Gaza hunger crisis: Desperate crowds storm US aid distribution site in Rafah as operation collapses

Chaotic scenes unfolded in Rafah, southern Gaza, as Palestinians rushed a US aid distribution site in Tal as-Sultan, prompting American security personnel to fire warning shots. Israeli forces reportedly intervened remotely to disperse crowds.

• Israeli Army radio cited security sources distancing Israel from the incident while confirming US contractors regained control. The aid was distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial organisation established after Israel blocked UN access in March. Footage shows desperate civilians amid strict aid restrictions. The foundation’s private contractor-led operations have drawn criticism for lacking UN neutrality protocols. This incident highlights escalating tensions over aid delivery in the besieged enclave.

Al Jazeera’s correspondents are tracking developments across key locations, including Hind Khoudary and Hani Mahmoud in Gaza, and Kristen Saloomey at the United Nations in New York. We’re also joined by analysts and experts: Tamer Qarmout, Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, speaking from Doha; Ahmed Bayram, Middle East Spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, joining us from Amman; and Chris Gunness, former Chief Spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, speaking from London.

Source: Al Jazeera

While the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says it has handed out some 8,000 food boxes today, supposedly amounting to 462,000 meals, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary says that the parcels she’s seen contain only a meagre amount of food that will not feed a family for long and is not nutritious enough.

She said had seen a food box that contained 4kg of flour, a couple of bags of pasta, two cans of fava beans, a pack of tea bags and some biscuits, while other food parcels contained lentils and soup in very small quantities.

• “This is definitely not enough, and it is not enough for all the humiliation that Palestinians are going through to receive these food parcels,” she said, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
• “We’re talking about nearly three months without chicken, without meat, without nutritious food, and that’s why most people coming to the hospital now are malnourished Palestinian children.”

Khoudary said that while these GHF food parcels might last a family a day or two, Palestinians used to receive packages from United Nations agencies that would last one to two weeks – until Israel imposed its total blockade on aid almost three months ago, and people increasingly became so hungry they could often not even cobble together one meal a day.

• “[The GHF says] 8,000 Palestinians received parcels today. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of Palestinians squeezed into the area very close to Rafah [in southern Gaza], and all of these people said they were forced to go to these distribution points after weeks of not having even one meal a day,” she said.

Source: Al Jazeera

Header: Palestinians open a box delivered by the GHF in Rafah [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

‘These are the scenes we have been warning about’

We have spoken to Ahmed Bayram, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, about the chaotic scenes at the aid distribution site in Rafah, southern Gaza, and the prior warnings by aid agencies.

Here’s what he said:

“What we’re seeing is indeed a summary of the tragedy that the people of Gaza are living.

• “To be honest, I have been describing this plan as a non-starter and today we see it’s a literal non-starter. You have been starving the entire population for almost three months, and then you’re asking them to walk miles and miles in order to get hold of a bag of lentils and a bag of flour.
• “This is not how aid is done, this is not how aid should be distributed, not least obviously an occupied doing that – a country that has destroyed and flattened Rafah asking people to come back to Rafah, that has displaced people out of Rafah and now tells them to come back and receive whatever they can get hold of.

“These are the scenes we have literally been warning about all month now.

“It spread chaos, it spread confusion and this is the result.

• “I think the best thing that can be done now is for this plan to be cancelled, to be reversed and for us professional humanitarians in the UN and NGOs to do our job – there are tons and tons of aid waiting across the border, very simple decision, open the gates and keep them open.”

Source: Al Jazeera

Why the US and Israel are pushing to privatize aid to Gaza

The United States and Israel are backing a new aid initiative in Gaza that critics say sidelines the United Nations and violates humanitarian principles. With biometrics and military ties, is it really about help or control?

Source: Al Jazeera