‘Execution site’: Palestinians face death collecting food at US-Israeli Gaza aid points
For two days, Ramez Jendiya’s wife and five children heard nothing from him after he left to collect a food package from a US-backed aid distribution point in central Gaza.
After dozens of failed attempts to reach him from her makeshift tent in Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, his wife finally received the news: he had been killed near the aid distribution point.
“On Friday, he told his wife he was going to collect aid after they ran out of food. He didn’t usually take his phone with him, but she expected him to be late because this was his third or fourth attempt and he came back late every time,” Ahmed Jendiya, his brother-in-law, told Middle East Eye.
“She waited for him late into the night, but when he didn’t return, she grew anxious. She tried calling the men who usually went with him, but none answered. She couldn’t sleep for two days, desperately trying to reach him or find out anything about his fate, especially after hearing that people had been killed near the distribution point.”
On Saturday evening, Jendiya’s relatives travelled to central Gaza, planning to spend the night so they could begin searching near the aid distribution site early the next morning.
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The following day, they walked through the streets with his photo on their phones, asking if anyone had seen the 32-year-old man.
“A Bedouin man told them that around five bodies were lying under the Gaza Valley bridge. But because the area was extremely dangerous, they offered him money to look for him and to retrieve the body if he found him,” Ahmed continued.
“They showed him his photo, and he went under the bridge wearing only his underwear to avoid being targeted by snipers or quadcopters. He found the body and brought it to his relatives.”
According to his brother-in-law, the left side of Jendiya’s face was blown apart, and there was a visible hole at the back of his head.
This led his family to believe he had been killed by a quadcopter shot that penetrated his head.
On the same day - Saturday - at least 66 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near US-backed aid distribution points.
Gangs looting and army killings
The controversial US-Israeli aid distribution mechanism, handled by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), began operations for the first time on 27 May, following nearly three months of a complete Israeli ban on the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
The organisation, established in February, has come under fierce criticism from United Nations officials, who said its aid distribution plans, initiated by Israel and only involving private companies, would foster the displacement of Palestinians and more violence.
The scheme has been accused of dehumanising Palestinians and providing insufficient food, in addition to imperilling their life, as Israeli forces routinely open fire on the starving crowds.
In the three weeks since it began operating, more than 420 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,000 others injured by Israeli fire near the three aid distribution points in the central and southern areas of the blockaded enclave.
On Tuesday morning alone, at least 80 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli forces while waiting for aid in two separates distribution sites in Khan Younis and Rafah, in southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
While the northern parts of the Strip remain largely cut off from aid distributed through this mechanism, resulting in a suffocating flour crisis, Israel has recently allowed a limited number of aid trucks carrying only wheat flour to enter northern Gaza.
These trucks are permitted to enter the Palestinian enclave through the Zikim crossing after midnight and reach United Nations warehouses.
However, they often stop at certain points along the way, where tens of thousands of starving residents scramble to grab whatever they can.
‘For a bag of flour that currently costs around $570, I was about to lose my life’
- Ahmed Jendiya, Gaza resident
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), between 19 May and the morning of 11 June, approximately 5,600 metric tonnes of wheat flour, or around 224,000 25-kilogram bags, were allowed into Gaza.
However, most of this aid was intercepted and offloaded by desperate civilians, and in some cases by “armed criminals”, before it could reach warehouses or designated distribution points, according to the UN agency.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is arming gangs in Gaza in an effort to undermine the Palestinian movement Hamas.
"We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas… What's wrong with that?” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. "It's only good. It saves the lives of Israeli soldiers."
Humanitarian organisations have accused these groups of looting lifesaving aid. One of them, the so-called Popular Forces, led by former prisoner turned gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab, has been accused of selling looted UN aid on the black market and cooperating with GHF.
‘You never know if you'll make it back’
The Israeli government has been accused by rights groups of using starvation as a weapon of war, while Palestinians including children have been dying from starvation-related complications.
But for people in Gaza, going to the aid distribution sites is an even greater danger than famine.
“I refuse to go to the American distribution points for many reasons,” Ahmed said.
“First, they’re very far. I have to walk around 10 kilometres just to get there and maybe come back with a small box of limited aid. Second, it feels like an execution site.”
“You go there to get food, but you never know if you'll make it back.”
Still, due to the severe shortage of flour, which Gazans rely on heavily amid the lack of vegetables, meat and canned food, Ahmed once tried waiting for the aid trucks in northern Gaza in hopes of securing a bag of flour for his family.
“That was on Friday, one day before my brother-in-law was killed. I went there in the evening and stayed with a friend whose home was close to the area where the trucks usually stop,” he said.
“But how can I describe the scene to you? There was fire everywhere, Israeli gunboats suddenly started opening fire towards the crowds, and my legs froze, I don’t know how I could run away and leave the site alive. Dozens were killed and injured.”
On Sunday alone, at least 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for aid trucks in northern Gaza, while at least 20 more were killed around dawn on Monday.
“I thankfully returned to the school [shelter] around dawn and I swore that I would never try to reach any of these sites even if we were going to starve,” Ahmed added.
“For a bag of flour that currently costs around 2,000 shekels ($570), I was about to lose my life.”
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