‘It looked like a large prison’: Chaos ensues at US-Israeli-backed aid distribution site in Gaza
Palestinians seeking aid gather near an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Rafah, 27 May 2025
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 27 May 2025:
On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli media published photos of a long queue lined up in barbed-wire-fenced passageways waiting to receive aid in Rafah. The harrowing scenes were part of the initial attempt by the U.S.-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to implement its project to distribute assistance to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
After hours of waiting under the scorching sun, people began to push into the long, narrow passageways, which were fenced on both sides and marked with signs directing those queuing to the distribution point. The chaos quickly devolved into a stampede, and people began rushing the scene, grabbing whatever aid boxes they could find. Within hours of the opening of the aid distribution point, news quickly spread of people securing aid, and thousands had gathered near the checkpoint.
Amidst the chaos at the distribution center, the American team working at the site lost control over the crowds. Although some of them carried weapons and fired in the air, according to eyewitnesses, the hungry families did not stop. The Israeli media reported that an army force was called in to protect the foreign employees of the aid distribution company, with reports of fire being opened on the crowd.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement on Tuesday that “the Israeli occupation is failing miserably in its aid distribution project in the apartheid zones, amid the collapse of the humanitarian process and the escalation of the crime of starvation.”
‘It looked like a large prison‘
People began arriving at an area called al-Alam, west of Rafah, which is under complete Israeli military control. According to testimonies, people went to the area after receiving information to go there to receive the food parcels. As some families headed out, others followed.
When people in the Rafah area saw scores of people heading to al-Alam and returning carrying boxes of food aid, everyone who could reach the area went to get food.
Muhammad Abu Hadi, 34, was in his tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis when he saw his neighbor carrying a food box and returning to his tent around 3:00 p.m. He immediately asked him where he got it. His neighbor told him a point had opened in Rafah for the distribution of food parcels.
Muhammad headed to the point immediately. When he arrived, “it felt like a desert,” he said. “You walk a long way, then you find the fence. There were two lines, one for men and one for women.”
“There were about five American employees; the rest were Arabs who spoke like us,” Muhammad added. “They treated us respectfully, and we received a food box and returned the same way through the barbed wire.”
Muhammad says they were not searched or harassed, but cameras were installed in several places, capturing each person from every angle.
“I arrived at the distribution point. It looked like a large prison, with common paths and vast spaces between us and the distribution point. But people removed the fence and stormed the place without anyone attacking them later.”
Muhammad explains that the Israeli army was not far from them when chaos first broke out; they were stationed near the distribution center, but they did not shoot anyone until he left, carrying a box of food aid at around 4:30 p.m.