UN condemns Gaza aid ‘death trap’ as dozens reported killed by Israeli fire
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
U.N. agency slams U.S.-backed Gaza aid effort as “a death trap,” as health officials say dozens killed
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini calls Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “an abomination” Gaza Health Ministry says 79 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory over the previous 24 hours. U.N.’s aid agencies and organizations have refused to work with GHF, saying it violates humanitarian principles. GHF: “No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is spared””The people have starved to death, and nobody gives a damn about Gaza,” says man at Gaza’s Nasser hospital, where injured people were being brought for care, says CBS News’ team in Gaza.. More than 55,000 people are reported killed, most of them women and children, and two million people are being starved, among them 1 million children, according to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization GHF denies doing anything wrong and denies siphoning off funding for management and management of GHF operations, which have remained unclear since it began in mid-May, but it is unclear if it is still staffed.
The statement from Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for UNRWA, criticizing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) came as the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said 79 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory over the previous 24 hours, 51 of whom it said had died near GHF sites.
“There is no food. The people have starved to death, and nobody gives a damn about Gaza. Nobody talks about what’s happening in Gaza,” one man at Gaza’s Nasser hospital, where injured people were being brought for care, told CBS News. “Young men in their prime are dying. What brings these youngsters to go to the aid sites? It’s hunger. The fire of hunger has ravaged the people.”
Another man at Nasser hospital said: “I send this message to the mothers and fathers, not to send their children. Youngsters who are barely 17 are dying in vain, just to get some hummus or a bag of flour to feed their families. The Israeli army lies in wait to kill them as you can see here. Look at the victims here. Most of them have been shot in their heads. This American charity is a trap of those youngsters. Young people in their prime are dying. This is a trap.”
Palestinian women and girls mourn relatives killed while attempting to get aid at a distribution point near the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing, during a funeral service at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, June 24, 2025. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Getty
“Humanitarian principles must be reinstated,” Lazzarini said in his statement. “The humanitarian community, including UNRWA, has the expertise and must be allowed to do their jobs and provide assistance with respect and dignity.”
“In Gaza, atrocities continue while global attention shifts elsewhere,” Lazzarini said after 12 days of air and missile strikes between Israel and Iran. “A confined and captive population is bombarded, besieged and constantly displaced. More than 55,000 people are reported killed, most of them women and children. Two million people are being starved, among them 1 million children. We have said it several times and I say it once again: no place is safe in Gaza, and no one is spared.”
CBS News’ team in Gaza reported a decrease in the intensity of Israeli bombardments on Monday, with drones and fighter jets seen in the skies, but most of the violence affecting people approaching GHF aid distribution points.
GHF said in a statement on Tuesday that distribution “at all sites proceeded without incident. However, today GHF formally raised complaints with the IDF regarding instances of possible harassment by Israeli soldiers directed at our convoys” headed to one of its aid hubs.
The group also pushed back, as it does in all of its daily statements, against what it called “false allegations of attacks near aid distributions sites,” and it added that the “Hamas-affiliated Gaza Health Ministry is not a credible source of information, as it fails to report any UN convoys or distribution sites that are linked to violent incidents.”
A boy mourns over the body of a man killed a day earlier while attempting to get aid at a distribution point near the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing, during a funeral service at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, June 24, 2025. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP/Getty
GHF sent an additional statement to CBS News in response to this story, saying in part: “It is unfortunate that both organizations, especially the UN [and the Gaza Ministry of Health], continue to push false information regarding our operations. We understand the UN is also trying to deliver aid into Gaza, but yet are unaccountable about the percentage of their deliveries that are being looted versus making their final destination.”
The U.N.’s aid agencies and private organizations have refused to work with GHF, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, causing yet more mass displacement in the Palestinian enclave.
“Bottomline, our aid is getting securely delivered. Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome the UN and other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza. We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need,” GHF said.
Israel and the United States have said the new GHF-organized system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid, which the U.S.-designated terrorist organization denies doing. The funding for and management of GHF have remained unclear since it began operations in mid-May, but it is staffed by private, well-armed American security contractors.
Meanwhile, a limited number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the U.S.-based World Central Kitchen nonprofit group were reported to have entered the Gaza Strip.
COGAT, the agency that coordinates Israel’s operations in the Palestinian territories under the authority of the country’s Ministry of Defense, said over half a million pounds of baby food had entered Gaza Monday. The Israel Defense Forces said 79 trucks from various aid organizations carrying food and medical supplies had entered Gaza on Monday.
Before and during much of the ongoing war in Gaza, UNRWA provided education, health care, humanitarian relief and social services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in multiple countries across the Middle East, but the group has long been accused by Israeli authorities of links to terrorism.
In January, two Israeli laws came into effect banning UNRWA operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Israeli officials accused a dozen UNRWA staff members in Gaza of being complicit in the Hamas-orchestrated Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack that sparked the war. UNRWA’s Lazzarini, following an internal U.N. investigation, fired nine staff members, but said the agency’s priority remained “to continue lifesaving and critical services for Palestine refugees in Gaza and across the region.”
UNRWA later said the Israeli government had not provided any evidence for its accusations, a position which was supported by a later independent U.N. review. However, the allegations against UNRWA prompted the U.S. government to temporarily pause its funding for the agency, and President Trump, earlier this year, made the end of American support for the agency indefinite.
In March, UNRWA issued a public appeal for a resumption of the American funding.
“UNRWA’s financial situation is dire,” Lazzarini said Tuesday. “Cash flow is managed now on a weekly basis instead of monthly let alone yearly. Without additional funding, I will soon have to take unprecedented decisions affecting our services to Palestine Refugees across the region. The loss of UNRWA’s stabilising effect on a region increasingly in turmoil will also be consequential.”
Lazzarini stressed that UNRWA provides a range of services to Palestinian refugees that a functioning Palestinian state, if one were to be created, could take over, including education and medical care.
“A genuine, time-bound political process would allow the Agency to finally transition its government-like services to empowered and prepared public institutions serving Palestinians,” he said. “In the absence of an orderly transition, the sudden loss or reduction of UNRWA’s services will only deepen suffering and despair across the occupied Palestinian territory. It might spark unrest in the neighbouring countries. This is something that the region cannot afford, especially now.”
UN condemns Gaza aid ‘death trap’ as dozens reported killed by Israeli fire
UN condemns Gaza aid ‘death trap’ as dozens reported killed by Israeli fire. UN agencies have condemned the US and Israel-backed food distribution system. One official called it “an abomination” and “a death trap” Such deadly incidents have recently become a near daily occurrence but have attracted relatively little attention outside Gaza since Israel attacked Iran more than a week ago. Without including the latest deaths, the UN has said that more than 410 Palestinians are reported to have died by Israeli gunfire or shelling since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began work in late May. The GHF is officially classed as a private organisation, but it has opaque funding and is backed by the U.S. and Israel. Israel sees the GHF as key to a new aid plan which it says will undermine what remains of Hamas control in Gaza. The group says it has since provided 41 million meals, but the UN and major aid groups have refused to co-operate with the foundation, accusing it of co-operation with Israel’s goals in the 20-month-old war against Hamas.
2 hours ago Share Save Yolande Knell Middle East correspondent Share Save
AFP There were chaotic scenes as men with gunshot wounds were brought to al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat
At least 46 people waiting for aid have been killed by Israeli fire in two incidents in central and southern Gaza, according to rescuers and hospitals. UN agencies have condemned the US and Israel-backed food distribution system, with one official calling it “an abomination” and “a death trap”. Such deadly incidents have recently become a near daily occurrence but have attracted relatively little attention outside Gaza since Israel attacked Iran more than a week ago. Without including the latest deaths, the UN has said that more than 410 Palestinians are reported to have been killed by Israeli gunfire or shelling since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began work in late May.
“Why are our children’s lives seen as so cheap?” demanded Umm Raed al-Nuaizi, a widow whose son was shot and wounded after he went overnight to collect food for his hungry family in central Gaza. “My son went to get a grain of flour so that he could eat and feed his siblings, and now he is in the intensive care unit.”
Umm Raed al-Nuaizi’s son was shot and wounded after he went to collect food
Footage from al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat showed chaotic scenes as young men with gunshot wounds were carried in, groaning in pain and some drenched in blood. Soon every bed was filled, and casualties covered the floor. An older man was set down dead as his wife, bereft, cradled his face and wept. Hospital officials and the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said that at least 21 people were killed and some 150 injured. Witnesses said that thousands had crowded near a site run by the GHF in an Israeli military zone when soldiers opened fire. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a gathering had been “identified in an area adjacent to IDF troops operating in the Netzarim corridor”. “Reports of injured individuals as a result of IDF fire in the area were received. The details are under review,” it stated. The GHF said there were “no incidents near any of our sites this morning”.
AFP Some men were pictured returning to Nuseirat with bags of food aid overnight
Paramedics and rescuers said that at least 25 people were also killed near a site run by the GHF in southern Gaza on Tuesday morning. A witness told the BBC that he had gone to a site north of Rafah at 05:00, but shortly before it was due to open at 10:00, Israeli tanks advanced towards them and opened fire with no announcements. “The shooting was directly on the civilians and blood got everywhere,” Hatem Abu Rjileh said. “Everyone around us got wounded, there may be more than 30 wounded whom no-one was able to rescue. We only managed to rescue our relative and left with him.” The IDF told the BBC that “contrary to the reports being spread out, the IDF is not aware of the incident in question at the Rafah aid distribution site”. Israel eased its total blockade of Gaza just over a month ago, and the GHF began operations a few days later. The group says it has since provided 41 million meals. While GHF is officially classed as a private organisation, it has opaque funding and is backed by the US and Israel. It uses armed private security contractors. The UN and major aid groups have refused to co-operate with the foundation, accusing it of co-operating with Israel’s goals in the 20-month-old war against Hamas in a way that violates humanitarian principles. However, Israel sees the GHF as key to a new aid plan which it says will undermine what remains of Hamas control in Gaza.
Reuters People desperate for aid have also taken to gathering along aid convoy routes
As news of the latest incidents broke, a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen al-Kheetan, held a briefing in Geneva condemning the system. “Israel’s militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution,” he said. “The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services constitutes a war crime.” He added that it was for courts to decide if war crimes had been committed. Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said: “The newly created, so-called mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people. It is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.” Asked for a response to recent UN criticism, the IDF told the BBC that it allowed the GHF “to operate independently in distributing aid to the residents of Gaza and is working to ensure its safe and continuous distribution, in accordance with international law”.
Reuters More than 410 Palestinians are reported to have been killed by Israeli gunfire or shelling while trying to reach aid distribution points since late May
‘We thought it was the end’: Israel’s Beersheba reels after deadly strike
‘We thought it was the end’: Israeli town reels after deadly strike. Four people were killed in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Israeli medics and military personnel rushed to rescue survivors and recover remains. Volunteers and local residents swept the shattered glass from the streets. “I hope this is the end,” one man told the BBC as he surveyed the damage.Israel and Iran both confirmed after the Beer’sheba strike that they had agreed to a ceasefire, but then accused each other of violating it.
4 hours ago Share Save Alice Cuddy Reporting from Beersheba, southern Israel Share Save
EPA
Shortly before a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was due to take effect, residents in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba were woken early on Tuesday by the sound of missile alarms on their phones. “Extreme alert,” the message read, warning of an imminent strike. Then the sirens sounded in the streets. Like others, Merav Manay and her family headed into their safe room – a secure part of their apartment built of reinforced concrete with a heavy metal door and designed to protect against rocket attacks. When the Iranian missile hit, they felt the building move and covered their heads with their arms. “It was so strong that we thought it was the end,” she said.
EPA
When they emerged, the windows at the front of their flat had shattered across the floor from the missile blast. But they were safe. Merav stayed in the flat for several hours, frightened of what she would see outside. Just across the road, a block not dissimilar to hers had been directly hit and partially collapsed. Follow the latest Middle East updates on our live page Four people were killed there. The spokesman for the southern Home Front Command told the BBC that they too were inside safe rooms when their building took a direct hit. After the strike, Israeli medics and military personnel rushed to Beersheba to rescue survivors and recover remains. Volunteers and local residents swept the shattered glass from the streets. “I hope this is the end,” one man told the BBC as he surveyed the damage.
EPA
Israel and Iran both confirmed after the Beersheba strike that they had agreed to a ceasefire, but then accused each other of violating it. As Beersheba’s residents dealt with the shock and the damage to their community, they also questioned whether the fragile truce would hold. On Tuesday afternoon, Oren Cohen, 45, stood among debris in his garden, overlooked by the block that was struck. He said he could not bring himself to look at it. “I was worried about my kids so only now am I starting to realise what happened here,” he said. Oren was with his wife and three children – aged eight, 12 and 15 – when the strike hit, and said the reinforced window flew open on the impact of the blast. As he spoke, a group of volunteers in fluorescent vests arrived to help with the clean-up.
Third Cambridge college granted injunction against protesters
Cambridge 4 Palestine group evicted from Magdalene College on Tuesday. College granted an interim High Court injunction against protesters. It follows similar action by Trinity College and St John’s College.
A Cambridge college has been granted an interim High Court injunction against pro-Palestine protesters who had taken up position in its grounds.
Activists from the Cambridge 4 Palestine group were evicted from land at Magdalene College, off the city’s Bridge Street, on Tuesday morning at about 07:00 BST.
The legal stance follows similar action by both Trinity College and St John’s College after the group set up camp on their sites in recent weeks.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Officers attended in case there was a breach of the peace but there was none.”
Israel kills more than 80 people in Gaza, including dozens of aid seekers
Israeli forces and drones have killed at least 86 Palestinians since dawn, including 56 near aid distribution centres, according to medical sources in hospitals. In Rafah alone, in the south of the enclave, 27 aid seekers were gunned down by the Israeli military on Tuesday. The overall death toll from Israel’s war has risen to more than 56,000 killed and 131,848 injuries since October 7, 2023. More than 400 people have been killed and 1,000 wounded by Israeli soldiers since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid rollout began. The United Nations has refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs. UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday that the newly-called aid mechanism is “an abomination that degrades and humiliates desperate people”. He said it is a ‘death trap’ costing more lives than it saves. The GHF launched its aid distribution programme after Israel had completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, prompting warnings of mass famine.
Israeli forces and drones have killed at least 86 Palestinians since dawn, including 56 near aid distribution centres, in the latest attacks on desperate people seeking aid in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to medical sources in hospitals.
In Rafah alone, in the south of the enclave, 27 aid seekers were gunned down by the Israeli military on Tuesday.
The overall death toll from Israel’s war has risen to more than 56,000 killed and 131,848 injuries since October 7, 2023.
The killings are the latest in a wave of daily carnage near aid distribution points established late last month by the controversial Israeli and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) has labelled a “death trap”.
Medical sources reported that at least 25 people were killed in an incident on Salah al-Din Street south of Wadi Gaza in central Gaza, according to The Associated Press news agency. More than 140 other people were injured, 62 of them critically.
Footage posted on the social media site Instagram, and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, showed bodies being brought to al-Awda Hospital in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp.
Similar scenes were reported from the Nasser Medical Complex to the south in Khan Younis, following unverified reports that the Israeli army had targeted people waiting for aid on al-Tina Street.
People approaching an aid point in Gaza City were also killed, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from the city in the north of the territory, as well as Rafah in the south.
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“Casualties were brought to various health facilities, including al-Shifa Hospital [in Gaza City],” he said. “The emergency ward there turned into a bloodbath, and many died waiting for medical care.”
Witnesses told the AP that Israeli forces had opened fire as people were approaching the aid trucks.
“It was a massacre,” said Ahmed Halawa, reporting that tanks and drones had fired “even as we were fleeing”.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing reports of casualties from fire by its troops after a group of people approached soldiers in an area near the militarised Netzarim Corridor.
Israel has said that previous shootings near GHF aid sites have been provoked by the approach of “suspects” towards soldiers.
Witnesses and humanitarian groups have said that many of the shootings took place without warning.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a media briefing that the number of Palestinian deaths at the sites speaks to “the horrors of what is going on in Gaza”.
“People are being killed just for trying to get food because of a militarised humanitarian distribution system that meets none of the prerequisites for a functioning, fair, independent and impartial humanitarian system,” he said.
Dujarric added: “It is high time that leaders on both sides find the political courage to put a stop to this carnage”.
‘Death trap’
The killing of aid seekers has become an almost daily occurrence since the GHF took over the distribution of food and other vital supplies.
The foundation launched its aid distribution programme in late May after Israel had completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, prompting warnings of mass famine.
The United Nations has refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs, and condemned it for its “weaponisation” of aid.
The GHF distribution sites have been plagued by scenes of chaos and carnage. More than 400 people have been killed and 1,000 wounded by Israeli soldiers since the GHF aid rollout began.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday that the system for aid distribution in Gaza was “an abomination”.
“The newly created so-called aid mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people,” Lazzarini said at a news conference in Berlin. “It is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.”
In a letter published on Monday, the International Commission of Jurists — a human rights NGO of prominent lawyers and judges — joined 14 other groups in condemning the GHF and calling for “an end to private militarized humanitarian aid operations in Gaza”.
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Philip Grant, executive director of Geneva-based NGO TRIAL International, said GHF’s model of militarised and privatised aid delivery “violates core humanitarian principles”.
He added that those who enabled or profited from the GHF’s work faced a “real risk of prosecution for complicity in war crimes, including the forcible transfer of civilians and the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”.
In the meantime, the United States has committed $30 million to GFH despite mounting criticism over its role in deadly aid-site ambushes by the Israeli military, according to Reuters.
While Washington, DC has previously offered diplomatic support to GHF, this would mark its first known financial contribution to the group, which contracts private US military and logistics firms to deliver aid into the besieged enclave.