In Gaza, the pursuit of food has become a deadly endeavor.
Civilians brave long, hazardous journeys to reach aid distribution points, only to face gunfire and airstrikes from Israeli forces.
On June 17, tanks shelled a crowd gathered around aid trucks, killing 59, Gaza medics reported. The next day, 12 more were killed near a U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site in central Gaza.
Such bloodshed is now routine, with 51 deaths recorded in a single day last week.
The violence spares no one, transforming aid seekers into targets.
Hind Al-Nawajha, a 38-year-old mother from Beit Lahiya, described the stark reality:
You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry.Hind Al-Nawajha.
Witnesses like Heba Jouda recounted indiscriminate shooting near Rafah’s Flag Roundabout, a recurring site of carnage.
The International Committee of the Red Cross treated 200 casualties in one day at its Al-Mawasi field hospital.
Airstrikes further escalate the toll, with 39 killed in northern Gaza, including 19 in a Shati refugee camp tent.
Gaza’s humanitarian system is buckling under stringent Israeli restrictions, leaving residents in desperation.
Anna Halford of Médecins Sans Frontières labeled it “lethal chaos,” noting that community aid points have plummeted from hundreds to just four.
With no cooking gas since March, people burn hazardous kerosene or salvaged debris to cook meager dry rations.
The GHF insists shootings occur outside its sites or during “prohibited times,” deflecting responsibility.
Halford dismisses Israel’s unsubstantiated claims of aid theft by Hamas as a pretext to dismantle a once-functional humanitarian network, trapping Palestinians in a cycle of starvation and slaughter.