Gaza rescuers say 46 killed as UN slams US-backed aid system
GENEVA
People make their way along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on June 22, 2025, towards trucks carrying humanitarian aid after they entered the northern Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed 25 people waiting for aid in the south of the Palestinian territory in the second such incident on Tuesday, bringing the number of aid seekers killed to 46, as rights groups and U.N. agencies slammed the U.S.-backed system for distributing food there.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 25 people were killed and dozens wounded when "Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells as they attempted to reach an aid centre in northwest Rafah, about two kilometres from a US-backed aid distribution point."
Footage from an AFP journalist showed wounded residents carried to a nearby hospital, with some appearing to be unconscious and pale.
"How long will this situation go on? How long will people have to endure this? We want a solution for these victims who are dying," Rabhi al-Qassas, an eyewitness, told AFP.
The Israeli military later said that a gathering overnight had been identified in an area "adjacent" to its troops in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid group is known to hand out food.
It said reports of individuals injured by military fire in the area were "under review".
Crowds of Palestinians gather near the Netzarim corridor every night in the hope of receiving rations, with the Gaza population of more than two million suffering famine-like conditions after an Israeli blockade, according to rights groups.
GHF is a privately-run U.S.- and Israeli-backed organisation brought into Gaza at the end of May to replace United Nations-run aid operations.
As news of the latest incident broke, the U.N. condemned the "weaponisation of food" in Gaza as a war crime and urged Israel's military to "stop shooting at people trying to get food".
"Israel's militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution," the U.N. human rights office said in written notes provided before a briefing.
U.N. agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
Ceasefire calls
According to figures issued on Saturday by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire while seeking aid since late May.
Many of those have been near sites operated by the GHF, according to rescuers, but GHF says some deadly incidents have occurred near U.N. convoys.
On Monday, more than a dozen human rights organisations called on GHF to cease its operations, warning of possible complicity in war crimes.
"This new model of privatised, militarised aid distribution constitutes a radical and dangerous shift away from established international humanitarian relief operations," the 15 organisations said in an open letter.
Over the weekend, Jonathan Whittall, the head of the U.N. humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories, denounced "a chilling pattern of Israeli forces opening fire on crowds gathering to get food".
Bassal added on Tuesday that five people were killed and several injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in Gaza City at dawn.
Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the Palestinian territory.
Israel's opposition leader called for an end to the war in Gaza on Tuesday, after Israel announced it had agreed to a ceasefire with Iran after 12 days of war.
"And now Gaza. It's time to finish it there too. Bring back the hostages, end the war," Yair Lapid wrote on X.
The October 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The U.N. considers these figures reliable.
