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Opioid pills discovered in US-backed food aid, Gaza authorities say
The Gaza government media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills reportedly discovered in flour bags distributed by 'American-Israeli' aid centres.
'We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags,' it said in a statement, warning of the 'possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself'.
Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients.
The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects, including breathing complications and hallucinations.
The media office's statement comes after several social media posts shared images of pills purportedly discovered in flour bags in Gaza.
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Palestinian pharmacist Omar Hamad described the discovery of the pills as 'the most despicable form of genocide'.
Khalil Mazen Abu Nada, a Palestinian doctor in Gaza, also posted about the drug on Facebook, describing it as a 'means to obliterate our societal awareness'.
The Gaza government media office said it held Israel 'fully responsible for this heinous crime of spreading addiction and destroying the Palestinian social fabric from within'.
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The office also decried the Israeli military's 'exploitation of the blockade to smuggle these substances as 'aid and assistance'', describing the Israeli and American-operated aid centres as 'death traps'.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US-Israeli organisation operating aid points in Gaza, has been widely condemned by human rights organisations for its lack of transparency and accountability.
On Wednesday, 15 human rights and legal groups called for the suspension of GHF for its role in undermining international humanitarian organisations and fostering the 'forced displacement' of Palestinians in Gaza, amounting to what could be complicity in 'crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide'.
Gaza's health authorities have reported that at least 516 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces near aid sites in the past month of GHF's operations.
On Friday, Haaretz reported Israeli soldiers admitting to directly shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians at GHF-operated aid collection sites.
Middle East Eye has asked the GHF for comment.
