The Hill: In Gaza, Israel has turned food aid into a death trap

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 https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5480646-aid-turned-death-trap-gaza/

by Hani Almadhoun, opinion contributor - 09/02/25 11:30 AM ET 

A Palestinian boy sits on the ground as he waits near a food distribution kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

 

My cousin Sameeh Mohamad Hilmi Almadhoun was just 18 when an Israeli soldier allegedly killed him at an aid site in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. He was a young man searching for food, a simple act that became his death sentence.

The truth is far more devastating than a simple headline: Israel has turned aid in Gaza into a lure for death.

Sameeh had already lost nearly everything. An Israeli strike in northern Gaza killed his parents and three siblings, some of whom had special needs. Driven by hunger, he left the north in search of a meal — without his surviving family knowing he had even gone. 

He walked more than six miles to reach one of the four aid sites run by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Khan Younis and chose to wait overnight so he could be first in line in the morning. 

That decision became his death sentence. Sameeh was one of more than 1,400 Palestinians killed at aid sites across Gaza. 

We discovered his death the way too many Palestinian families do: through a grainy photo of an unidentified body circulating on Telegram. My sister, Chef Samah — who runs a soup kitchen on the Gaza pier, now a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians — recognized him and quickly reached out to our mother. 

That recognition was a form of grief too heavy to bear. Sameeh’s grandmother, who suffers from chronic chest pain, has already buried 10 of her children and grandchildren, all killed by the Israeli military in northern Gaza during this ongoing nightmare... READ MORE  https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5480646-aid-turned-death-trap-gaza/

States must stop Israel before all journalists in Gaza are silenced: UN experts

 

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/states-must-stop-israel-all-journalists-gaza-are-silenced-un-experts

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04 September 2025

Related

Press releases

UN experts alarmed by reports of enforced disappearances at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites

GENEVA – UN experts* are outraged by the killing of six more Palestinian journalists — including two women — in multiple Israeli strikes in Gaza over the past 10 days.

Mariam Abu Daqqa, a visual journalist who freelanced for the Associated Press was among those killed in two Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on 25 August, as were Al Jazeera Journalist Mohammed Salama, freelance journalist Moaz Abu Taha, Reuters photojournalist Hussam al-Masri, and Ahmed Abu Aziz who worked for several media outlets including the Middle East Eye.

Islam Abed, a correspondent from Al-Quds Today TV, was killed in a strike on a residential apartment in Gaza city on 31 August. Her husband and child were also reportedly killed in that strike.

At least 248 journalists have now been killed in Gaza, more than in any other conflict in modern times.

“On the one hand, Israel continues to deny access to any international media and on the other, it kills with impunity local journalists who are the world’s only professional lens into the agony of genocide and famine unfolding in Gaza,” the experts said.

“Even as the journalists starve, lose family members, sleep in tents and get targeted by the Israeli military like the rest of Gaza’s population, they have continued to courageously bear witness to atrocities committed by the Israeli military,” they said.

The killings come as Israel escalates its military takeover of Gaza city and barely two weeks after six journalists, including Gaza’s chief Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif, were deliberately targeted and killed in a strike near Al Shifa Hospital.

“We demand independent criminal investigations into the killings and attacks on journalists in Gaza and across the Palestinian territory and full reparation and justice for their families and an end to the unprecedented impunity enjoyed by Israel,” the experts said.

“We also demand that Israel grant full and free access to international media. Their presence will give a measure of safety to local journalists and will keep the reports flowing into the world,” said the experts.

“We urge the international community – member states as well as the key organs of the United Nations to act without delay before Israel shuts down the last voices in Gaza.”

The experts are in contact with the Government of Israel on this matter.

 

*The experts:

• Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
• Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/.

For inquiries and media requests, please contact: hrc-sr-freedex@un.org.

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact Maya Derouaz (maya.derouaz@un.org) or Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org).

Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X: @UN_SPExperts.

Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel and Lebanon

See all Media coverage of the situation

Israel threatens to ban major aid organizations as starvation deepens: 100 organizations call for an end to Israel’s weaponization of aid 14 Aug 2025 Global

14 Aug 2025 Global  

Israel threatens to ban major aid organizations as starvation deepens 100 organizations call for an end to Israel’s weaponization of aid

 

14 August 2025 - Despite claims by Israeli authorities that there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, most major international NGOs have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies since 2 March.

 

Instead of clearing the growing backlog of goods, Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organizations are “not authorised to deliver aid.” In July alone, over 60 requests were denied under this justification.

 

This obstruction has left millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicine, water, and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt, while Palestinians are being starved.

 

“Anera has over $7 million worth of lifesaving supplies ready to enter Gaza – including 744 tons of rice, enough for six million meals, blocked in Ashdod just kilometers away,” said Sean Carroll, President and CEO of Anera.

 

Many of the NGOs now told they are not “authorised” to deliver aid have worked in Gaza for decades, are trusted by communities and experienced in delivering aid safely. Their exclusion has left hospitals without basic supplies, children, people with disabilities, and older people dying from hunger and preventable illnesses, and aid workers themselves going to work hungry.

 

The obstruction is tied to new INGO registration rules introduced in March. Under these new rules, registration can be denied on the basis of vague and politicised criteria, such as alleged “delegitimisation” of the state of Israel. INGOs warned the process was designed to control independent organisations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting. This new bureaucratic obstruction is inconsistent with established international law as it entrenches Israel’s control and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

 

Unless INGOs submit to the full registration requirements, including the mandatory submission of details of private donors, complete Palestinian staff lists and other sensitive information about personnel for so-called “security” vetting to Israeli authorities, many could be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days. Some organisations have even been issued a seven-day ultimatum to provide Palestinian staff lists.

 

NGOs have made clear that sharing such data is unlawful (including under relevant data protection laws), unsafe, and incompatible with humanitarian principles. In the deadliest context for aid workers worldwide, where 98 percent of those humanitarians killed were Palestinian, NGOs have no guarantees that handing over such information would not put staff at further risk, or be used to advance the government of Israel's stated military and political aims.

 

Today, INGOs’ fears have proven true: the registration system is now being used to further block aid and deny food and medicine in the midst of the worst-case scenario of famine.

 

“Since the full siege was imposed on 2 March, CARE has not been able to deliver any of our $1.5 million worth of pre-positioned supplies into Gaza,” said Jolien Veldwijk, Country Director of CARE. “This includes critical shipments of food parcels, medical supplies, hygiene kits, dignity kits, and maternal and infant care items. Our mandate is to save lives, but due to the registration restrictions civilians are being left without the food, medicine, and protection they urgently need.”

 

“Oxfam has over $2.5 million worth of goods that have been rejected from entering Gaza by Israel, especially WASH and hygiene items as well as food,” said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam Policy Lead. “This registration process signals to INGOs that their ability to operate may come at the cost of their independence and ability to speak out.”

 

These restrictions are part of a broader strategy that includes the so-called “GHF” scheme – a militarised distribution mechanism promoted as a humanitarian solution. In reality, it is a deadly tool of control, with at least 859 Palestinians killed around “GHF” sites since it began operating. “The militarized food distribution scheme has weaponized starvation and curated suffering. Distributions at GHF sites have resulted in extreme levels of violence and killings, primarily of young Palestinian men, but also of women and children, who have gone to the sites in the hope of receiving food,” according to Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.

 

Both the “GHF” scheme and the INGO registration process aim to block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organizations with mechanisms that serve political and military objectives. They come as the government of Israel to escalate its military offensive and deepen its occupation in Gaza, making clear these measures are part of a broader strategy to entrench control and erase Palestinian presence.

 

“At this point, everyone knows what the correct, humane answer is, and it's not a floating pier, airdrops or the “GHF.” The answer, to save lives, save humanity and save yourselves from complicity in engineered mass starvation, is to open all the borders, at all hours, to the thousands of trucks, millions of meals and medical supplies, ready and waiting nearby,” said Sean Carroll of Anera.

 

We call on all states and donors to:

 

• Press Israel to end the weaponization of aid, including through bureaucratic obstruction, such as the INGO registration procedures.
• Insist that INGOs are not forced to share sensitive personal information, in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or compromise staff safety or independence as a condition for delivering aid.
• Demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings and conditions for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid.
   

Editor's Note

 

• The occupied Palestinian territory is the deadliest setting for aid workers worldwide, with Palestinian staff accounting for 98% of aid worker fatalities: 509 out of 517 killings that took place between 2023-2025, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.
• On 6 May, 55 organizations warned that Israel’s new INGO registration measures are a grave threat to humanitarian operations and international law.
• On 1 July, 200+ organizations called for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme, including the so-called “GHF” in Gaza, revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies.
• On 23 July, 100+ organizations warned that, as mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.
• On 29 July, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) wrote that the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.
• Israel has consistently denied restricting the amount of aid allowed into Gaza, including throughout the period of July 2025, when most of the denials discussed in this statement were issued.
• On 31 July, OHCHR wrote that since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of the “GHF” sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys. Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli forces.
• On 4 August, a Palestinian nurse in Gaza was killed when an airdrop struck him.
• On 5 August, it was reported that Israeli authorities are planning for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip.
• On 6 August, UN agencies and NGOs warned that without immediate action most international NGO partners could be de-registered by Israel in coming weeks.
• On 6 August, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) concluded that Israel’s information requests under the INGO registration process risk violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPA advised that INGOs should not comply with these requests, and that the only solution is for Israel to amend its requirements and for the relevant ministries to issue a formal protest.
• On 7 August, MSF released a report stating food distributions in Gaza run by the so-called "GHF" are sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanization” that must be shut down."
• On 10 August, Save the Children reported the deaths of 100 children due to starvation in Gaza since October 2023.
• On 12 August, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights published a letter to the Israeli government, stating deep concern that the INGO registration measures “weaken the ability of INGOs to operate independently and impartially and to carry out their humanitarian and human rights work without interference or fear of reprisal” and that “that the obligation to report on INGO personnel, in the context of occupation, armed conflict and serious violations of international law, could raise serious protection and reprisal concerns.” 

 

Signatories:

 https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/2025/israel-threatens-ban-major-aid-organizations-starvation

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Dear America- Please no more Israeli GHF killing fields or other such Zionist schemes that aim to further harass and destroy the native non-Jewish population of historic Palestine.

Anas Al-Sharif- Palestinian journalist for Al Jazeera & yet another reporter targeted and killed by Israel.

 Dear America,

How many more journalists will Israel kill and then lie about why before you catch on to the fact that Israel lies?

How many more international laws and United Nations Resolutions will Israel violate day after day, decade after decade...

How much more graft and corruption will occur before our CEOs, our movie stars, our newspaper editors, our religious advisors, and our elected leaders catch on to the fact that Israel freely interferes with American elections, our mainstream media, our schools and colleges, our intelligence, our computer systems, etc... - sabotaging our democracy.

Israeli cruelty and Zionist lies are endless.  So is the suffering of children being starved to death by Israel's remorseless occupation.

Israel lies about UNRWA in order to destroy UNRWA and the Palestinian refugees that Israel has been forcibly displacing since 1948. Year after year more Palestinian men, women, and children are displaced and pushed into forced exile.

Israel could have and should have welcomed home all the Palestinian refugees long ago.   Until it does The United Nations and  UNWRA are the best option. Please no more Israeli GHF killing fields or other such Zionist schemes that aim to further harass and destroy the native non-Jewish population of historic Palestine.

Israel FIBS, deceives, misinforms, and deploys both bombs and propaganda in order to mislead insiders and outsiders.

Please FREE PALESTINE and free us all from being wage slaves aiding and abetting a huge crime against humanity.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

STOP THE SIEGE- stop funding crazy cruel Israeli schemes & the forced displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and killing of human beings in Gaza and Palestine.

"Remember this was the Israeli military's first response after murdering Shireen Abu Akleh in broad daylight, repeatedly lying about it and then getting away with it. Doing Journalism was [IS] enough to get you killed by Israel." Yousef Munayyer

"More journalists executed in Gaza. This time, the IDF admits it deliberately targeted them because one of them was a “terrorist.” As usual no evidence is provided. But killings after killings, truth-telling won’t die. We all bear witness of Israel genocide..."

Local sources confirm that Israeli forces have assassinated journalist Anas Al-Sharif and several other journalists after Israeli airstrikes targeted a press tent in central Gaza, which is currently under heavy barrages of fire. #JournalismIsNotACrime

Since October 2023, Israel has killed 269 journalists in Gaza, in the deadliest conflict ever recorded for reporters.

Israel has killed Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Esharif and four of his colleagues in an airstrike on their tent outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza. This deliberate assassination of Palestinian journalists is part of Israel’s ongoing effort to silence the truth and carry out genocide in darkness.

"I want my taxes to help children, not kill them. I want my taxes to feed children, not starve them. I want to build a better world, not bomb it." Ms Rachel

Aid blockade deepens Gaza crisis as malnutrition deaths rise, warns UNRWA ... Fuel is running out in Gaza. Displacement is rising. But UNRWA keeps going. In 2 weeks, UNRWA teams: Reached 600,000 pople with water & Cleared 1,500 tons of waste. Let the United Nations- including UNRWA - continue to do its job. Lives depend on it. #UNRWAworks

“Let’s make sport apartheid and genocide free. One ball, one kick at the time,” Francesca Albanese - UN rapporteur calls on European football body to expel Israel to make sport ‘genocide free’

"Israel’s plan for complete military takeover of Gaza must be immediately halted"- United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk At Geneva... & [ALL] the hostages and all those arbitrarily detained must be immediately and unconditionally released.

Nagasaki’s twin bells ring in unison for first time in 80 years to mark atomic bombing. Mayor of Japanese city used the anniversary of US bombing to urge the world to stop armed conflicts, warning nuclear war was ‘looming’ over everyone

Hiroshima 1945- Gaza 2025

Israel’s Gaza City plan sparks global condemnation with warnings of more destruction and suffering – latest updates Widespread calls for takeover plan to be stopped with UK’s Starmer saying escalation will ‘only bring more bloodshed’ and Germany halting arms exports

CNN: Netanyahu "prefers the hostages dead" so he can intensify attacks on Gaza, hostage’s father alleges

Israel's further escalation will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.

“Diversity can be a source of common strength, a wellspring from which we deepen our awareness of humanity.” Nelson Mandela's words resonate as strongly today as ever.

"It is often forgotten that Gaza was once the richest port in the Eastern Mediterranean, super wealthy from the export of Arabian incense and Indian spices" William Dalrymple... Aphrodite,oil lamps,trade routes,churches, etc.

Only 1.5% of Gaza cropland left for starving Palestinians due to Israel’s war, UN says. Israel has continued to target farmland in once-abundant Gaza Strip ... Gaza was a thriving agricultural hub, where farmers and ordinary Palestinians cultivated a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains for local consumption.

Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk - Official UK Trailer

‘I must document everything’: the film about the Palestinian photographer killed by missiles in Gaza. Fatma Hassouna used poetry and photography to record the death and devastation she saw daily. Was she targeted by the IDF? ... We speak to the director of Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a film about the journalist

UN experts call for immediate dismantling of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: “The GHF, a non-governmental organisation created by Israel in February 2025, with US support, to allegedly distribute aid in Gaza, is an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law...”

"After three hundred days of war, the UNRWA issued an analysis describing Gaza’s trauma as “chronic and unrelenting”—a collective embodiment of continuous traumatic stress disorder (C.T.S.D.), a condition that stems from living under relentless trauma. Unlike post-traumatic stress disorder, which sets in after a difficult experience, C.T.S.D. is what occurs when there is no end in sight. Gazans have adapted to chronic danger, living in a state of hypervigilance, emotional numbness, and dissociation amid the slow erasure of any imagined future. The effect on children has been especially catastrophic. "

“Take the nuclear option off the table — for good.” At Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial, UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres , urges nations to commit to ‘no first use’ and eliminate #nuclear stockpiles.

"80 years ago an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. This must be a reminder to all of us of the irremediable risk of nuclear war, but also of the death and devastation that war — all wars — continue to inflict on human beings caught in conflict. Every day, right now. #Hiroshima80" Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UN agencies and NGOs warn that without immediate action most international NGO partners could be de-registered by Israel in coming weeks

A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves: how Gaza looks from the sky... "Gaza was a bustling, living place until less than two years ago, for all the challenges its residents endured even then. Its markets were crowded, its streets were full of children. That Gaza is gone – not buried under volcanic ash, not erased by history, but razed by an Israeli military campaign that has left behind a place that looks like the aftermath of an apocalypse."

"Without community-based aid in Gaza: the fittest get some supplies & the vulnerable hardly survive. Stop displacing families, delaying convoys & shooting at hungry people. Let essentials in via all routes. Let us restart our service points, leaving no one behind." OCHA

I saw many atrocities as a senior aid official in Gaza. Now Israeli authorities are trying to silence us. Devastated hospitals, mass graves, bodies eaten by dogs in the street. After speaking out, I discovered my visa will not be renewed

For 80 years, the United Nations has served as the essential, one-of-a-kind meeting ground to advance peace, prosperity and human rights. Amid the profound challenges facing our world today, these solutions and global solidarity are needed more than ever.

The cry for freedom’s echoes: From Selma to Gaza By Lisa D. Bender in the Patriot News Jul. 31, 2025

“The holocaust in Palestine could be stopped if the European Union, Israel's biggest trading partner, would suspend trade agreements and impose crippling sanctions and the United States would impose an arms embargo." — Rula Jebreal, Award-winning Palestinian journalist and author

United Nations experts (& international law) call for end to Israeli State and settler violence in the West Bank

Patriarchs and heads of local churches of Jerusalem are gravely troubled by the prevailing climate of Israeli impunity & settler violence

Our "friend" Israel does not and never has practiced the rule of fair and just laws with equal rights for all... Zionism is ?!!!!

The Israel Lobby comes in many forms, and I suspect Israeli bribes do too. So in a way American funds sent to support Israel come back in the form of an information war on America, aimed at gathering more funds and lethal weaponry so that Israel can continue USURPING land, rights, and peace... and Occupation Forces can continue harassing and harming any who dare object to such blatant injustice and violence.

"Settlers" is too kind a word and too antiquated a word to properly express what modern Israeli "settlers" do.   They are heavily armed usurpers protected and empowered by a very powerful military machine that is funded in part by American taxpayers.  

"Settlers" are what people were generations ago, long before international law and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which  emerged after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.  Israeli USURPERS steal land, rights, and peace.  They also steal the story and twist the facts. So far they have managed to convince American leadership to undermine and de-fund UNWRA and UNESCO.  We should be defending UNRWA and UNESCO, not de-funding them.

LETTERS  https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

Building a Culture of Peace ...

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights