Tuesday’s deaths follow a string of similar deadly incidents in which Israeli forces have allegedly killed more than 100 Palestinians trying to collect aid from the controversial new U.S. and Israel-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in just more than three weeks.

“It’s a chilling pattern,” Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a social media post on Tuesday. “Repeatedly, survivors recount being attacked as they try to reach the aid that they need to survive.”

OCHA reiterated that “civilians must never be targeted, let alone those seeking food amid ongoing starvation.”

GHF told NBC News in a statement that Tuesday’s incident “did not occur at or in the surrounding vicinity” of its distribution site “nor did it occur during GHF distributing hours.” It said it had distributed more than two million meals on Tuesday “without incident.”

The organization has strenuously defended its operations in Gaza. On Monday, GHF said it had distributed nearly 26 million meals since launching May 26 and after Israel lifted a blockade that barred the entry of food, medical supplies and other vital items for more than two months.

Under the new distribution system in Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to travel long distances, including in areas controlled by the Israeli military, to reach a handful of aid sites sprinkled across the enclave, with limited supplies being doled out each day.

While the Israeli military designates specific routes during certain hours to access the sites, many of the areas surrounding the facilities are considered combats zone outside of those times. And while GHF has warned Palestinians to avoid trying to access the sites outside of operating hours, many across the enclave feel they have no choice but to walk for hours overnight and into the morning to reach distribution areas early enough to secure some of the limited aid available.

Many still come away hungry after failing to reach the sites early enough, while others have been killed trying to get to the facilities.

‘I’m scared’

“Every day he used to say to me, ‘I’m scared, Mom, but I have to go to bring food and drink for my siblings,’” a grieving mother, Yasmin Abu Muhsein, said of her 19-year-old son, Hadi Saad Abu Taha, who she said had been trying to get aid from a site in west Rafah over the weekend.

“And now he has been killed.”

Israeli forces kill 51 Palestinians waiting for flour at Gaza aid site, witnesses and rescuers say

1 day ago Share Save Sebastian Usher Middle East regional editor Reporting from Jerusalem Rushdi Abualouf Gaza correspondent Share Save

Reuters Tuesday’s attack is the latest in almost daily shootings that have been taking place near aid distribution sites in Gaza

Israeli forces have killed more than 51 Palestinians and wounded many more after opening fire near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza, witnesses and rescuers say. The Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the aid site in Khan Younis. More than 200 people were reportedly injured. The Israeli military has told the BBC it is looking into the reports. It is the latest, and potentially the deadliest, of the almost daily shootings that have been taking place recently near aid distribution sites in Gaza.

Almost all the casualties in Gaza in recent days have been linked to the delivery of aid rather than Israeli strikes on Hamas targets. Witnesses say that Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby. A local journalist and eyewitnesses said Israeli drones fired two missiles, followed shortly after by a shell from an Israeli tank positioned between 400 and 500m away from the crowd. The explosions caused many casualties. The crowd had assembled near a key road leading to the town of Bani Suheila, an area that has seen weeks of ongoing Israeli military operations. Nasser Hospital, the main functioning medical facility in the area, has been overwhelmed by the number of casualties. It is so overcrowded that the many wounded are lying on the floor as medical staff treat their injuries. Video showing the immediate aftermath of the incident and shared on social media has been located by BBC Verify to a location in Khan Younis. Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 50 people were killed. “Israeli drones fired at the citizens. Some minutes later, Israeli tanks fired several shells at the citizens, which led to a large number of martyrs and wounded,” he said. In a statement the IDF said “a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area.” It said it was “aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd’s approach” and the incident was under review. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had received reports of a mass casualty incident. “This is again the result of another food distribution initiative,” said Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer. “There’s a constant correlation with the positions of the four announced food distribution sites and the mass casualty incidents,” he added, saying the trauma injuries in recent days were mostly from gunshot wounds. For weeks, medical staff have warned that Nasser Hospital could be overwhelmed and unable to continue to operate under the pressure of multiple casualties, lack of medical supplies and Israeli evacuation orders in the surrounding area.

Eleven Palestinians were killed or injured on Tuesday morning after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd waiting for food trucks in central Gaza, civil defence officials in the devastated territory have said.

More than a hundred Palestinians have died in recent days after being targeted by the Israeli military in Gaza as they gathered near food distribution centres or on routes along which trucks were expected to travel.

The Israeli military said it was “looking into” reports of the new incident.

Mahmoud Bassal, a civil defence spokesperson, told AFP that 11 people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Monday morning “after [Israeli] forces opened fire and launched several shells … at thousands of citizens” who had gathered to queue for food in central Gaza.

The civil defence agency said a further 19 people were killed in three Israeli strikes on Wednesday, which it said targeted houses and a tent for displaced people.

Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies entering Gaza was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”.

The UN humanitarian office OCHA said this week that its partners “continue to warn of the risk of famine in Gaza, amid catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”.

Since the blockade was partially lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.

Aid officials said 23 UN trucks on average had entered Gaza through the main checkpoint of Kerem Shalom in recent days but most have been “self-distributed” by hungry Palestinians who stop them or looted by organised gangs.

“A few made it to the warehouses and the bakeries but the majority were stopped along the way … and offloaded by hungry civilians in critical need of food to feed their families,” a UN official said.

On Tuesday morning, at least 59 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded in Khan Younis, according to medical officials, as they waited for a truck loaded with flour. Other violence elsewhere in Gaza, including a shooting near an distribution site in the city of Rafah, took the day’s overall death toll among Palestinians seeking food to at least 73.

Many of the recent incidents have involved Israeli forces opening fire on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation that began operating in Gaza last month with Israeli and US support.

On Monday, at least 37 Palestinians were killed as they tried to reach a GHF site, local authorities said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) disputed the death toll, saying it did not match its information. Witnesses blamed that shooting on Israeli troops who opened fire early in the morning as crowds of hungry Palestinians converged on two hubs managed by the GHF.

The IDF said in a statement: “Despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone, overnight several attempts were made by suspects to approach IDF troops who were operating in the area of Rafah, posing a danger to them. IDF troops operated in order to remove the threat and prevent the suspects from approaching them, and fired warning shots.”

Israel hopes the GHF will replace the previous comprehensive system of aid distribution run by the UN, which Israeli officials claim allowed Hamas to steal and sell aid. UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of 20 month long war, have rejected the new system, saying it is impractical, inadequate and unethical. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas.

The GHF’s provisions so far have been grossly inadequate, humanitarian officials in Gaza say.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to advance Israel’s military objectives.

Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals

The Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday that 5,194 people had been killed since Israel resumed major operations in the territory on 18 March, ending a two-month truce.

The death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached 55,493, according to the health ministry.

LONDON — Almost 60 people are dead after two incidents near locations where people were trying to get food aid in Gaza Tuesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said.

Fifty-one people were killed in an incident near a food aid truck that got stuck near Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the shooting.

“A gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area,” the IDF said in response to an inquiry from ABC News.

AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: Palestinians who were injured in Israeli fire as they gathered near a food aid site, receive care at Khan Yunis’ Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on June 17, 2025.

MORE: More than 30 killed at controversial foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials

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“The IDF is aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd’s approach. The details of the incident are under review,” the IDF added.

The shooting comes as many in Gaza are in the grip of hunger, according to international aid agencies. The United Nations last week said a “very limited” amount of food was being brought into the Strip.

And it comes a day after COGAT, the Israeli organization tasked with bringing aid into Gaza, said that four aid distribution centers in Gaza were being operated simultaneously for the first time.

Hatem Khaled/Reuters – PHOTO: People react as Palestinian casualties, who were waiting to receive aid, are brought into Nasser hospital following an Israeli strike, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 17, 2025.

Humanitarian aid sites and routes in Gaza have become flashpoints in recent weeks, according to the Hamas-run ministry.

Some of the injured and dead in Tuesday’s incident were brought to Nasser Hospital Complex in Khan Younis after the incident. In a video published by Reuters, a man can be seen bleeding from a wound in his back while being wheeled into the entrance.

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MORE: More than 30 killed at controversial foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials

“We went to wait like other people to get food for our children,” the man told Reuters “They told us there is flour in a certain area, so we went and waited. Then we found rockets falling on us.”

In a separate incident, eight people were killed near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Tuesday. ABC News has asked IDF for comment on this incident.

AP

OCHA said the people killed were waiting for food rations arriving in UN convoys

Yousef Nofal, an eyewitness, said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: At least 51 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 wounded in the Gaza Strip while waiting for UN and commercial trucks to enter the territory with desperately needed food, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and a local hospital.

Palestinian witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said soldiers had spotted a gathering near an aid truck that was stuck in Khan Younis, near where Israeli forces were operating. It acknowledged “several casualties” as Israelis opened fire on the approaching crowd and said authorities would investigate what happened.

The shooting did not appear to be related to a new Israeli- and US-supported aid delivery network that rolled out last month and has been marred by controversy and violence.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, or OCHA, said the people killed were waiting for food rations arriving in UN convoys.

Also on Tuesday, the main Palestinian telecoms regulatory agency based in the West Bank city of Ramallah reported that Israeli strikes had cut off fixed-line phone service and Internet access in central and southern Gaza.

‘Aren’t we human beings?’

Yousef Nofal, an eyewitness, said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire. “It was a massacre,” he said, adding that the soldiers continued firing on people as they fled from the area.

Mohammed Abu Qeshfa reported hearing a loud explosion followed by heavy gunfire and tank shelling. “I survived by a miracle,” he said.

The dead and wounded were taken to the city’s Nasser Hospital, which confirmed 51 people had been killed. Later Tuesday, medical charity MSF raised the death toll to 59, saying that another 200 had been wounded while trying to receive flour rations in Khan Younis.

Samaher Meqdad was at the hospital looking for her two brothers and a nephew who had been in the crowd.

“We don’t want flour. We don’t want food. We don’t want anything,” she said. “Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren’t we human beings?”

Palestinians say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by a separate US and Israeli-backed aid group since the centers opened last month. Local health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded.

In those instances, the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots at people it said had approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

Deadly Israeli airstrikes continued elsewhere in the enclave on Tuesday. Al-Awda Hospital, a major medical center in northern Gaza, reported that it has received the bodies of eight Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the central Bureij refugee camp.

Desperation grows as rival aid systems can’t meet needs

Israel says the new system operated by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is designed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid to fund its militant activities.

UN agencies and major aid groups deny there is any major diversion of aid and have rejected the new system, saying it can’t meet the mounting needs in Gaza and that it violates humanitarian principles by allowing Israel to control who has access to aid.

Experts have warned of famine in the territory that is home to some 2 million Palestinians.

The UN-run network has delivered aid across Gaza throughout the 20-month Israel-Hamas war, but has faced major obstacles since Israel loosened a total blockade it had imposed from early March until mid-May.

UN officials say Israeli military restrictions, a breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it difficult to deliver the aid that Israel has allowed in.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for OCHA, said on Tuesday that the aid Israeli authorities have allowed into Gaza since late May has been “woefully insufficient.”

Fuel has not entered Gaza for over 100 days, she said. “The only way to address it is by sufficient volumes and over sustained periods of time. A trickle of aid here, a trickle of aid there is not going to make a difference.”

Israel’s military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel launched its campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage.

The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.