At least 34 Palestinians were killed Monday in shootings near food distribution centres in Gaza, the territory’s health ministry said. It was the deadliest such incident so far in a series of near-daily shootings around the aid sites.

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The food centres are operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Thousands of Palestinians often pass through Israeli military-controlled zones to reach these centres.

Witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire early Monday to control crowds at the Rafah centre, one of the busiest aid locations in the south. The Israeli military has not commented on Monday’s deaths but previously said its troops fired warning shots at what it calls suspects approaching military positions.

Most of the victims were near the GHF centre in Rafah, with a few on roads leading to a newer hub outside Khan Younis, according to officials. Two people trying to get food at the Rafah site told The Associated Press that soldiers fired on the crowd at around 4 am at a nearby traffic circle known as the Flag Roundabout. The area has seen repeated shootings in recent weeks.

The military has marked certain routes for people to use to access food, and GHF has warned that straying from them is dangerous.

However, many Gazans take the risk in hopes of getting food before supplies run out.

Israel and the US say the GHF system helps prevent Hamas from stealing aid, but UN agencies and major aid groups disagree. They say the system is unsafe, cannot meet Gaza’s humanitarian needs, and gives Israel too much control over who receives help.

Since the centres opened last month, Palestinian officials say dozens have been killed and hundreds injured while trying to access aid. The ongoing war and restrictions on aid delivery have pushed Gaza closer to famine, putting the lives of nearly 2 million people at risk.

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(Earlier AP erroneously reported 38 killed)

The floor of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza is streaked with fresh blood as 146 injured Palestinians lie there waiting to be treated after people were shot while trying to reach an aid distribution site for food.

The scene Tuesday was the latest in nearly daily violent incidents near aid centres one month after distribution was taken over by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The U.S.- and Israeli-backed GHF has drawn controversy since replacing UN-run relief operations in Gaza for using private American contractors and forcing people past Israel Defence Forces soldiers on the perimeter to reach these hubs.

As of Wednesday, 549 people have been killed and more than 4,000 have been injured while attempting to reach GHF sites or waiting for other aid trucks to arrive since the new system began operating on May 27, according to the Gaza-run Health Ministry.

We went to go get food for our children, Mahmoud Abu Armana, 26, told CBC News Tuesday.

“They said the [road] opened so the vehicles went in and they started to fire upon the people walking. We were running … the [Israeli military] were spraying us down with their guns. People started to lay on top of one another.

They were supposedly opening the distribution centre and told people to come and grab [the aid]. Why are they executing us?

Blood is shown smeared on the floor of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza on Tuesday after Palestinians were fired upon as they tried to reach an aid distribution site in the Netzarim area. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC) Photo: (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

Hospital officials say 19 deaths Tuesday resulted from gunfire.

Israel’s military said that a gathering overnight was identified adjacent to forces operating in Gaza’s central Netzarim Corridor, and it was reviewing reports of casualties.

The deaths come as humanitarian groups and UN agencies continue to slam the distribution system, saying it forces people to risk their lives by entering combat zones where they are repeatedly fired upon while trying to access food.

Civilans and health officials in Gaza have largely blamed the deaths on the Israeli military. Multiple people have told CBC News on the ground in Gaza that they have been fired upon by the Israeli forces just several kilometres away from the GHF sites.

Israel’s military has said in connection with several incidents that it fired warning shots at people who approached its forces near aid sites.

WATCH | Palestinians describe deadly violence near aid sites:

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‘It’s designed to fail’: Save the Children director criticizes Gaza aid delivery after fatal shootings

Rachael Cummings, a humanitarian director with Save the Children in Gaza, says the lack of trust with locals and the unpredictable nature of the aid distribution since the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched in the territory, has contributed to the violence reported near the sites.

Palestinian gangs have also been blamed by witnesses for some of the violence that erupts near the areas where aid is expected to arrive.

The Red Cross said the vast majority of patients who arrived at its Gaza field hospital during mass casualty incidents in the past month had reported that they were wounded while trying to access aid at or around distribution points.

Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save the Children, says the further bloodshed as parents try to scavenge for food for their children is a result of a dangerous aid mechanism that is designed to fail — pointing at a range of causes including a lack of trust among locals, an inability to reach those most vulnerable and difficulty controlling the chaotic crowds.

Lack of trust on the ground

Cummings said the key to distributing aid in Gaza in a calm, safe and dignified way is the engagement and relationship with the community.

If people know that there’s a predictable nature around the distribution, that they know today is not my day, but tomorrow will be my day, then [they] can react calmly and again we can facilitate safe and dignified distributions, Cummings told CBC News on Monday.

The distribution system GHF uses is not aid, it is not humanitarian, it is not based on need and it doesn’t follow humanitarian principles, said Cummings. It’s designed to fail. It’s designed to be dangerous — and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

WATCH | Save the Children humanitarian director says NGOs are unable to ‘do their jobs’:

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‘We saw death’: Palestinians describe violence near GHF aid sites on Monday

At least 20 people were killed and 200 others wounded in Israeli fire near an aid distribution site in Rafah on Monday, according to medics. The deaths are the latest in mass shootings that have killed at least 300 Palestinians in the past several weeks, Gaza’s Health Ministry says, as they try to access food through the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution system.

Cummings said civilians have complained of unpredictable opening times and amounts of food and no list of people who are eligible for food on that day — resulting in a survival of the fittest for people to get their hands on the life-saving assistance.

People are being forced into making decisions. They’re not choices. They’re forced into making decisions for the survival of their family, she said, adding that she has seen men carrying knives out of fear of being robbed while walking away with the aid.

In an email to CBC News, a GHF spokesperson denied that its three sites — two in southern Gaza and one in the north — were dangerous, saying it delivered aid in a secure, controlled, accountable manner — eliminating the risk of diversion. It added that the group works daily to establish trust with people on the ground.

In a report Tuesday, GHF said that it formally raised complaints with the Israeli Defence Forces of possible harassment by Israeli soldiers directed at its convoys that were en route to its northern distribution site.

Al-Awda has been treating dozens of wounded in similar incidents last week. The hospital treated more than 60 wounded and received 10 bodies of people who were killed after trying to get aid from the GHF distribution centre in the Netzarim area, Dr. Suleiman Shaheen said last week.

That is not [a] humanitarian [method] in distributing aid.

While witness reports and human rights groups say many of the shootings appeared unprovoked and occurred without warning, Israel has said its actions were necessary to control crowds that posed a threat to its troops or to prevent breaches of restricted zones.

WARNING: The following section includes an image of a dead body.

Mourners wheel a body on a medical bed during the funeral on June 19 of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire while they sought aid in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The funeral was held outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters) Photo: (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)

GHF working on ‘maintaining secure corridors’

Since late May, GHF said it has distributed nearly 35,000 boxes of aid across its three distribution sites without incident.

This stands in stark contrast to the United Nations, which sees its sites overrun and its trucks looted by bad actors, the group said in the email to CBC News Tuesday.

We are working in partnership with international monitors to maintain secure corridors for civilian movement, minimizing any exposure to violence.

The group said that its sites were managed by civilian humanitarian teams, which include local Palestinian partners.

Our aid workers are civilian contractors trained in humanitarian operations, not combatants, it said in the statement.

The GHF aid system was launched after a complete blockade (new window) lasting nearly three months on medical, fuel and food supplies imposed by Israel was lifted in the territory.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct.7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent air and ground war in Gaza has killed around 56,077 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-run Health Ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than two million and spreading a hunger crisis.

WATCH | Aid sites shutter in the second week after opening:

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Gaza aid group closes distribution centres over safety concerns

Ten Palestinians were killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza on Friday, local health authorities said, as a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group handing out aid in the enclave said all its distribution sites were closed until further notice.

Last week, UNICEF said that the aid distribution system run by GHF was making a desperate situation worse.

Outside of the aid distributed by the GHF, Cummings said non-governmental organizations in Gaza are getting very limited aid on trucks through border crossings, most of which are stopped and looted after entering.

Despite the limited aid entering, Save the Children has been helping provide clean drinking water for around 20,000 people each day in Gaza, even though there is a largely destroyed water infrastructure (new window).

UNICEF also sounded the alarm last week, saying Gaza is facing a human-caused drought (new window) as its water systems collapse, with just 40 per cent of drinking water production facilities remaining functional.

Without immediate and massively scaled-up access to the basic means of survival, we risk a descent into famine, further chaos and the loss of more lives, Tom Fletcher, emergency relief co-ordinator with the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement (new window) earlier this month.

Hunger must never be met with bullets. Humanitarians must be allowed to do their work.

Sara Jabakhanji (new window) · CBC News

At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded on Sunday in shooting near food distribution points in Gaza, as residents described an escalation of Israeli attacks happening against the backdrop of the new war with Iran.

Although Israel has said Gaza is a secondary theatre of operations to Iran, Palestinians reported continuing serious violence including fire around US- and Israel-supported aid distributions points and there are fears that global attention is moving on from Gaza.

“There were wounded, dead, and martyrs,” Ahmed al-Masri told the Associated Press on Sunday as he returned empty-handed from one of the sites. “It’s a trap.”

Umm Hosni al-Najjar said she joined the crowd heading to the aid point in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood at about 4.30am. She said the shooting began as people were advancing to the site a few minutes after her arrival.

The latest killings of Palestinians near the aid distributions managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) took place as Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, warned about the foundation’s operations.

He said: “Hunger must never be met with bullets. Humanitarians must be allowed to do their work. Life-saving aid must reach people in need, in line with humanitarian principles.”

“Without immediate and massively scaled-up access to the basic means survival, we risk a descent into famine, further chaos and the loss of more lives,” he said.

There have been near-daily shootings near the sites since they opened last month. Witnesses say Israeli forces have fired repeatedly on the crowds and health officials say scores of people have been killed. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at what it says were suspects approaching its forces.

In the latest incident, Palestinians said Israeli forces opened fire at about dawn towards crowds of Palestinians heading to two aid sites in Rafah.

The attacks in Gaza are taking place as concern mounts that the territory is being forgotten.

Thirty-two-year-old Mahmoud Abu Haloub, who has been displaced six times during the war, told the Guardian that the situation in Gaza had worsened since the outbreak of hostilities with Iran last week.

He said: “The number of aid trucks has decreased, and there is now greater danger for those who go to receive aid. The Israeli army has become more deadly than before, launching shells and bombs that kill many, without anyone talking about these massacres.”

Mohammed Zuhair, from the Beit Lahiya area, said: “The world’s shift of attention toward what is happening with Iran is a disaster for the people of Gaza, especially amid the current famine.

“The focus on the Palestinian cause has diminished, and the world has forgotten about us. Our issue has been pushed to the margins while we live through a suffocating crisis under Israeli aggression, blockade, and a lack of food and medicine.”

Maryam Al-Shafie, a 65-year-old widow and mother of a family of 12, said: “Yesterday, my grandson went to the aid trucks but came back with nothing. It was his first time, and we won’t let him go again after the massacre took place, and many were killed.

“Since the events between Iran and Israel began, it has been a catastrophe for us. The situation has become even more unbearable. We expected the pressure on Gaza to ease, but it only worsened. No one talks about it – all the news is about what’s happening in Iran.”

Experts and aid workers say Israel’s blockade and military campaign have caused widespread hunger and raised the risk of famine.

The shooting happened hundreds of metres away from the sites, which are operated by the GHF, a group that Israel and the US hope will replace the UN-run system of aid distribution.

The UN has rejected the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles.

The aid system rolled out last month has been marred by chaos and violence, while the UN system has struggled to deliver food because of Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of law and order, despite Israel loosening a total blockade it imposed from early March to mid-May.

The GHF said there had been no violence in or around the distribution points. It has warned people to stay on the designated routes and recently paused delivery to discuss safety measures with the military.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Gaza health workers say four killed by Israeli gunfire near aid centre

8 June 2025 Share Save Sebastian Usher BBC News Reporting from Jerusalem André Rhoden-Paul BBC News Share Save

Reuters Several deadly incidents have taken place near aid distribution centres in Gaza (file photo)

At least four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire as they were heading to an aid distribution centre, health workers in Gaza have said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops had directed warning shots after issuing a verbal challenge at a group that was moving towards them and was deemed a threat. It is the latest deadly incident to occur near aid distribution points in Gaza that have been set up by a new organisation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the US. The IDF said it was aware of reports that people had been injured, adding: “The number… does not align with the information currently held by the IDF.”

The latest incident occurred before dawn, near an aid distribution site close to Rafah in the south of Gaza. Palestinian paramedics said they had evacuated four people who were killed, as crowds gathered in the hope the aid centre would open and they could get food. One woman said her husband was shot in the head as he was waiting to collect food for their family. The Israeli army has declared that Palestinians should only move to and from the GHF distribution sites between 06:00 and 18:00 local time – and that at all other times it should be considered an “active combat zone”. The GHF has said it opened three sites on Sunday – one in central Gaza at 06:00 and then two more in Rafah at noon.

Israel recently began to allow limited aid into Gaza after a three-month blockade, prioritising distribution through the GHF. The distribution sites are part of a new aid system – widely condemned by humanitarian groups – aiming to bypass the UN, which Israel says has failed to prevent Hamas diverting aid to its fighters. The UN says this had not been a widespread issue, and that the GHF system is unworkable and unethical. GHF has been mired in controversy, after several deadly incidents took place during its first week of operation. More than 60 Palestinians were killed by gunfire over the foundation’s first three days distributing aid, according to reports from medics and local health authorities. Multiple witnesses blamed Israeli soldiers for the killings. The IDF said it had fired warning shots on the first two days and shot near to Palestinian suspects advancing towards their positions on the third, adding that it is investigating the incidents. On Saturday, six Palestinians were killed and several others were wounded by Israeli gunfire, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said. The Israeli military again said it fired warning shots at suspects who approached them in a threatening manner.