Israeli forces kill at least 60 Palestinians seeking food in Gaza, health officials say

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Written by Julian Borger in Jerusalem Julian Borger in Jerusalem

Published: 12 June 2025 12 June 2025

Dozens more wounded as crowds approached food distribution centres run by Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them as they were seeking food from a US-Israeli distribution scheme, according to local health authorities.

Medical officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near Netzarim in central Gaza.

Later in the day, at least 14 people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they were moving towards another GHF distribution site, in Rafah, at Gaza’s southern border. On Tuesday Israeli troops killed 17 Palestinians around GHF sites.

Read more on The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/11/israeli-forces-kill-at-least-60-palestinians-seeking-food-aid-in-gaza-health-officials-say

Compare the courage of Greta Thunberg’s Gaza aid mission with the inaction and complicity of western governments

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Written by Owen Jones Owen Jones

Published: 10 June 2025 10 June 2025

 One of the definitions of genocide, according to the 1948 UN convention, is “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. This is an accurate description of what Israel has been doing in Gaza. It has killed 452 aid workers, systematically killed police officers charged with protecting aid, destroyed infrastructure needed to carry humanitarian aid, blocked fuel and water needed to cook food. More than 95% of agricultural land has been rendered unusable by Israeli attacks, 81% of cropland has been damaged and 83% of plant life has been destroyed. Almost all of its cattle and poultry are dead; milk production is nearly halted.

Israel has criminalised Unrwa, Gaza’s main humanitarian agency, and three months ago imposed a total blockade. It then replaced the existing humanitarian structures with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Its purpose, as Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich declared, was to allow the entry of the “minimum necessary” so that “the world does not stop us and accuse us of war crimes”. Stop what? Well, Smotrich openly declares that Israel will expel all surviving Palestinians from Gaza. Not only does the GHF provide far too little and often unusable aid, but it also set up aid points in the south to deliberately empty Gaza’s north. Israeli troops then repeatedly massacred starving Palestinians, replacing the existing humanitarian structures with what Tory MP Kit Malthouse called “a shooting gallery, an abattoir”.

The Madleen did not make it to Gaza’s shores. Yet its crew exposed an obscenity that has repulsed western citizens, who will one day force their governments to cease their complicity – which is why, in the end, Israel will lose.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/10/greta-thunberg-gaza-aid-mission-madleen

Statement on aid distribution in Gaza by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

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Written by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

Published: 04 June 2025 04 June 2025

(4 June 2025) The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat. 

Emergency medical teams have confirmed treating hundreds of trauma cases. Yesterday alone, dozens were declared dead at hospitals after Israeli forces said they had opened fire.

This is the outcome of a series of deliberate choices that have systematically deprived 2 million people of the essentials they need to survive.  

I echo the Secretary-General’s call for immediate, independent investigations. These are not isolated incidents, and the perpetrators must be held accountable. 

No one should have to risk their life to feed their children. 

As I have repeatedly stressed, we must be allowed to do our jobs: We have the teams, the plan, the supplies and the experience.

Open the crossings – all of them. 

Let in lifesaving aid at scale, from all directions. 

Lift the restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in. 

Ensure our convoys aren’t held up by delays and denials.

Release the hostages. Implement the ceasefire.

We value the support of more and more Member States who are joining our call: Let us work.

https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-aid-distribution-gaza-tom-fletcher-under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief

Palestinians gunned down while trying to reach food aid site in Gaza, hospital says

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Written by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza | The Guardian Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza | The Guardian

Published: 01 June 2025 01 June 2025

Witnesses say Israeli forces opened fire on people near distribution point run by Israel-backed foundation

More than 30 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday as they went to receive food at an aid distribution point set up by an Israeli-backed foundation in Gaza, according to witnesses, and a hospital run by the Red Cross confirming it was treating many wounded.

Witnesses said Israeli forces had opened fire as Palestinians headed toward the aid distribution site in Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“My brother went to receive aid from the American distribution points in Rafah when the bullets started raining down on them,” Yarin Abu al-Naja, 44, said. “The Israeli soldiers had started shooting at the people there. My brother went with two of his friends. One of them was critically injured in the head, the other was killed, and my brother was shot in the back.”

“He was transported to the hospital by a donkey cart – no ambulances can reach the area, and there were dozens of injured and dead,” Naja added. “We saw him placed on the ground. There were no available beds due to the large number of casualties and dead arriving from the same location. The scenes were horrific – people missing limbs, hands or legs, others decapitated, or with open abdomens.”

Media reports said dozens of people were being treated at the hospital after the latest incident at the controversial site in Rafah. Officials at the field hospital did not say who opened fire but added that another 175 people were wounded.

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Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/palestinians-gunned-down-while-trying-to-reach-food-aid-site-in-gaza-hospital-says