Outrage over report Israeli troops ordered to shoot Gaza aid seekers

By Alastair McCready, Tim Hume and Usaid Siddiqui  28 Jun 2025

• US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire in Gaza could be reached “within the next week” as Israeli attacks continue, with more than 60 people killed across the territory on Friday.
• Gaza’s Government Media Office says revelations in the Israeli media that soldiers were ordered to “deliberately shoot” starving Palestinians seeking aid supplies are further evidence of “war crimes” in Gaza.
• The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says aid distribution sites operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) had created “a killing field”.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,331 people and wounded 132,632, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured today, 1 June, as they waited for food at the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centres in Rafah and close to the Netzarim Corridor, according to the Ministry of Health. 

_{Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams joined the mass casualty response in Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis.} 

Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground. 

“Today’s events have shown once again that this new system of aid delivery is dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective. It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. 

"Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organisations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively,” states Claire Manera, MSF emergency coordinator. 

Medical staff donating blood

MSF teams at Nasser Hospital treated patients with serious injuries today. Some patients in critical condition are still undergoing surgery. 

But with the blood banks almost empty, medical staff have had to donate blood.

“The hospital corridors were filled with patients, but unlike what I have witnessed before, where most of the patients were women and children, today it was mainly men. 

“They lay in their beds in the hallways because the rooms are already packed with injured people. They had visible gunshot wounds in their limbs, and their clothes were soaked with blood,” says Nour Alsaqa, MSF communications officer. 

“They looked shattered and distraught after trying to secure food for their children, returning instead injured and empty-handed. 

"Outside, there was shouting, sirens, a constant rush of new arrivals to the emergency room. 

"Amid the chaos, we received confirmation that a colleague’s brother had been killed while attempting to collect aid from the distribution centre,” she adds. 

At MSF's out-patient department in Batil refugee camp Gandhi Pant, a nurse, escorts a patient with a possible appendicitis to a waiting ambulance. 

Batil is one of three camps in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State sheltering at least 113,000 refugees who have crossed the border from Blue Nile state to escape fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the SPLM-North armed group. Refugees arrive at the camp with harrowing stories of being bombed out of their homes, or having their villages burned. The camps into which they have poured are on a vast floodplain, leaving many tents flooded and refugees vulnerable to disease. Mortality rates in Batil camp are at emergency levels, malnutrition rates are more than five times above emergency thresholds, and diarrhea and malarial cases are rising.

“This isn’t aid. It’s a lie”

Mansour Sami Abdi, a father of four, described the chaos: "People fought over five pallets. They told us to take food—then they fired from every direction.

“I ran 200 metres before realising I’d been shot. This isn’t aid. It’s a lie. Are we supposed to go get food for our kids and die?"

“I was shot at 3:10 am. As we were trapped, I bled constantly until 5:00 am. There were many other men with me. One of them tried to get me out. He was shot in the head and died on my chest. We had gone there for nothing but food — just to survive, like everyone else,” says Mohammad Daghmeh, 24, a displaced person in Al-Qarara, Khan Younis.

All of Gaza at risk of famine

This is the second time this new system of aid distribution has led to bloodshed. On 27 May, the first afternoon of distribution in Rafah, Israeli forces shot dozens of people as wholly insufficient amounts of basic lifesaving supplies were distributed amid chaos.

As a result of the total siege that was imposed by the Israeli authorities on 2 March, 100 percent of Gaza is now at risk of famine, according to the United Nations. 

Since 19 May, the few hundred food trucks brought in – an insufficient fraction of what is needed – have spread despair among the two million plus people who have been largely deprived of food, water, and medication for three months now. 

Totally or partially blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza has aggravated the situation of all Gazans. 

MSF reinforces that, along with displacement orders and bombing campaigns that kill civilians, weaponising aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity. 

Only a lasting ceasefire and the immediate opening of Gaza’s borders for humanitarian aid – including food, medical supplies, fuel and equipment – can ease this man-made catastrophe.

Israeli forces targeting Gaza’s so-called ‘safe zones’

Tareq Abu Azzoum Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza

Israel has been pressing ahead with its military offensive across Gaza, with a particular focus on targeting civilians in areas that the Israeli military itself has designated as safe humanitarian zones, specifically in the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza.

Since dawn today, two makeshift tents have been targeted, resulting in at least four confirmed Palestinian deaths and six others injured.

What is especially alarming is that rescue operations are still ongoing following an Israeli strike yesterday evening that hit a group of makeshift shelters in Gaza City.

This strike buried at least 15 tents, and several rescue workers are still trying to recover more bodies trapped under the sand.

This marks yet another bleak milestone in Israel’s ongoing war with residents feeling shattered sense of safety and are left wondering if anywhere in Gaza is truly safe.

Despite Israel’s claims that its military campaign will continue until Hamas is fully defeated, misery on the ground is mounting, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.

Trump is talking up a Gaza ceasefire, but major obstacles remain

Nour Odeh Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank. 

Donald Trump has said a ceasefire in Gaza could be achieved in a week. That’s welcome news to Palestinians in Gaza who continue to be bombed and starved nonstop. But there are actually no negotiations happening anywhere at the moment around this.

What we do know is that talk of a ceasefire in Gaza has increased exponentially after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Israel does not want to talk about ending the war – in fact, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu would be risking a lot if he did. But there is an understanding, according to many reports, that Netanyahu would have to agree to some sort of ceasefire in exchange for the normalisation deals with other countries being talked about by the Trump administration.

What Hamas would want, according to its statements, is first of all for the slaughter to end, but also for Israeli troops to withdraw from the areas they’ve taken in Gaza after Israel broke the ceasefire in March. Right now, they’ve taken up to 80 percent of Gaza.☀