Satellite images show how receiving aid in Gaza became so deadly
Hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed by Israeli gunfire and in crushes while trying to collect food
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In June alone 800 Gazans were killed while trying to collect food, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a monitor that uses reports from Gaza's health service. The deaths came amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in the strip. The UN says every resident of Gaza faces food insecurity and a third have gone days without eating. Local health officials report that more than 100 people died of starvation in the past few weeks. On July 27th Israel paused its assault in parts of Gaza to let in more aid. Since then extra lorries have crossed and Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have dropped supplies from the air. Our charts and maps below show how in recent months the scramble for aid often turned lethal.
Deaths at aid sites soared more than eight-fold between May and June. That coincides with the start of work by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American-backed group set up to distribute aid. The GHF began operating on May 26th. Israel claimed it would stop Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the strip, from using the flow of aid to tighten its grip on the civilian population, as it said the group had done under the previous UN-led system. According to a report by the New York Times, Israeli military officials have since admitted that they had no evidence Hamas routinely stole UN aid.
The GHF has opened four large distribution hubs—three in the south and one in central Gaza—with plans for more. Some aid is still handed out at smaller UN sites, but supplies there have almost run out:organisers say Israel has strictly limited its deliveries for months.
AL-MAWASI
AL-MAWASI
Tents and
displaced people
Tents and
displaced people
Route start
Route start
Mediterranean Sea
Tents and
displaced people
Tents and
displaced people
Tents and
displaced people
Tents and
displaced people
Route start
Military zone/under
evacuation order
Route start
Checkpoint
Checkpoint
People in the
courtyard area
SDS2 Aid distribution site
Destroyed
buildings
RAFAH
RAFAH
SDS1 Aid distribution site
EGYPT
EGYPT
Sources: PlanetLabs, July 18th 2025; OCHA; IDF; Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
The four GHF hubs are located inside Israeli-controlled zones from which civilians were previously ordered to evacuate. They are connected to non-militarised zones via pathways that begin up to 4km away, and can only be accessed on foot. The satellite images below show crowds forming at checkpoints. Inside the centre, boxes of basic food supplies—such as flour, pasta and cooking oil—are laid out in a courtyard. Since May the GHF says it has handed out more than 91m meals, which works out to less than one a day per person.
SDS2 aid distribution site
SDS3 aid distribution site
Boxes of aid in the
courtyard area
People in the
courtyard area
Source: PlanetLabs, July 28th 2025
Order often breaks down. On July 15th, during a visit to an Israeli observation post, The Economist witnessed a crowd force its way into a GHF centre after guards allowed a group of women to join the front of a queue. Tear-gas was fired, guards stopped handing out boxes and the centre was closed (the GHF denies using tear-gas). Evidence of the disorder can also be seen from space. Satellite images from July 18th show one aid site north of Rafah overwhelmed with hundreds of people. Several were reportedly killed by gunfire from the Israel Defence Force (IDF), says ACLED. The GHF denies any such incident on that day.
Data from ACLED show that since May 26th most deaths linked to aid have been caused by Israeli gunfire near GHF centres. The IDF says it fires at crowds only when they pose a threat. It disputes the casualty figures from the Hamas-run health ministry that ACLED uses.
Deaths are also caused by crushes. On July 16th at least 20 people were killed in a stampede at a GHF centre. The GHF blamed gunmen linked to Hamas for sparking the panic.
The killings and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza have caused alarm overseas. More than 240 charities and NGOs have called for the GHF to be shut down. On July 21st 25 governments, including Britain and France, accused Israel of 'drip-feeding' aid and called on it to abide by its obligations under humanitarian law. Following Israel's announcement that it will pause fighting in parts of the strip to allow in more aid, the GHF system will be supplemented by air-drops and additional supplies from the UN and other agencies. It is too early to tell how much that will ease the crisis.
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