Israel allegedly drugs flour bags distributed as aid to Palestinians; at least 62 killed today in Gaza
Gaza's Government Media Office (GMO) on Friday confirmed reports regarding narcotic pills of the type "Oxycodone" being found in flour bags distributed as aid to starving Palestinians by the US-backed and Israeli military-operated Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Expressing its "deep concern and condemnation" over the discovery of narcotic pills inside flour bags, the Media Office further raised fears regarding the possibility of such substances being ground into the flour, which the Palestinians have consumed.
"We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside flour bags. More serious is the possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself, which raises the scope of the crime and transforms it into a serious attack directly targeting public health," said the statement published by the Media Office on Telegram.
'We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for this heinous crime of spreading addiction and destroying the Palestinian social fabric from within, as part of a systematic policy that constitutes an extension of the genocide it is waging against our Palestinian people,' it added.
"The Israeli occupation's use of drugs as a soft weapon in a dirty war against civilians, and its exploitation of the blockade to smuggle these substances as 'aid and assistance', constitute a war crime and a grave violation of international humanitarian law," the statement said.
Meanwhile, at least 62 Palestinians were killed by Israel on Friday including at least 10 who were shot dead while waiting to receive aid at the distribution sites of the GHF in southern Gaza.
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
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UN officials say aid distribution system in Gaza leading to mass killings
United Nations officials on Friday said a US- and Israeli-backed distribution system in Gaza was leading to mass killings of people seeking humanitarian aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was "aligning itself with Hamas". The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres.(Reuters) Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians seeking aid at distribution centres over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants. The Israeli military has denied targeting people seeking aid and the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites. But following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid. "The new aid distribution system has become a killing field," with people "shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA). "This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA," he wrote on X. The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies. The country's civil defence agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid. "People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "The search for food must never be a death sentence." Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid". Israel denies targeting civilians That drew an angry response from Israel, which said GHF had provided 46 million meals in Gaza. "The UN is doing everything it can to oppose this effort. In doing so, the UN is aligning itself with Hamas, which is also trying to sabotage the GHF's humanitarian operations," the foreign ministry said. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a newspaper report that the country's military commanders ordered soldiers to fire at Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza. Left-leaning daily Haaretz had earlier quoted unnamed soldiers as saying commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds near aid distribution centres to disperse them even when they posed no threat. Haaretz said the military advocate general, the army's top legal authority, had instructed the military to investigate "suspected war crimes" at aid sites. The Israeli military declined to comment to AFP on the claim. Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz that their country "absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels" and "malicious falsehoods" in the Haaretz article. The military said in a separate statement it "did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centres". It added that Israeli military 'directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.' Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza from March for more than two months. It began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May, with GHF centres secured by armed US contractors and Israeli troops on the perimeter. Guterres said that from the UN, just a "handful" of medical deliveries had crossed into Gaza this week. Civil defence says 80 killed Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP 80 Palestinians had been killed on Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory, including 10 who were waiting for aid. The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by GHF, and one more in a separate incident in the centre of the territory, where the army denied shooting "at all". Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said. Elsewhere, eight people were killed "after an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons" in northern Gaza. MSF said that in the week of June 8, shortly after GHF opened a distribution site in central Gaza's Netzarim corridor, the MSF field hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah saw a 190-percent increase in bullet wound cases compared to the previous week. Militants attack Israeli forces Meanwhile, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said they shelled an Israeli vehicle east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Friday. The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas-ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they attacked Israeli soldiers in at least two other locations near Khan Yunis in coordination with the Al-Qassam Brigades. Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,331 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza's health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
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First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
IDF opens probe into possible war crimes in Gaza as hundreds die seeking aid
Anonymous Israeli soldiers have told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that troops had been told to shoot at crowds of Palestinian citizens collecting aid near food distribution sites to keep them away from Israeli military positions read more Men look around on alert in the wake of gunfire shots as displaced Palestinians receive food packages from a US-backed foundation pledging to distribute humanitarian aid in western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 27, 2025. AFP The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have opened an investigation into possible war crimes after more evidence points to the possibility of its troops deliberately opening fire at Palestinians receiving food at aid distribution centres across Gaza. Anonymous Israeli soldiers have told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that troops had been told to shoot at crowds of Palestinian citizens collecting aid near food distribution sites to keep them away from Israeli military positions. The soldiers added that they had reservations about launching an assault on people who appeared to pose no threat. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Refresh for updates.
Hindustan Times
5 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Israeli military orders war crime probe into Gaza shootings, says report
Israel's Military Advocate General has ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians near Gaza aid distribution sites, Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday. Palestinians walk past the rubble and destroyed vehicles in the Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip after a house was targeted by an Israeli strike, on June 27, 2025.(AFP) Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said. Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers as saying they were told to fire at the crowds to keep them back, using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat. The military told Reuters that the Israel Defense Forces had not instructed soldiers to deliberately shoot at civilians. It added that it was looking to improve "the operational response" in the aid areas and had recently installed new fencing and signs, and opened additional routes to reach the handout zones. Haaretz quoted unnamed sources as saying that the army unit established to review incidents that may involve breaches of international law had been tasked with examining soldiers' actions near aid locations over the past month. The military told Reuters that some incidents were being reviewed by relevant authorities. It added: "Any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary." There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year-old military campaign by Israel against Hamas militants in Gaza that has reduced much of the enclave to rubble and displaced most of its two million inhabitants. Thousands of people gather around distribution centres desperately awaiting the next deliveries, but there have been near daily reports of shootings and killings on the approach routes. Medics said six people were killed by gunfire on Friday as they sought to get food in the southern Gaza Strip. MORE THAN 500 HAVE DIED, GAZA AUTHORITIES SAY In all, more than 500 people have died near aid centres operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) or in areas where UN food trucks were set to pass since late May, the Gaza health authorities have said. The unnamed Israeli soldiers told Haaretz that military commanders had ordered troops to shoot at the crowds of Palestinians to disperse them and clear the area. During a closed-door meeting with senior Military Advocate General officials this week, legal representatives rejected IDF claims that the incidents were isolated cases, Haaretz reported. There has been widespread confusion about access to the aid, with the army imposing for a time a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on approach routes to GHF sites. But locals often have to set out well before dawn to have any chance of retrieving food. In a statement late on Friday, a GHF spokesperson said there had been no incidents or fatalities to date at or in the immediate vicinity of its distribution sites. The statement said the IDF is tasked with providing safe passage for aid-seekers to all humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including GHF. "GHF is not aware of any of these incidents but these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,' the spokesperson said. The Gaza war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage into the enclave. In response, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza. The Gaza health ministry said on Friday that at least 72 people were killed and more than 170 wounded by Israeli fire across Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.
