On Wednesday night, Gazans camped out near a humanitarian aid distribution site near Rafah, as a contentious US-Israel-backed project to distribute food in the devastated Palestinian territory grew.
According to local journalists, thousands of people gathered at the site northeast of Rafah in the hopes of receiving food aid, but there was insufficient supply when distribution began on Thursday.
The site is close to the Morag corridor, a strip of land controlled by the Israel Defense Forces that separates the Gazan cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Videos from the site showed large crowds of Gazans rushing to collect aid, carrying boxes stamped with the mark of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, which is directing the aid distribution in collaboration with the American and Israeli governments.
“It is very difficult, we want to eat, we want to live — what should we do?” one man told Reuters.
Another man left the site empty-handed, telling Reuters, “Every time I go, I hold a box, and a hundred or 300 people crowd around me. “I couldn’t take anything.”
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported Thursday that Israeli action had killed 67 people and injured 184 others in the previous 24 hours.
The latest casualties bring the total number of people killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 to 54,249, with 123,492 injured, according to the ministry.
Since March 2, the Israeli government has imposed a blockade on all humanitarian aid sent into Gaza. Israel said the blockade was implemented to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. According to The Associated Press, Hamas continues to hold 58 hostages, with approximately one-third of them believed to be alive.
The blockade has resulted in widespread malnutrition and conditions that are likely to lead to famine, according to the United Nations and other international aid organizations. Last week, the United Nations World Food Programme, or WFP, warned that two million people in the Gaza Strip face “extreme hunger and famine” unless immediate action is taken.
Last week, Israel began allowing small amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, allowing GHF to handle distribution. Israel had demanded a new aid distribution system, accusing Hamas of previously diverting aid.
The GHF, which was founded earlier this year and is run by US security contractors, former military officers, and humanitarian workers, has established a number of hubs near IDF positions that are guarded by armed contractors. Gazans have been instructed to travel to the hubs to receive aid.
The United Nations and other humanitarian aid organizations have refused to participate in the new effort, citing concerns that it will allow Israel to control and weaponize aid supplies.
WFP, for example, stated that it “cannot safely operate under a distribution system that limits the number of bakeries and food access points for Gaza’s population.” The World Food Programme and its partners must also be allowed to distribute food parcels directly to families, which is the most effective way to prevent widespread starvation.
GHF Executive Director Jake Wood resigned earlier this week, saying in a statement that it had become “clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”
GHF denied reports on Wednesday that it was forced to halt operations after thousands of Palestinians overran one of its aid distribution sites in Gaza on Tuesday.
The group stated that “operations will continue to scale up” on Thursday, after distributing a total of eight trucks worth of aid — enough for 378,262 meals — on Wednesday.
GHF later reported that three of its sites were operational on Thursday, distributing approximately 997,920 meals. According to GHF, the total number of meals distributed was approximately 1,838,182.
However, multiple aid and nongovernmental organizations have stated that the aid distributed thus far is a drop in the bucket compared to what is required.