From 27 May to 9 October 2025, amid a famine in the Gaza Strip, more than 2,600 Palestinian civilians seeking aid were killed and thousands more were wounded when being fired upon by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), armed gangs, and contractors hired by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Most of the deadly incidents occurred in the vicinity of short-lived aid distribution sites operated by the US- and Israeli-backed GHF.
The killings began taking place on the first day of the GHF's operations, following an 11-week Israeli blockade since early March 2025 that had severely restricted humanitarian aid to Gaza, exacerbating the Gaza humanitarian crisis. On 31 July 2025, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that, as of 31 July, at least 1,373 Palestinian aid seekers were killed: 859 near GHF's sites and 514 near UN and other organizations' aid convoys. On 5 July, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 743 Palestinians were killed and over 4,891 injured; and earlier, on 1 July, the Ministry noted that around 70% of dead victims were killed at GHF sites. Critics have referred to the regular mass killings at GHF distribution sites as the "hunger games" in reference to the American media franchise.
The American non-profit the Center for Constitutional Rights believes the GHF could potentially be legally liable for complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians. Amnesty International says that evidence it has gathered suggests that the GHF's purpose is "to placate international concerns while constituting another tool of Israel’s genocide". The United Nations and over 170 charities and NGOs, including Save the Children and Oxfam, accuse the GHF of failure to uphold and even violating humanitarian norms by forcing two million Palestinians into overcrowded and militarised zones and subjecting aid-seekers to almost daily attacks. Additionally, those organisations, later joined by Human Rights Watch, demanded that the GHF and its aid distribution system be closed immediately.
In late June 2025, Haaretz reported that IDF troops had received orders to fire on the unarmed crowds to "keep them away from food distribution centers". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz denied these claims, calling the Haaretz report a "blood libel." American security contractors such as Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) had reportedly also been firing live ammunition and lobbing stun grenades at Palestinians seeking aid. A former GHF worker said that he witnessed the IDF shooting indiscriminately at Palestinian civilians. Amidst a ceasefire implemented on 10 October, officials announced that GHF sites in the Strip would be temporarily shut down.
Background The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was registered in both Delaware, United States, and Geneva, Switzerland, in February 2025, and is described by the BBC as aiming to provide an "alternative to the UN as the main supplier of aid" to Gaza. The foundation is backed by both the Trump administration and the Israeli government.
Due to Israeli checkpoints into Gaza which predate the October 7 attacks, the Israeli government and the IDF have controlled the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza, with aid delivery disrupted multiple times over the years, either via Israeli government blockades or Israeli civilian protests. On 2 March 2025, Israel blocked almost all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In May, Israel increased the amount of aid entering Gaza, but humanitarian organizations have stated that it is insufficient, and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has warned that Gaza is at high risk of famine. Israel has accused Hamas of routinely diverting aid. Aid organizations, including USAID and the UN, have denied these claims. The UN has attributed the aid theft to Palestinian groups supported by the Israeli military, such as the Popular Forces.
The GHF began operations on 26 May 2025 at a new distribution center in Rafah. The GHF sites are secured by American contractors, particularly Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), with Israeli troops patrolling the perimeter. The sites have chain-link fences directing Palestinians into military base-resembling structures surrounded by large sand berms. Palestinians are expected to go through identity checks and screening for involvement with Hamas prior to accessing food. The UN condemned the GHF plan and insisted that it would not operate with any scheme that fails to uphold humanitarian principles, with a spokesperson imploring Israel to open all entrances into the Gaza Strip and saying that the GHF's operations were a "distraction from what is actually needed".
Incidents
27–28 May On 27 May 2025, the GHF began distributing aid at a distribution center in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah under Israel Defense Forces (IDF) oversight. Thousands of Palestinians gathered to access food packages. The size of the crowd, which included women and children, led to chaos as people clambered over fences and pushed through packed corridors to reach the supplies. According to the GHF, the chaos resulted in the temporary withdrawal of American forces from the compound, allowing some Gazans to "take aid safely and dissipate."
The Gaza Government Media Office reported that Israeli tanks opened fire on the crowd, calling it a "deliberate massacre" and a "full-fledged war crime." The death count was later updated to 10 killed and 62 wounded. The IDF denied firing at Palestinians, saying that it had fired "warning shots" in an outside area to establish control over the situation. A UN spokesperson disputed the Israeli narrative, stating that "most of those injured are due to gunshots" from the IDF.
Videos circulating show people running away from the distribution center in panic as gunfire is heard in the distance. They also show a military helicopter firing flares from the sky.
On 28 May, the Gaza Government Media Office stated that the IDF had killed ten civilians and wounded 62 others over the past 48 hours at the aid distribution site. On 31 May, three Palestinians were killed in Rafah while trying to reach the aid distribution centre, according to Palestinian medical sources. The Gaza Health Ministry, meanwhile, stated that the death toll at the Rafah aid distribution centre had risen to 17 killed, 86 wounded, and five missing.
1–15 June On 1 June 2025, the IDF reportedly killed 32 civilians and wounded over 250 at the aid centre in Rafah. The Palestine Red Crescent Society stated that its paramedics had rescued at least 23 dead Palestinians and another 23 wounded from the area. According to Nasser Hospital's emergency department, 150 injured people and 28 bodies were brought to the hospital. The GHF responded saying that the reports were "untrue" and "fabricated" by Hamas, publishing undated security camera footage showing a calm atmosphere to support its claims. The IDF also called the reports "false," denying that it had fired "within or near" the aid distribution center, and released a drone video which it claimed showed unrelated looting at Khan Yunis where Palestinian militants threw rocks and fired at civilians heading to collect aid. Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry, hospital officials, and several witnesses testified that Israel was responsible for the gunfire at Rafah. Médecins Sans Frontières said that its patients at Nasser Hospital "reported being shot at from all sides by Israeli drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and soldiers." A CNN review based on witness testimonies, video evidence, and expert analysis found that the shots were likely fired by the Israeli army at a location where the GHF operated. Pro-Palestinian social media accounts referred to the 1 June incident as the "Witkoff massacre", referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who had endorsed Israel's plan to take over aid delivery in Gaza.
Footage of the aftermath of a strike was initially claimed to have occurred near the aid centre, but was later determined by BBC Verify to be a previously unreported Israel Defense Forces strike from the aid centre at al-Mawasi on 1 June 2025; the Israel Defense Forces told the BBC that they had "wrongfully hit the Mawasi area" with artillery that "deviated" after "technical and operational errors".
On 2 June, the Gaza Government Media Office stated that three people were killed and 35 others wounded by the IDF near the aid center, with the IDF claiming that its troops had shot at suspects who were approaching towards them. It also stated that 75 people had been killed and more than 400 others had been wounded since 27 May by the IDF.
On 3 June, at least 27 civilians were killed and 161 more were injured after the Israeli military said that its forces had opened fire on a group of individuals who had left designated access routes near the distribution centre in Rafah. The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile reported 184 injuries. Hamas meanwhile stated that so far at least 102 people had been killed and more than 490 wounded while seeking aid. On the next day, the IDF declared all roads leading to aid centers to be "combat zones," thereby closing the distribution centers for the day.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation stated that it would close its aid distribution sites on 4 June, with the IDF declaring routes leading to them as combat zones. The sites reopened on 5 June.
On 6 June, eight Palestinians were killed and 61 others wounded near the aid distribution centre in Rafah. The death toll near the aid distribution sites meanwhile rose to 110 killed and 583 wounded.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation again shut the aid centres on 7 June, accusing Hamas of threatening it, and stated that it would open on the following day. Hamas denied the allegation. That same day, six more Palestinians were killed and several others were injured by Israeli forces near the aid distribution centre.
On 8 June, Palestinian health officials said at least 13 people were killed and 173 others were injured by Israeli forces near the aid distribution centre in Rafah. The Israeli military said they fired warning shots at people it said were suspects who had advanced toward its forces and ignored warnings to turn away but did not see any casualties. Eleven bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, while another body and 29 injured people were brought to Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia. Palestinian witnesses there said Israeli forces had fired on them at a roundabout that is around a kilometre (half-mile) from a site run in the nearby city of Rafah. The total civilian toll at the aid centers rose to 125 killed, 736 wounded and nine missing per Hamas.
Survivors of the repeated mass killings perpetrated at the distribution sites have begun to refer to the Israeli-backed operation as traps or death traps rather than aid.
On 9 June, 14 civilians were killed and more than 99 wounded near the aid distribution site, with Palestinians accusing the IDF and allied local gunmen from the Popular Forces of firing at them. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, meanwhile, stated that it had closed one of its centres in Tel al-Sultan due to chaotic conditions caused by the crowds.
On 10 June, another 36 civilians were killed, and 207 were wounded near an aid distribution site, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The victims were seeking aid before "warning shots to distance suspects" were fired by the IDF towards individuals that they claim "posed a threat to troops." By this time, at least 163 people were killed and 1,495 were wounded while trying to receive aid from the GHF.