Far from the oversight of the United Nations and international organizations, Tel Aviv and Washington have been implementing a plan since May 27, 2025, to distribute limited aid to Gaza. The Israeli occupation army has been firing on Palestinians queuing for aid, forcing them to choose between starvation or being shot.
This comes as Israel has tightly closed Gaza crossings to trucks carrying supplies and aid stacked at the border since March 2, allowing only a few dozen trucks into the Strip. Palestinians in Gaza need at least 500 trucks per day.
On Wednesday, the Government Media Office in Gaza reported that the death toll from the so-called "Israeli-American aid mechanism" over the course of one month had reached "549 martyrs, 4,066 wounded, and 39 missing."
"moral collapse"
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Friday that "commanders (in the occupation army) ordered forces to shoot at the crowds (of Palestinians) to push them away or disperse them (as they gathered near aid centers), even though they posed no threat."
The newspaper quoted an anonymous soldier as saying the situation was a "complete collapse of the Israeli army's moral standards in Gaza."
Despite Israel's daily massacres of starving civilians, the newspaper claimed that the Military Advocate General "has ordered a review of incidents involving potential violations of the laws of war, to investigate suspected war crimes at these sites."
She added, "The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) centers began operating in the Gaza Strip at the end of May. Mystery surrounds the circumstances surrounding the foundation's establishment and funding, as it is known that Israel established it in coordination with American evangelicals and private security companies."
She continued: "The organization operates four food distribution sites, three in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza. These sites are known in the Israeli military as rapid distribution centers. American and Palestinian workers staff these sites, and they are guarded by the IDF from a distance of hundreds of meters."
Regarding the targeting of the starving, she said: "Thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of Gazans arrive daily to receive food supplies from these sites, and contrary to the organization's initial promises, distribution is chaotic, with crowds jostling for space over piles of boxes."
Since the opening of the rapid distribution centers, Haaretz has documented 19 incidents of shooting at Palestinian civilians waiting for aid. Confirming the targeting of those waiting for aid, the newspaper quoted soldiers and officers as saying that the army "fires at people arriving before work hours to prevent them from approaching, or after the centers have closed to disperse them."
"children's game"
"It's a killing field," Haaretz quoted an unnamed soldier as saying. "Where I was, between one and five Palestinians were being killed every day, and they were treated as a hostile force."
He pointed out that "live fire was used with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. As soon as the position is opened, the shooting stops. They know they can approach, and our means of communication is through shooting."
"We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to stand in line a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we attack them from close range. There is no danger to the (Israeli) forces," the soldier added. "I have not heard of any instance of return fire. There is no enemy and no weapons."
Indicating the occupation army's disregard for Palestinian lives, the soldier stated that the activity in his area of service was referred to as "Operation Salted Fish," the name of the Israeli version of the traditional children's game "Red Light, Green Light."
In this context, Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli officers as saying that the occupation army does not allow the public to view footage of what is happening around food distribution sites.
It also quoted an unnamed reservist who completed another tour of duty in the northern Gaza Strip this week as saying, "Gaza no longer matters to anyone. The loss of human life means nothing, and it's no longer a regrettable incident."
An officer working at a distribution center described the Israeli occupation army's approach to shooting starving Palestinians as "deeply shameful," adding, "It is morally and ethically unacceptable for people to be forced to reach a humanitarian zone under fire from tanks, snipers, and mortar shells."
Netanyahu and Katz attack
For their part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz, attacked the Haaretz report, saying in a joint statement that Israel categorically rejects what they claimed were "shameful fabrications" and "malicious lies" published by Haaretz, which they claimed were "aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the Israeli army, which is considered the most moral army in the world."
In June 2024, the United Nations placed the Israeli occupation army and security forces on a "blacklist" of entities that commit "violations" against children in areas of armed conflict, before renewing their inclusion on the same list earlier this June.
In their statement, Netanyahu and Katz said that the Israeli occupation army is "operating under difficult conditions" against what they claimed is "an enemy that uses civilians as human shields." They also claimed that "IDF soldiers receive clear instructions to avoid harming innocents, and they operate in accordance with those instructions."
The ongoing genocide since October 7, 2023, has left approximately 189,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that has claimed the lives of many, including children.
