The long and dangerous journey into Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites

Australia Broadcast Center

29-07-2025

Gaza has been cut off from steady food supplies for months, and since aid deliveries have resumed, more than 1,000 desperate people have been killed while trying to access essentials.
Many of the killings have happened around sites recently set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed private operation that has taken over distribution of critical supplies from traditional aid agencies.
Palestinians in Gaza have told the ABC they feel they have to risk their lives in the hope of collecting food at one of the aid sites.
Multiple witnesses told the ABC they have seen soldiers fire directly at Palestinians.
People in Gaza are starving, and as the UN points out, they face an "unacceptable" choice over risking death to get food.
"The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation," the UN said.
After mounting international pressure, Israel has announced "tactical pauses" of its bombardment of Gaza to allow more aid to be dropped.
Humanitarian agencies said the aid drops wouldn't deliver enough for the 2 million people in Gaza.
Many will still have to make the long, dangerous and possibly fruitless journey to one of the GHF's four aid depots.
They set off after a message appears on Facebook.
"To the residents of Gaza, aid will be open tomorrow in Khan Younis in Saudi neighbourhood as of 9am. Please do not come to the location before this, as we may still be preparing the sites. The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] may still be in the area before that time."
People immediately begin the long walk from across the strip, leaving their tents and shelters and heading towards the site they have been told will open.
The night before the site opens, some sleep in the sand dunes nearby, hoping to secure a place at the front of the growing crowd.
They want to arrive as early as possible to give themselves the best chance of getting aid.
The people massing outside the centres don't know exactly when the gate will open, or for how long.
There's no guarantee that after the long walk to the site they will leave with a box of food.
"Many stay for days, because distributions are inconsistent, and you never know when the next box will come," Fayez Abu Obeyd told the ABC.
The Israeli military has created long approach corridors for each of the GHF sites.
People are only allowed to enter by walking down a kind of trench.
They're corridors made from bulldozed berms and security fences and are hundreds of metres long.
If people try to approach by another way to avoid the crush of the crowd, they say they are shot at by Israeli soldiers and tanks.
Drones also fly over those walking the trenches to the aid sites.
Hassan Abu Obeid, one of the many aid seekers, told the ABC the most dangerous part of the journey was reaching the queue at the distribution centre.
Abu Abel described a similarly terrifying situation.
"Guards open fire on anyone who steps even slightly out of line," he told the ABC.
"There are no warnings. A few centimetres off, and they shoot to kill, aiming for the head or chest."
Sami Ashour said there was barely room to move in the queues.
"We're packed so tightly that it feels claustrophobic," he said
"Just getting to the distribution centre is incredibly difficult. There are far too many people, all desperate for the same thing."
He said he had to risk his life "just to survive".
"There's no other choice," he said.
"Either I take the risk or we have nothing."
People have taken to calling the distribution sites cemeteries.
"That's how deadly they've become," Abu Abel said.
Abu Khaled has also been to the GHF sites.
"These aren't aid distributions — they're death distributions," he told the ABC.
GHF denies its workers have shot Palestinians.
There is evidence the Israeli military has fired at people queuing to collect aid.
The UN said that as of July 21, 1,054 people had been killed in Gaza while trying to get food, 766 near GHF sites.
GHF and the IDF have disputed the figures and have previously denied targeting civilians.
They have however admitted to firing "warning shots" towards "suspects".
Before the site has opened, an Israeli tank is positioned outside to stop people entering, people who have been to the sites told the ABC.
GHF has been using a coloured flag to indicate when people can enter their sites to collect aid.
"We never approach until the flag is lowered and the tank moves. That's the signal, meaning it's finally safe to start," Fayez Abu Obeyd said.
Palestinians told the ABC the opening times had been inconsistent and unpredictable.
At 5am, a crowd has formed around an aid site.
At 9am, the rush starts.
"Young men often have to run when the gates open, competing to get supplies for their families," Abu al Majed told the ABC.
Most of the people trying to get aid are young men, who have the best chance of reaching a box of aid in time.
Umm Ali, one of the few women to try reaching the sites, told the ABC she can't reach the food before them.
She has missed out every time.
"I've never been able to get a single aid box," she said.
"But I've seen many people killed, most of them young teenage boys. One moment they're standing in line, and the next, a shot to the head, no warning, no reason.
She said trying to collect aid from the sites was not safe.
"There should be a secure, dignified way for people to access food, without risking their lives," she said.
The GHF held a "women only" day at one of its sites last week, saying it was responding to community concern about the distribution method favouring men.
The sites generally open twice a day — in the morning and the afternoon.
That gives people two windows of about 15 minutes to grab whatever they can.
"Inside one box there's 5kg of flour, 2kg of bulgur [wheat], 1kg of rice, 1kg of lentils, pasta, salt, tahini, and cooking oil," Hassan Abu Obeid said.
One aid seeker, who spoke to the ABC after going to a GHF site, said all she managed to get was a kilogram of flour.
"Not even the basics," she said.
"If I had a choice, I would never come to these distribution centres."
It's not just food that's in short supply.
Fuel is scarce, and turning the ingredients in the aid boxes into food becomes another challenge.
"We cook using cardboard we collect from the streets," Hassan Abu Obeid said.
"There's no gas. We haven't had gas canisters for four or five months."
Hassan Abu Obeid even though the sites were "deadly", people had no choice but to go there.
The GHF denied that any guards it contracted had shot at Palestinians seeking aid.
Much of the carnage has been around the three GHF sites in Gaza's south and its other in the centre of the strip.
But there have also been reports of people being killed while trying to access aid deliveries in the north of Gaza.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has described what is said happened shortly after 25 aid trucks entered via the Zikim crossing a week ago.
"The convoy encountered large crowds of civilians anxiously waiting to access desperately needed food supplies," the WFP said.
"As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire."
About 80 people were killed, according to Palestinian authorities.
More than 170 aid organisations have condemned the GHF's operations as immoral, in breach of international law and against humanitarian principles.
Bushra Khalidi, the policy lead for the occupied Palestinian territories for Oxfam, said the aid community was horrified by the large numbers of Palestinians killed around the GHF sites, as well as the way aid was distributed there.
"Massacres have happened daily at these distribution sites," she told the ABC.
Ms Khalidi said one person her organisation had spoken with had almost died seven times in one day while trying to get flour.
Ms Khalidi said aid delivery should be handled by independent agencies and guided by international law.
"The GHF does not abide by any of these principles, nor is it impartial because it's run by the US, American veterans and armed actors. And the Israeli military. Nor is it independent, because it is directly tied to the Israeli military, and nor is it dignified," she said.
"Where is the dignity in throwing food like boxes of flour and oil and pasta to the strongest? Because now it's survival of the fittest in Gaza."
Aid should also be prioritised for the most vulnerable, she said.
"A pregnant woman right now, a child, an elderly person, an amputee … how are they supposed to walk for five to six kilometres towards these distribution sites in the middle of the night through rubble and roads that they don't even recognise because Israel has basically destroyed Gaza," she said.
The GHF is also only distributing boxes of food, but people in Gaza have little access to water, gas and electricity.
"Palestinians have lost their homes and water and sanitation infrastructure has been completely destroyed," she said.
"Electricity doesn't exist in Gaza for the last 20 months. None of this is addressed by these food distribution sites.