At least 70 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured on Tuesday in Khan Younis when Israeli tanks opened fire on civilians gathered to receive food aid, marking what local officials and witnesses described as the deadliest single attack on a humanitarian distribution site since the start of Israel’s siege on Gaza. Video footage and eyewitness accounts from the scene described a chaotic massacre, with shells striking the road as tens of thousands of desperate civilians waited near trucks operated by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Witnesses said the tanks fired at least two shells onto the route used by aid trucks, as medical workers scrambled to treat survivors with dwindling supplies. Health officials initially reported 51 deaths, a toll that later rose to 70, according to Al Jazeera. One eyewitness identified as Alaa told Reuters, “All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells.”
The mass killing occurred near a GHF aid distribution center, the latest in a series of strikes on such sites. GHF has become the focal point of aid distribution efforts in Gaza, despite widespread condemnation from international humanitarian organizations. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has boycotted the group, and UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini described the GHF-led scheme as a “death trap.”
In a statement released following the Khan Younis attack, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said, “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is directly responsible for the escalating Israeli crimes against starved Palestinian civilians near aid distribution points in central and southern Gaza. The foundation’s operational model involves luring civilians to specific locations coordinated with the Israeli army, where they are subjected to killing, injury, and cruel and degrading treatment.”
Palestinians have increasingly resorted to GHF aid sites out of desperation amid Israel’s blockade and the near-total collapse of Gaza’s health and food infrastructure. Crowds at the sites are growing larger each day, driven by starvation and a lack of alternatives. But these sites have repeatedly turned into scenes of mass death.
“Around 1am [22:00 GMT Wednesday], they started shooting at us. The gunfire intensified from tanks, aircraft and quadcopter bombs,” Bassam Abu Shaar told AFP of another Israeli strike at an aid site near the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern and southern Gaza. “We couldn’t help them or even escape ourselves,” he said, describing the chaos as the sheer size of the crowd made flight impossible.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 92 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday alone, including 16 who had been waiting for aid near the same corridor. Another 64 were killed in Gaza City and the north.
The overall death toll at GHF-linked aid locations has surpassed 300 people in just the last month, according to Wafa, Gaza’s official news agency. Attacks have been reported not only in Khan Younis and Rafah, but also in central Gaza, where Israeli troops allegedly opened fire on crowds waiting for UN-dispatched aid.
The growing reliance on GHF, despite its contested role, is largely a result of Israel channeling aid exclusively through the organization, bypassing long-established humanitarian agencies. Those agencies, in turn, have condemned GHF and the Israeli government for transforming aid into a tool of war.
“These attacks are still unfolding, turning all humanitarian corridors into killing grounds,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah. “More than three months of full [Israeli] blockade on border crossings has turned Gaza into a hunger point where people have run out of all kinds of humanitarian supplies and now found themselves to be forced to move to these designated centres to get bags of flour, bottles of water and alongside food boxes that, according to nutritional experts, contain low nutritional value.”
The violence has also extended beyond food distribution sites. In Al Shati refugee camp, 13 Palestinians were killed when an Israeli drone bombed a makeshift tent where people had gathered to charge electronic devices. Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from the area, noted that the attack came after “more than a-year-and-a-half” without electricity in the enclave. “Only a limited, very limited number of trucks coming in [to Gaza] every single day and people are very desperate; they’re being killed as they try to take whatever is on the trucks,” she said.
Gaza’s hospitals, many of them already damaged or destroyed in previous strikes, are nearing collapse. Medical officials reported that in just 24 hours, 69 bodies and 221 wounded people were brought to what few hospitals remain operational in the territory.
Since the war began in October 2023, at least 55,706 people have been killed and 130,101 wounded in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
Israel has denied responsibility for civilian deaths at aid sites, with the Israeli military claiming that “suspects” approached forces near Netzarim in a threatening manner and that troops fired warning shots. No evidence was provided to support this claim, and the army added that it was “currently unaware of injuries in the incident,” according to Reuters.
But humanitarian groups say the facts on the ground tell a different story. Witness testimonies, the sheer number of casualties, and the recurring nature of these incidents have prompted calls for an international investigation. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) has issued dire warnings, stating that it has only been able to deliver a “tiny fraction” of Gaza’s needed aid. WFP cautioned this week that the likelihood of famine in Gaza is “growing.”
One witness quoted by Truthout described the situation in blunt terms: “No one is looking at these people with mercy. The people are dying, they are being torn apart, to get food for their children. Look at these people, all these people are torn to get flour to feed their children.”
As global attention remains focused on Israel’s escalating regional conflict with Iran, the humanitarian disaster in Gaza deepens. What began as a military campaign has evolved into a starvation siege, with food lines now doubling as front lines—and civilians bearing the full cost.
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