UN and aid groups condemn US-Israeli initiative after deadly scenes in Gaza
The United Nations and aid groups have spoken out after three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and dozens injured at an aid distribution point set up by an Israeli-US-backed initiative.
There were chaotic scenes in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday as starving Palestinians rushed inside a facility holding aid, due to long delays conducting security checks on recipients.
Israel’s military opened fire on the crowds as they rushed in, killing at least three Palestinians.
At least 47 others were wounded and seven missing, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza and the UN.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) denied such reports, while the Israeli military said it fired “warning shots” and later re-established control of the facility.
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According to Israeli media, Americans affiliated with the GHF had to be rescued once they lost control of the facility.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric described the scenes as “heartbreaking, to say the least”.
“We and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan - supported by member states - to get aid to a desperate population,” Dujarric told reporters.
“We continue to stress that a meaningful scale-up of humanitarian operations is essential to stave off famine and meet the needs of all civilians, wherever they are.”
Dujarric added that aid needed to be distributed in a way that was independent and impartial.
“We saw the plan that [the GHF] published and that they presented to us, and it is not done with the parameters that we feel match our principles, which we apply across the board, from Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar, to anywhere you want to talk about.”
'Chaotic, undignified and unsafe'
Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said Israel’s model for providing aid was wasteful and a “distraction from atrocities”.
“The model of aid distribution proposed by Israel does not align with core humanitarian principles,” Lazzarini said on Wednesday.
“We have seen yesterday the shocking images of hungry people pushing against fences, desperate for food. It was chaotic, undignified and unsafe.”
Ahmed Bayram of the Norwegian Refugee Council called on Israel and the US to scrap the initiative.
He said: “This is not how aid is done; this is not how aid should be distributed, not least obviously an occupier 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.”
The GHF said in a statement that it had distributed 8,000 food boxes, which it said amounted to around 462,000 meals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played down the chaotic scenes.
“There was some loss of control momentarily. Happily, we brought it back under control,” he said.
He also went on to falsely claim that there was no proof of malnutrition in Gaza, stating: “You don’t see one, not one emaciated [person] from the beginning of the war to the present.”
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
The GHF is an Israeli-backed organisation established in early 2025 to manage a new model of humanitarian aid distribution in the Gaza Strip.
It was incorporated in Switzerland in February 2025, with a US-based counterpart also registered.
The organisation presented itself as an independent and neutral body, aiming to deliver aid directly to Palestinian civilians through a network of four secure distribution sites in southern and central Gaza.
According to the GHF, the aid distribution sites are managed by private US security and logistics firms, including UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), that are responsible for securing distribution hubs and overseeing vehicle checkpoints.
Both SRS and UG Solutions have faced scrutiny regarding their legitimacy and transparency. Critics, including Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, have suggested that these entities might be “shell companies” designed to obscure Israeli government involvement and funding in the aid process.
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