Israeli forces opened fire early Sunday on thousands of starving Palestinians gathered at a food distribution site near the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 200 others, according to Gaza health officials and eyewitnesses. The site, part of a U.S.-backed aid operation controlled by a controversial Israeli-linked foundation, had been promoted as a lifeline for desperate civilians under siege. Instead, it became the scene of what survivors and human rights monitors now describe as a calculated ambush.
The attack, which occurred around 3 a.m. near the Flag Roundabout in Tel al-Sultan, has since been dubbed “the Witkoff Massacre,” a reference to Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy currently leading U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The massacre marks the deadliest single incident since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—a new aid system run by Israeli forces and private U.S. contractors—was installed in May to replace United Nations-led operations.
According to the Associated Press, “Israeli forces fired on crowds around a kilometer (1,000 yards) away from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation.” Witnesses said the crowds were ordered to disperse earlier in the night, only to be fired upon as they returned to the designated aid zone at dawn.
“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd. “The scene was horrible.” He described seeing at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and others ferrying the dead and wounded using carts.
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, a health official at Nasser Hospital, told reporters that most casualties were shot “in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest.” His team worked frantically to stabilize the wounded in overcrowded hallways and rooms already stretched beyond capacity by ongoing airstrikes. “We tried to save as many as we could, but we lost some due to a shortage of blood,” he said.
Despite video footage and multiple witness accounts, both the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denied wrongdoing. GHF claimed it had distributed 16 truckloads of aid “without incident” and dismissed media reports as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos.” The Israeli army said it was “unaware of injuries caused by [Israeli army] troops.”
But testimonies from survivors point to a deadly trap. “They told us to go to this humanitarian zone to receive food—then they killed us,” said Arafat Siyam, whose brother was among those shot. “The Americans are lying to us. Since when have they cared about humanitarian work? They call it a humanitarian point then kill us there.”
Marwa al-Naouq described how a quadcopter began firing into the crowd just before Israeli forces opened fire. “Dozens were killed and injured as people ran in every direction, trying to escape,” she told Middle East Eye. Eyewitnesses in both Rafah and central Gaza referred to the shootings as coordinated “ambushes.”
The Switzerland-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which had personnel on the ground, issued a statement Sunday morning: “The international community must act immediately and decisively to compel Israel to end its inhumane aid distribution mechanism in Gaza, following today’s massacre near a U.S.-backed aid centre south of Rafah, where Israeli forces killed or injured over 220 starving civilians.”
Euro-Med’s field team “documented Israeli forces opening fire on thousands of civilians gathered at dawn today, Sunday, 1 June 2025, in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, near an aid distribution centre established by the Israeli army.” Their preliminary report said at least 31 civilians were killed—including two women—and more than 200 injured. “Several remain missing,” it added.
Dr. Ramy Abdul, a professor of law and chair of Euro-Med, released a video from the scene and stated: “The new U.S.-Israeli genocide strategy: starve the population, lure them with promises of aid, then kill them.”
These deadly incidents come amid deepening scrutiny of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private aid mechanism created in May with full backing from the Trump administration and the Israeli government. As Common Dreams previously reported, humanitarian officials raised alarms early on. “There is no reason to put in place a system that is at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organization,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on May 9.
Euro-Med and other rights groups say the GHF system has become a “site of field executions.” In a follow-up statement after Sunday’s events, the organization declared: “These incidents should not be dismissed as procedural issues fixable through operational adjustments… It is inconceivable that the same entity accused of committing genocide for nearly 20 months can be entrusted with improving the humanitarian conditions of the very population it targets.”
The group called for “an immediate end to the Israeli aid distribution mechanism in the Gaza Strip… as it has become a site of field executions and fails to meet even the most basic humanitarian standards.” They demanded the full reinstatement of United Nations-led relief operations “to ensure the safe and effective delivery of aid to Gaza’s population.”
Meanwhile, the violence surrounding aid distribution continues to escalate. According to the Gaza-based Government Media Office, “Israeli forces have killed at least 49 Palestinians and injured 305 others at GHF-run distribution centres since the operation began on 27 May.” Hamas has accused Israel of weaponizing aid as part of a “broader campaign of genocide.”
As famine conditions worsen, frustration is mounting with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Drop Site News reported Friday that Witkoff was trying to “strong-arm Hamas into a deal that does not end the genocide.” After Israel rejected tentative language agreed to by Hamas and U.S. mediators, Witkoff dismissed a revised proposal Saturday as “totally unacceptable.”
In total, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023, including at least 16,500 children. An additional 10,000 are missing and presumed dead. Nearly 120,000 people have been wounded.
Reda Abu Jazar, whose brother was among those killed Sunday, spoke to Al-Jazeera: “Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us.”
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