The city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, awoke Tuesday morning to a fresh tragedy. Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of civilians as they gathered to receive humanitarian aid, killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 90 others — yet another crime in a pattern of systematic attacks targeting displaced and starving civilians.
According to eyewitnesses and field sources, Israeli artillery and warplanes directly targeted people waiting near Al-Alam Roundabout in western Rafah. The result was devastating: bodies scattered, chaos erupted, and blood stained the streets where people had come only seeking food.
This assault follows a series of similar attacks on aid distribution points over the past days, which have left dozens dead or wounded. The repetition of such incidents suggests a deliberate strategy — using hunger and humanitarian aid not as lifelines, but as tools of control and instruments of death.
These acts are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which strictly prohibits the targeting of civilians and the obstruction of humanitarian aid, particularly in besieged areas. The intensified blockade on Gaza, in place for years and dramatically tightened since October 7, 2023, has turned aid distribution into a deadly trap. The weaponization of food aid — deliberately used to kill or control civilians — constitutes a war crime and, in some instances, a crime against humanity.
Aid is now distributed through only a few insecure and unmonitored points, forcing desperate civilians to travel long distances through exposed and dangerous areas. Medical teams, overwhelmed and under-resourced, reported giving their own blood to help the wounded due to a complete shortage of blood supplies and the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.
The UNRWA Commissioner-General previously described the new aid distribution system as a “death trap,” warning of an imminent famine threatening over a million children, and called for secure, organized access for humanitarian deliveries under UN supervision.
Since the beginning of the Israeli assault on October 7, 2023, the death toll in Gaza has climbed to at least 54,470, the vast majority of whom are women and children. Over 124,693 others have been injured. These numbers are not final — rescue teams remain unable to reach many victims still trapped beneath rubble or lying on the streets.
What is unfolding in Gaza is a slow-motion genocide — carried out not only with bombs and bullets but also through engineered humanitarian collapse. And the world watches in silence.
