangerous. I saw at least six other martyrs lying on the ground I set off with five other men from my camp, including an engineer and a teacher. For some of us, it was the first time making the trip. We rode in a tuk-tuk - the only means of transport in southern Gaza, along with donkey and horse-drawn carts - with a total of 17 passengers. It included children aged 10 and 12. A young man in the vehicle, who had made the trip before, told us not to take the official route designated by the Israeli army. He said it was too crowded and we wouldn't receive any aid. He advised us to take an alternative route not far from the official path. The tuk-tuk dropped us off in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, and from there we walked around a kilometre towards Salah al-Din Road. The journey was extremely difficult - and dark. We couldn't use any flashlights, or else we would attract the attention of Israeli snipers or military vehicles. Palestinians gather at an aid distribution point in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on 9 June 2025 (AFP/Eyad Baba) There were some exposed, open areas, which we crossed by crawling across the ground. As I crawled, I looked over, and to my surprise, saw several women and elderly people taking the same treacherous route as us. At one point, there was a barrage of live gunfire all around me. We hid behind a destroyed building. Anyone who moved or made a noticeable motion was immediately shot by snipers. Next to me was a tall, light-haired young man using the flashlight on his phone to guide him. The others yelled at him to turn it off. Seconds later, he was shot. He collapsed to the ground and lay there bleeding, but no one could help or move him. He died within minutes. Some nearby men eventually covered the man's body with the empty bag he had brought to fill up with canned goods. I saw at least six other martyrs lying on the ground. I also saw wounded people walking back in the opposite direction. One man was bleeding after falling and injuring his hand in the rough terrain. I fell a few times too. I was terrified, but there was no turning back. I'd already passed the most dangerous areas, and now the aid centre was within sight. We were all afraid. But we were there to feed our hungry children. Fighting for food It was coming up to 2am, which is when I was told access to the aid centre is granted. Sure enough, moments later, a large green light lit up the centre in the distance, signalling that it was open. People started running towards it from every direction. I ran as fast as I could. I was shocked by the massive crowd. I'd risked my life to get closer to the front, and yet, thousands had somehow arrived before me. I started questioning how they got there. Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in Gaza City on 27 June 2025 (AFP/Bashar Taleb) Were they working with the military? Were they collaborators, allowed to reach the aid first and take whatever they wanted? Or had they simply taken the same, if not even greater, risks that we had? I tried to push forward, but I couldn't. The centre was no longer visible because of the size of the crowds. People were pushing and shoving, but I decided I had to make it through - for my children. I took my shoes off, put them in my bag, and began forcing my way through. There were people on top of me, and I was on top of others. I noticed a girl being suffocated under the feet of the crowds. I grabbed her hand and pushed her out. I started feeling around for the aid boxes and grabbed a bag that felt like rice. But just as I did, someone else snatched it from my hands. Some begged others to share. But no one could afford to give up what they managed to get I tried to hold on, but he threatened to stab me with his knife. Most people there were carrying knives, either to defend themselves or to steal from others. Eventually, I managed to grab four cans of beans, a kilogram of bulgur, and half a kilogram of pasta. Within moments, the boxes were empty. Most of the people there, including women, children and the elderly, got nothing. Some begged others to share. But no one could afford to give up what they managed to get. Even the empty cartons and wooden pallets were taken, to be used as firewood for cooking. Those who got nothing started picking up spilled flour and grains from the ground, trying to salvage what had fallen during the chaos. Soldiers watched and laughed I turned my head and saw soldiers, maybe 10 or 20 metres away. They were talking to each other, using their phones, and filming us. Some were aiming weapons at us. I remembered a scene from the South Korean TV show Squid Game, in which killing was entertainment - a game. We were being killed not only by their weapons but also by hunger and humiliation, while they watched us and laughed. I started wondering: were they still filming us? Were they watching this madness, seeing how some people overpowered others, while the weakest got nothing? We left the area just as the boxes had emptied. People carrying sacks of flour walk past a water puddle along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on 17 June 2025 (AFP/Bashar Taleb) Minutes later, red smoke grenades were thrown into the air. Someone told me that it was the signal to evacuate the area. After that, heavy gunfire began. Me, Khalil and a few others headed to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat because our friend Wael had injured his hand during the journey. I was shocked by what I saw at the hospital. There were at least 35 martyrs lying dead on the ground in one of the rooms. A doctor told me they had all been brought in that same day. They were each shot in the head or chest while queuing near the aid centre. Their families were waiting for them to come home with food and ingredients. Now, they were corpses. I started to break down, thinking about these families. I thought to myself: why are we being forced to die just to feed our children? At that moment, I decided that I would never journey to those places again. A slow death We walked back in silence, and I arrived home at around 7:30am on Thursday morning. My wife and children were waiting for me, hoping that I was safe and alive, and that I'd brought back food. They were upset when they saw I'd returned with barely anything. It was the hardest day of my life. I've never felt humiliation like I did that day. I hope food can get through soon and be distributed in a respectful way, without humiliation and killing. The current system is chaotic and deadly. I don't even care if the war keeps going - what matters is that food gets through There's no justice in it. Most end up with nothing, because there's no organised system and there's too little aid for too many people. I'm certain Israel wants this chaos to continue. They claim this method is best because, otherwise, Hamas takes the aid. But I'm not Hamas, and many, many others aren't either. Why should we suffer? Why should we be denied aid unless we risk our lives to get it? At this point, I don't even care if the war keeps going - what matters is that food gets through, so we can eat. My son, Yousef, is three years old. He wakes up crying, saying he wants to eat. We have nothing to give him. He keeps crying until he gets tired and falls silent. I eat one meal a day, or sometimes nothing at all, so the children can eat. This isn't life. This is a slow death.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
Opioid pills discovered in US-backed food aid, Gaza authorities say
The Gaza government media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills reportedly discovered in flour bags distributed by 'American-Israeli' aid centres. 'We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags,' it said in a statement, warning of the 'possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself'. Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients. The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects, including breathing complications and hallucinations. The media office's statement comes after several social media posts shared images of pills purportedly discovered in flour bags in Gaza. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Palestinian pharmacist Omar Hamad described the discovery of the pills as 'the most despicable form of genocide'. Khalil Mazen Abu Nada, a Palestinian doctor in Gaza, also posted about the drug on Facebook, describing it as a 'means to obliterate our societal awareness'. The Gaza government media office said it held Israel 'fully responsible for this heinous crime of spreading addiction and destroying the Palestinian social fabric from within'. Israel kills 25 Palestinians seeking aid as hospitals warn of infant mortalities Read More » The office also decried the Israeli military's 'exploitation of the blockade to smuggle these substances as 'aid and assistance'', describing the Israeli and American-operated aid centres as 'death traps'. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US-Israeli organisation operating aid points in Gaza, has been widely condemned by human rights organisations for its lack of transparency and accountability. On Wednesday, 15 human rights and legal groups called for the suspension of GHF for its role in undermining international humanitarian organisations and fostering the 'forced displacement' of Palestinians in Gaza, amounting to what could be complicity in 'crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide'. Gaza's health authorities have reported that at least 516 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces near aid sites in the past month of GHF's operations. On Friday, Haaretz reported Israeli soldiers admitting to directly shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians at GHF-operated aid collection sites. Middle East Eye has asked the GHF for comment.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Gaza: Israeli soldiers admit to deliberately killing unarmed aid seekers
Israeli troops have admitted to deliberately shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid in the Gaza Strip, following direct orders from their superiors. According to soldiers and officers who spoke to Haaretz, commanders instructed them to open fire on people seeking food at aid distribution points despite knowing they posed no threat. One soldier described the distribution centres as a "killing field". "Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day," the soldier told Haaretz. "They're treated like a hostile force, no crowd-control measures, no tear gas. Just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars." New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Israel blocked all aid and goods from entering the Gaza Strip for nearly three months beginning in March, pushing the two million residents of the besieged enclave into a severe hunger crisis. In late May, the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), a recently launched and controversial aid group, began distributing limited food parcels at four locations. These centres generally operate for just one hour each morning, according to Haaretz. 'Our form of communication is gunfire' - Israeli soldier Officers and soldiers told Haaretz they fired on people who arrived before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, and again after the centres closed to "disperse" the crowds. "Once the centre opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach," one soldier said. "Our form of communication is gunfire." The soldier also said they opened fire "early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred metres away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range", even though there was "no danger to the forces." "I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons," one soldier said. In the area where he served, the operation was reportedly referred to as Operation Salted Fish, named after an Israeli children's game. Israeli forces have killed at least 550 Palestinians waiting to receive aid and wounded over 4,000 more. Haaretz reported that the Military Advocate General unit had instructed the army's General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism - a body tasked with reviewing incidents that may constitute violations of the laws of war - to investigate suspected war crimes at the aid sites. Starvation as weapon of war The Israeli military has been repeatedly accused by UN experts of using starvation as a weapon of war. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the number of malnourished children is increasing "at an alarming rate," with 5,119 children between the ages of six months and five years old admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in just the month of May. Unrwa chief slams US-Israeli aid distribution system in Gaza as 'war crime' Read More » A group of 15 human rights and legal organisations has called for the suspension of aid operations by the GHF, warning that the initiative may be complicit in international crimes. The organisations criticised the GHF for a lack of "transparency, impartiality, and accountability", citing concerns over its opaque structure and the absence of publicly available operational plans. According to their letter, the new relief delivery method, which has sought to wrest distribution away from major aid groups led by the United Nations, is a "radical and dangerous shift away from established international humanitarian relief operations". It added that the "privatized, militarized aid distribution" is "dehumanizing, repeatedly deadly and contributes to the forced displacement of the very population it purports to help", referencing the ongoing killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces near GHF aid points.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Heavy Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon kill at least one woman
Israeli fighter jets launched a series of heavy air strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Friday, killing at least one woman and wounding 20 others, according to the local health ministry. Local media reported that the lethal strike targeted a residential apartment near a teacher training centre. A total of 20 Israeli air strikes were recorded. According to Lebanese state media, Friday's air strikes were "the most intense" on southern Lebanon since the end of the 66-day war last November. Lebanese President Michel Aoun condemned the strikes as part of 'Israel's continued violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and the November ceasefire agreement,' and called for 'a decisive response from the international community". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The Israeli army said in a statement that it launched air strikes targeting a Hezbollah site used for managing the group's fire and defence system. It claimed, without evidence, that the site was part of a damaged underground project that Hezbollah had attempted to repair in recent days. Israel is reported to have violated the November 2024 ceasefire almost daily. As of April, Israeli forces had killed at least 71 people in Lebanon following the ceasefire agreement, according to the United Nations. Friday's attack come after Israel's 12-day bombing campaign on Iran, killing 627 civilians. The Iranian response killed 28 people in Israel, according to local authorities.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
As Palestinians are massacred for staying, Israelis are desperate to flee
Even after 20 months of siege, displacement, and mass killing, Palestinians in Gaza continue to assert their will to remain - as Israel escalates its genocidal campaign by attacking aid distribution sites and massacring starving civilians who refuse to leave. Meanwhile, Iranian retaliation against Israel's recent aggression has triggered yet another exodus of Israeli Jews from the settler colony. Israeli citizens, dual citizens, and tourists have been desperate to flee the country on so-called "escape flotillas" and "rescue flights", as conditions have become even more unlivable in the last two years than they had been before 7 October 2023. With "large numbers of Israeli citizens" desperate to escape, the Israeli government has issued a decision effectively barring them from leaving. Despite the return of those who were stranded abroad during the latest war, the current flight of Israeli Jews continues a broader trend in recent years to leave the country. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Already in December 2022, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on a new movement aimed at facilitating the emigration of Israeli Jews to the United States following the last Israeli elections, which participants feared had altered the Zionist state's relationship to religion. For years, a growing number of Israeli Jews have sought to abandon the state, driven by fears over the long-term unsustainability of the Zionist project The group, called "Leaving the Country - Together", spoke of relocating 10,000 Israeli Jews in the first stage of its plan. Leaders of the group include anti-Netanyahu activist Yaniv Gorelik and Israeli-American businessman Mordechai Kahana. Kahana stated in an interview: "I saw people in a WhatsApp group talking about immigration of Israelis to Romania or Greece, but I personally think that it will be a lot easier for them to immigrate to the US," he said. "I have a huge farm in New Jersey, and I offered Israelis to join in order to turn my farm into a kibbutz... With such a government in Israel, the American government should let every Israeli who owns a company or has a sought-after profession in the US, such as doctors and pilots, immigrate to the US." This is hardly a new phenomenon. For years, a growing number of Israeli Jews have sought to abandon the settler colony, driven by political disillusionment, fears over the loss of Jewish-majority rule, and the long-term unsustainability of the Zionist project. Earlier departures As I chronicled in an article for this publication more than two years ago, by the end of 2003, the Israeli government estimated that more than 750,000 Israelis were living permanently outside the country, the majority in the US and Canada. 'Clean out' Gaza: Why Trump's 'voluntary' transfer proposal should be made to Israelis Read More » Of the estimated 600,000 to 750,000 Israelis living in the US, 230,000 were Israeli-born Jews (meaning children of Jewish settlers in Israel). According to Israeli government figures, between 1948 and 2015, 720,000 Israelis left the country and never returned. By 2016, an estimated 30 percent of French Jews who emigrated to Israel ended up returning home to France, despite intense efforts by Israel and Zionist groups to attract them and keep them in the country. In 2011, Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption launched an advertising campaign designed to guilt-trip Israeli emigrants into returning. As Moment magazine described one of the ads: A little boy, done with colouring, turns to his father. But Dad is asleep in an easy chair, an Economist draped over his chest. 'Daddy?' the boy calls, to no avail. A pause. He tries again, this time in a whisper: 'Abba?' Dad's eyes open at once. The artwork is admired; hair is affectionately ruffled. The scene fades, and a narrator says in Hebrew: 'They will always remain Israelis. Their children won't. Help them return to the land.' The ad sparked immediate backlash for suggesting "that America is no place for a proper Jew, and that a Jew who is concerned about the Jewish future should live in Israel" - a view that former Israeli prison guard and now US-based journalist Jeffrey Goldberg described as "archaic". The ad was pulled, and the ministry apologised. Demographic crisis In 2017, the Israeli government was so concerned about the growing emigration of Israelis to the US that it began offering more benefits and services to those willing to return, and encouraging others to come back. Indeed, that same year, Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Ofir Akunis attempted to lure expats in Silicon Valley back to Israel by offering scholarships to complete their doctorates. He was unsuccessful. In fact, Israeli demographers, including Sergio Della Pergola, the country's top population expert, have been predicting a mass exodus from Israel for years. This active emigration preceded the wars Israel has engulfed the region in since its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people began on 8 October 2023. Since then, official Israeli data showed that 82,000 Israeli Jews have fled the country, with unofficial estimates placing the number closer to half a million. In view of this significant Israeli Jewish exodus, Israeli authorities are right to worry that Jews are abandoning the state. This is a grave matter, especially as Palestinians have constituted a majority between the River and the Sea since 2010, threatening the long-term survival of the Jewish supremacist state. As I recently argued, that is the primary reason for Israel's ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Official ban To stem the tide of Jewish emigration, the Israeli cabinet last week issued a resolution "conditioning flying out of the country" for Israeli citizens "on approval by a government-led exceptions committee". The resolution stated that "the government also determined that when commercial flights become possible… a government steering committee will establish criteria for dealing with requests to leave Israel." While some of the 40,000 foreign citizens stranded in the country could leave, commercial airlines, acting on instructions from the Israeli government, informed Israeli citizens seeking to buy tickets out of the country that they were prohibited from selling them tickets. Commercial airlines informed Israeli citizens seeking to buy tickets out of the country that they were prohibited from selling them tickets Still, tens of thousands are trying to flee. According to estimates, there are upwards of 700,000 American and half a million European dual citizens in Israel. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on 20 June - before the US bombed Iran - that more than 25,000 Americans had reached out for information on leaving Israel, the West Bank and Iran. While Bruce refused to "give a breakdown of where the queries had come from and would not comment on embassy evacuations", it is clear that the majority came from Israel and the Occupied Territories. Indeed, an internal State Department memo listed nearly 10,000 requests to leave Israel made in a single day last week. These numbers are likely to have multiplied significantly since then. Foreign evacuations At the beginning of this week, Global Affairs Canada stated that 6,000 Canadians had registered in Israel using the department's database, while some 400 others had registered in the West Bank to flee the country. Canada responded by arranging flights and providing bus transport for Canadians fleeing Israel to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, days after France and Australia had offered similar services to their own citizens. By then, many Americans had already fled the war-mongering country through Egypt, as had many German nationals, who left through Jordan. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war Many other Israeli Jews have been abandoning the country by sea, sailing to Cyprus on yachts and boats in what Israel's leading newspaper Haaretz dubbed "escape flotillas". The Israeli government's exit ban, enforced by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, has been sharply criticised. As Haaretz put it: "Israelis are welcome to return home to danger, but are forbidden to escape it." According to reports, thousands of Britons - including dual Israeli citizens - have been desperate to get back to the UK. 'Let my people go' Meanwhile, in Gaza, as Israel continues to use starvation as a weapon of genocide and ethnic cleansing, a Haaretz report from earlier this month showed that most Palestinians held firm in their desire to return to their homes, defying Israeli assumptions that they would rather leave. By contrast, the same report observed that three times as many young Israelis now want to leave the country compared to the early days of the war. As one put it: "War is a double-edged bitch. Israelis aren't suffering like Gazans, but more and more don't like living here either." Jews are leaving Israel in disillusion. They've been leaving for a long time Joseph Massad Read More » Yet as the Israeli government continues to bar its citizens from exiting the war-torn country, the Israeli Movement for Quality Government has raised concerns about the opaque criteria used by the cabinet's "exceptions committee" to grant exit permits. The group sent a letter to Israel's attorney general, complaining that the ban on leaving violates Israel's Basic Law. Ironically, when the US and Israel launched a propaganda campaign in the 1970s to attract Soviet Jewish immigration to Israel, they demanded special emigration permits for Soviet Jews, denied to other Soviet citizens. Israel's sensational call on the USSR was "let my people go," echoing the biblical appeal to Pharaoh. Today, it seems that thousands of Israeli Jews are pleading: "Netanyahu, let my people go." The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
