The organization tasked with delivering food aid in Gaza halted operations at its distribution centers this week following a series of fatal incidents near aid sites, raising urgent questions about how humanitarian assistance can be delivered safely in the weeks ahead.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private group backed by Israel and the U.S. said in a statement on social media Wednesday that centers would be “closed for update, organization, and efficiency improvement work.”
On Thursday, the organization said two of its aid centers were open, while two other hubs remained closed. In total, over 1.4 million meals were distributed on the day, across the two centers, according to the GHF. But on Friday, June 6, the GHF announced that all aid hubs would once again be closed for the day, warning people to stay away from sites for their own safety.
Here’s what has been reported regarding the circumstances surrounding the closure of aid centers.
Deaths at Gaza aid distribution hubs
The closures came after a number of incidents in which Palestinians collecting aid from hubs have been killed.
On Sunday, June 1, 31 Palestinians were killed at an aid hub, according to Reuters and the Associated Press, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses, after Israeli soldiers opened fire near crowds.
In a statement on X, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false.”
CNN reported that sound and video of gunfire from the site was consistent with that of weapons used by the IDF, and that the rate of fire “appears to rule out” weapons used by Hamas. Pictures of bullets from the scene were also consistent with machine guns used by the IDF as they can be mounted on tanks, according to the news outlet. Weapons experts told the BBC that both the IDF and armed Palestinian groups have access to weapons that use these types of rounds.
In a post by the GHF Sunday, civilians were warned that Israeli troops were operating in the area surrounding the aid hub at the time of the shooting, and that it was prohibited to enter before 5 a.m.
On Monday, June 2, three Palestinians were killed, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told the BBC, at the same location as Sunday’s killings.
The IDF said on Monday morning that it “was aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into.”
The statement added that approximately half a kilometer from the aid site, “IDF troops identified several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated routes. The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near individual suspects who advanced toward the troops.”
The IDF has not provided any further statement to TIME regarding the incidents on Sunday and Monday.
Tuesday marked the third day in a row of deadly incidents at the distribution center. At least 27 people were killed, according to the Red Cross.
The Red Cross said Tuesday that its field hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, received 184 patients, 19 of whom were dead upon arrival and an additional eight who died at the hospital.
The majority of cases had suffered gunshot wounds, the Red Cross said. A spokesperson told TIME that all responsive patients from Tuesday’s mass casualty event had told the aid organisation they were trying to reach an aid distribution site.
“The ICRC urgently reiterates its call for the respect and protection of civilians. Civilians trying to access humanitarian assistance should not have to confront danger,” the Red Cross said.
The IDF however said that troops fired warning shots Tuesday towards suspects that had deviated from designated aid routes.
“Troops are not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites,” the IDF said in a statement. “The warning shots were fired approximately half a kilometer away from the humanitarian aid distribution site toward several suspects who advanced toward the troops in such a way that posed a threat to them.”
United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk condemned Tuesday’s incident, calling for “a prompt and impartial investigation into each of these attacks,” adding that those responsible must be “held to account.”
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
GHF is a U.S. private organization that has been backed by Israel and the U.S. to be the sole distributor of aid in Gaza.
This came after Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on the territory in early March. Israel allowed aid into Gaza in May, following international pressure and condemnation of the humanitarian situation.
But the United Nations called the initial aid “a drop in the ocean.”
The GHF was designated to distribute aid in Gaza. But the day before operations began, on May 25, the foundation’s lead Jake Wood resigned, saying he would not be able to work in a way that met “humanitarian principles.”
On May 27, just two days into the new GHF-led distribution program, it was reported that one Palestinian had been killed and dozens more injured near an aid hub.
Medicin San Frontieres reacted on May 30 to the incident, saying: “The disastrous start of the food distribution coordinated by the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation confirmed that the U.S.-Israel plan to instrumentalise aid is ineffective,” adding that it was a “dangerous and reckless approach,” to aid distribution.
The impact on aid
The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday that since Israel resumed military operations in March, 640,000 Palestinians have been displaced.
Over half of those displaced since May are based in the North of Gaza, on the other end of the strip from three of the GHF’s four aid centers.
“Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism,” said Türk.
Since the start of the war, as of June 5, over 54,600 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry —the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies in the absence of any independent monitoring on the ground.
A peer-reviewed study, undertaken by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine epidemiologists, published in January in The Lancet found that the official Gaza death toll reported by the enclave’s Ministry of Health between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024 likely undercounted the number of fatalities during that period.
The war was triggered after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.
Oday Basheer, who helps run a food kitchen in Deir al-Balah, told TIME that he has not collected any food from the GHF centers yet, describing the process as “messy and dangerous.”
His kitchen has partnered with World Central Kitchen (WCK), founded by chef José Andrés, to help provide food for displaced Palestinians. WCK halted operations in Gaza twice in the past year after Israeli strikes killed seven in April 2024 and three last November.
Despite aid entering the strip, Basheer says that prices are still rising, with people paying up to $20 for a kilo of flour. “There is not enough coming in to replace what we are buying, people are dying to get a bag of flour,” he says.
Read more: $25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza
He also described that people who successfully get into the aid hubs can take as much as they want, with aid not distributed equally among those waiting.
“From where I am, you have to walk 20 kilometers there and back, carrying food. Just the strongest and fastest can get there,” he explains.
Jehad Miri, a journalist from Tel al-Hawa in Gaza City who has been displaced over a dozen times, says that despite having not eaten properly for weeks, he has not gone to the GHF aid sites.
“Going to those aid centers feels like walking into death,” he told TIME from Deir al-Balah. “Just two days ago, a close friend of mine was killed. He used to go to the aid centers to help families who couldn’t reach them.”
Several of Miri’s family members have chronic health conditions, and he has been supporting them however he can.
“I’ve been trying to take care of them getting food, water, and whatever they need. Every day feels like a mission finding water, finding a way to charge batteries, finding internet, finding safety,” he says.
Wednesday’s aid hub closure affected everyone, Miri says, not only those who go to collect aid.
“We get some food from traders who risked their lives to bring it from the aid hubs. Now, that’s gone. We can’t buy anything anymore, the prices are insane.”
Basic food supplies are staggeringly high, with 500 grams of butter costing up to $25 and a dozen eggs priced at over $40, civilians in Gaza have told TIME.
Friday marked the beginning of Eid Al Adha, an important festival in Islam that will be honored across the Gaza Strip, despite the continuing war. But Miri explains: “In Gaza, Eid doesn’t feel like Eid anymore.”
Basheer agrees, saying: “It was a custom to get new clothes, new food before Eid. Now you cannot find anything. There is no joy, there is no celebration for this Eid. Every day there is lots of killing, you don’t know if you will be alive.”
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