Everything You Need to Know About the Gaza Aid Massacre at a US-Israeli Distribution Point
Gaza (Quds News Network)- On Tuesday, thousands of starving Palestinians made their way to an aid distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US-Israeli organization assigned to deliver aid to Gaza after more than 80 days of a total Israeli blockade.
With the Israeli helicopters and drones hovering above and gunfire echoing nearby, families, including women and children, faced great difficulty reaching the food distribution site in southern Gaza’s Rafah, as the GHF began its operations.
Desperate civilians scrambled over barriers and squeezed through dense crowds to access the vital supplies.
What Happened?
“The occupation forces, positioned in or around those areas, opened live fire on starving civilians who were lured to these locations under the pretence of receiving aid,” Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
It added that the incident “provides undeniable evidence of the Israeli occupation’s total failure in managing the humanitarian catastrophe it has deliberately created”.
Footage captures the moment Israeli occupation forces opened fire at Palestinians near the American aid company’s point in Rafah, southern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/4qqM2idTJB
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 27, 2025
In a statement earlier, the Israeli military claimed its forces did not direct gunfire towards the Palestinians but rather fired warning shots in an outside area.
Three people were killed and 46 injured in the attack. Seven others reported missing, according to the Media Office.
The GHF denied the deadly massacre. “At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the [distribution site] was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate,” the group said in a statement.
Operations have now returned to normal, the group claimed, adding that it has distributed approximately 8,000 food boxes, which it says will feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days, and adds up to about 462,000 meals.
“Full-Fledged War Crime”
The incident has prompted criticism from the United Nations and aid groups.
“What happened today in Rafah is a deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime, committed in cold blood against civilians weakened by over 90 days of siege-induced starvation,” the Gaza Media Office said.
Ahmed Bayram, spokesperson for the NRC, called on Israel and the US to cancel their initiative and let humanitarian organisations do their job.
“What we’re seeing is indeed a summary of the tragedy that the people of Gaza are living,” he said.
“This is not how aid is done; this is not how aid should be distributed, not least obviously an occupier doing that – a country that has destroyed and flattened Rafah, asking people to come back to Rafah, that has displaced people out of Rafah, and now tells them to come back and receive whatever they can get hold of.”
A spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said the images and videos from the aid points set up by GHF were “heartbreaking, to say the least”.
“We and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by member states to get aid to a desperate population,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
“Humanitarian aid needs to be distributed in a way that is safe under principles of independence [and] impartiality – in the way we’ve always done it… We saw the plan that they’ve [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] published and that they presented to us, and it is not done with the parameters that we feel match our principles, which we apply across the board, from Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar, to anywhere you want to talk about.”
Meanwhile, Hardin Lang, vice president for policy and programmes for Refugees International, said the US-Israel-backed aid initiative is run by military, rather than humanitarian, logic.
“This is not the way in which you try to feed a population, much less a population that is on the verge of famine,” he told Al Jazeera.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said, “The crisis in Gaza cannot be addressed by weaponising humanitarian assistance, to apply political and military pressure,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “Aid must be brought in Gaza without obstruction.”
The incident was “chaotic, undignified and unsafe,” he said commenting in the deadly incident and aid distribution mechanism.
“I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities. We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose. The humanitarian community in Gaza, including UNRWA, is ready.”
Several reports and journalists in Gaza said hungry residents forced to stand outside a facility holding aid rushed inside because of delays conducting detailed security checks on recipients.
According to Israeli army sources cited by Israeli media, Americans affiliated with the GHF had to be rescued once they lost control of the facility.
Photos and videos circulated on social media showed hundreds of people lined up at one of GHF’s distribution sites near the so-called “Morag Corridor” in Rafah.
Aid distribution to displaced families has failed due to Israel’s ongoing starvation policy in Gaza. The Israeli occupation forces have established only one aid distribution point for 2 million people, worsening the situation.
The continued blockade and obstruction of aid have… pic.twitter.com/R6e4Vzdap1
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 27, 2025
At the site, people saw signs that read: “You are now in a humanitarian zone. Do not approach the beach or residential buildings.”
Recipients are required to enter through an electronic gate, where they are met by Arabic-speaking individuals wearing vests marked “Security”, before being handed a box, according to those who collected the aid.
🚨BREAKING: A humanitarian coordinator in central Gaza tells Drop Site that the newly opened U.S.-backed distribution centers, guarded on the perimeter by Israeli forces, are being used to detain civilians.
One elderly man was interrogated at the Muraj Crossing. After he failed… https://t.co/waWrbz5yDH pic.twitter.com/nXory8CHfy
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 27, 2025
