Gaza (Quds News Network)- Human Rights Watch has said that Israeli forces have killed Palestinian aid seekers at the distribution sites of the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in acts that amount to war crimes. “The dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war – a war crime – as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, ongoing actions that amount to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide,” read the report released Friday. “Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW. “US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.” The report said Israeli forces at the sites of the GHF have routinely opened fire on starving Palestinian civilians, killing at least 859 while attempting to obtain aid between May 27 and July 31, according to the United Nations, adding “the repeated use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces, without justification, violates both international humanitarian and human rights law.” According to the UN, at least 1,373 Palestinians were killed as they tried to access food between May 27 and July 31, 2025, most by the Israeli military, including 859 who were in the vicinity of GHF sites. Human Rights Watch interviewed four people, an American mercenary who worked at GHF and three Palestinians, who said they witnessed armed US contractors using live fire and other weapons against civilians during aid distribution inside the GHF sites. Israeli mass killings of aid seekers near GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces. Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”. On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.” “Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said. The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”. “It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said. “Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the US-backed aid distribution mechanism is “inherently unsafe” and “it is killing people.” “Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres told reporters. Guterres said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themselves are starving and Israel, as the occupying power, is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave. “People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters. According to a Haaretz report, conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered forces to shoot at crowds waiting for food near or at the US-backed GHF aid sites to drive them away or disperse them, despite posing no threat. “It’s a killing field,” one soldier said. “Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. 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. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.” In a recent statement, the Israeli military admitted that its forces “harmed” Palestinian civilians at US-Israeli aid distribution centers in Gaza. The army claimed new field instructions were issued based on “lessons learned.” An Associated Press report with leaked footage also detailed how American contractors at GHF aid sites used live ammunition, stun grenades and pepper spray against starving Palestinians seeking food. Starvation in Gaza The aid mechanism has failed to address mass starvation in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said. According to a warning issued on Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza. “Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC warning said. “Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.” “Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point.” “Malnutrition has been rising rapidly in the first half of July,” the IPC said. “Over 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished. Hospitals have reported a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths of children under five years of age, with at least 16 reported deaths since 17 July.” The IPC called for immediate action to end the siege and allow for unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. The last IPC analysis on Gaza, issued on May 12, forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit “catastrophic” levels. Over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Oxfam, warned last week that “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza, with their colleagues in the enclave wasting away from hunger as Israel continues to block the entry of aid for more than four months. The World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza City has been the area “worst-hit” by malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, with nearly one in five children under five there now acutely malnourished. The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food. Health officials in Gaza issued a stark warning lately: Hundreds of severely emaciated Palestinians are on the verge of death, their bodies too weak to resist any longer. The Director of Al-Shifa Hospital said hospitals are dealing with hundreds suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition. “We don’t have enough beds or medicine,” he said. “We’re seeing symptoms like memory loss, exhaustion, and collapse from extreme hunger.” He added: “We have 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. This is a generation being starved to death.” According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, over 650,000 children under the age of five face an imminent and severe risk of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks, out of a total of 1.1 million children in the Gaza Strip. Currently, around 1.25 million people in Gaza are living under catastrophic hunger conditions, while 96% of the population is suffering from severe levels of food insecurity, including more than one million children, according to the Office. UNRWA warned, “The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children.” Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, warned that Palestinians in Gaza face “an acute risk of famine”. “No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said. On Saturday, the Israeli military announced a “tactical pause” in military activity in some areas of Gaza which it claimed would make it easier to send in UN convoys. However, attacks and killings have been reported across most of the Strip. This came following widespread condemnations, pressure and warnings. A UN worker said the “last minute” aid windows may not be enough to treat malnourished children. The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza. However, Israel has deliberately engineered famine and chaos in Gaza, the Gaza Government Media Office said on Monday, as most of the aid trucks that entered Gaza were looted in a “systematic disorder fostered by the Israeli occupation”. “What is happening in Gaza is a clear and deliberate model of how the Israeli occupation is consciously fostering chaos and engineering starvation,” the Media Office said, adding that aid is being intentionally prevented from reaching warehouses or intended recipients. On Tuesday, the WFP said it is not getting the necessary volumes of humanitarian assistance into Gaza despite Israel issuing new measures to enable more supplies to enter the enclave. “We have not gotten the authorisation, the permission to move in the volumes that we’ve requested,” Ross Smith, a senior regional programme adviser at the WFP’s Regional Bureau for East and Central Africa, said. Ross said the disaster unfolding in Gaza is “unlike anything we have seen in this century”, adding that it was reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the 20th century.