[News] Aid massacre: Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians at U.S.-run aid distribution center

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/aid-massacre-israeli-forces-kill-31-palestinians-at-u-s-run-aid-distribution-center/?ml_recipient=156096999931774153&ml_link=156096958989075810&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-06-02&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation>
Aid massacre: Israeli forces kill 31 Palestinians at U.S.-run aid
distribution center
Tareq S. Hajjaj
june 2, 2025
------------------------------
[image: 290525_Bureij_MS_1_0030-770x515.jpg]
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation-run aid distribution point in al-Bureij,
central Gaza, May 29, 2025. (Photo: Moiz Salhi/APA Images)

On Sunday morning at dawn, Palestinians from southern Gaza headed to the
aid distribution point in Rafah run by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF),
the U.S. contractor tasked with delivering aid to Palestinians instead of
the UN. Once thousands of aid-seekers arrived at the al-Alam area of
Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, the Israeli army opened fire on the
crowds, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to *Mondoweiss*.

As throngs of people waited outside the aid site in the early morning
hours, waiting for the instructions of the American employees, eyewitnesses
described an Israeli quadcopter drone hovering overhead and ordering them
via loudspeaker to enter the fenced delivery site at 6:00 a.m.

After hundreds of people had entered, soldiers opened fire on the crowd,
killing 31 people and wounding 200 others with live ammunition, Gaza’s
Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday.

 “Every martyr who arrived at the hospital had sustained only one gunshot
wound to the head or chest,” the Health Ministry said. “This confirms the
occupation’s intent to kill civilians.”

Director of Hospitals in Gaza, Muhammad Zaqout, said at a press conference
in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis that the injured had arrived at
the medical compound in animal-drawn carts or were carried on people’s
shoulders due to the Israeli army’s prevention of ambulances from reaching
the aid site.

The Israeli army denied <https://x.com/IDF/status/1929205105242394756> that
any soldiers had fired at civilians in the center, regarding the
allegations as “false reports.” The GHF also denied
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-01/ty-article/gazans-report-over-20-dead-in-israeli-attack-near-aid-distribution-site-distributors-deny/00000197-2a51-da41-a9f7-3fd5db130000>
the reports as “completely false and fabricated,” publishing CCTV footage
of aid distribution in Rafah as apparent proof that the day had gone on
“without incident.”

Last week, three people were killed
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/05/reports-of-killings-abductions-and-missing-persons-at-u-s-run-aid-center-in-gaza/>
at the GHF-run aid distribution point in al-Bureij, north of the Netzarim
Axis, and seven others were reported missing in the wake of the chaos last
week in the southern GHF site in Rafah. Today, June 2, the Israeli army
killed another 3 people at the al-Bureij GHF site.
*‘The Americans and Israelis set a trap for us’ *

Ahmed Abu Libdeh, 28, arrived at the aid distribution center in Rafah at
5:00 a.m. from eastern Khan Younis. Instead of receiving food, he witnessed
what he described as “one of the most horrific massacres perpetrated by the
[Israeli] army” at the Rafah center.

“We were standing outside the distribution point,” Abu Libdeh told
*Mondoweiss*. “At around 6:00 a.m., a quadcopter flew overhead and
announced over the loudspeaker that the place was safe and we could enter
to get the food.”

“The quadcopter loudspeaker said, ‘walk, you’re safe. We’ll get the aid out
in a little while,’” Abu Libdeh added, stating that after the aid had
arrived, “they began bombing and killing us.”

“As soon as we entered the distribution point and started carrying the aid,
the Israeli army opened fire,” he explained. “The scene was horrific. We
couldn’t see anything because of the dust and the shelling and the heavy
gunfire directed at us. Dozens of people were killed. And the airstrikes
also killed dozens of people.”

Abu Libdeh noted that the first strike occurred at around 6:15, the first
bombing occurred, with a drone bombing a car full of people who had
received food and were leaving the area. “After the car was bombed, tanks
opened fire on us,” he described.

Ahmad said that the first few minutes were “a shock to everyone,”
explaining that they had entered the distribution site according to Israeli
army instructions. “We didn’t know where the bombing was coming from or
from whom. Dust filled the area, and people were running without knowing
what was going on. People were falling in the stampede, and I saw dozens
lying on the ground, bleeding. They all died because no one could save
them.”

“The Americans and Israelis set a huge trap for us to lure us here and kill
us by the dozens,” Abu Libdeh concluded. “We don’t want America’s help. We
want to stop the war and stop the hunger.”

The massacre on Sunday has led many Palestinians in Gaza to conclude that
the goal of the GHF is not to distribute food to the people but to aid and
abet the Israeli army’s goal of “exterminating” Palestinians.

Arafat, 49, who preferred not to give his surname, is shown sitting in
Nasser Hospital with a small child in his lap in video testimony for
*Mondoweiss*. Both are crying, while Arafat lets out a sigh for his
brother, who he says was killed by the Israeli army in Rafah while on his
way to secure food for his family.

“Why do they tell us to go get food only to kill us when we get there?”
Arafat says. “They are liars. They lie to us and the world. The Americans
are conspiring with the Israelis to kill us. They killed my brother because
he went to get food for his family.” Arafat explains that the child in his
lap is his brother’s son.

“They made a place for us to go and be killed in cold blood,” Arafat
continued. “They shouldn’t say this is a humanitarian area. It’s a trip and
a massacre of starving people.”

Arafat notes that some people had been queuing near the distribution point
since 11 p.m. the night before. “The result is that we’re getting death
instead of food,” he says. “We don’t want America’s help. We don’t want
America’s food. If America wants to help us, as it claims, let it stop the
war. We don’t want anything more from it.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250602/af44d573/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 290525_Bureij_MS_1_0030-770x515.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 94506 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250602/af44d573/attachment-0001.jpg>