Amid growing hopes for a Gaza ceasefire and an end to the war, United Nations humanitarian officials revealed disturbing details on Friday about the ongoing killing and injuring of Palestinians desperately seeking food. Israeli forces continue to target and kill people attempting to access food supplies at militarized distribution centers, UN distribution sites, and near aid convoys.
Death and suffering are ever-present in the Gaza Strip, where people have little choice but to risk their lives gathering aid from militarized distribution centers. Since late May, Israeli forces have reportedly killed more than 600 Palestinians and injured some 4,500 at food distribution points or near aid convoys while they were trying to access assistance in the territory.
Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), speaking from Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, said that "scores of Palestinians" trying to access food have been killed and injured in multiple attacks.
“Life is almost like it’s worth one bag of flour […] That's the insane thing [which] is happening,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Peeperkorn insisted that the "senseless killing" in the Strip must stop.
He stressed that most of the casualties reported directly to the WHO by health workers, victims' families, and friends were related to "the so-called 'safe' non-UN food distribution sites" operated by an entity known as the Gaza "Humanitarian" Foundation (GHF).
Since late May, this militarized aid distribution, backed by Israel and the United States, has sought to sideline the United Nations and its humanitarian partners. Previously, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the model "inherently unsafe."
In a statement issued Thursday, his spokesman said Guterres was "appalled by the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza."
“Multiple attacks in recent days hitting sites hosting displaced people and people trying to access food have killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The Secretary-General strongly condemns the loss of civilian life,” the statement said.
Guterres once again called for full, safe, and sustained humanitarian access so that aid can reach those who have been deprived of life's basic necessities for far too long.
“The UN has a clear and proven plan, rooted in the humanitarian principles, to get vital assistance to civilians — safely and at scale, wherever they are,” the spokesman’s statement said.
Despite having "humanitarian" in its name, the GHF is regarded as the opposite of a humanitarian organization. Its establishment for the purpose of weaponizing aid and limiting food aid to a select group of Gazans — those who can access it and survive crossing combat zones — may constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an act of genocide.
On Tuesday, over 160 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Gaza issued an urgent call for an end to military-controlled food distribution, describing it as "deadly." The NGOs warned that Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while desperately trying to reach food for their families.
The NGO statement describes how starved and weakened civilians are forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones only to face a violent, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites with a single entry point. There, thousands are released into chaotic enclosures to fight for limited food supplies.
The GHF established its aid distribution centers after Israel implemented a total blockade of Gaza, preventing food, medicine, and commercial goods from entering the territory. This prevented UN agencies and non-governmental organizations from reaching starving civilians with desperately needed aid.
On Friday, Peeperkorn said that the desperation of a hungry population is leading to mass casualty incidents also around the few aid trucks coming into Gaza, “and we all know why: because way too little food comes in”. A blockade which lasted more than 12 weeks has been followed by “just a trickle” of aid entering the Strip, he said.
“Gaza needs to be flooded by food,” Peeperkorn insisted, “so we stop that scramble for food from desperate people.”
After 80 days of an Israeli blockade preventing all commercial and humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza, the territory's humanitarian needs have exploded. The limited amounts of aid now entering the territory are woefully insufficient to support the 2.1 million people at risk of famine.
Peeperkorn noted that during the two-month ceasefire that ended on March 18, looting and violence around aid sites quickly subsided because the UN and its partners were permitted to deliver significant quantities of aid.
The WHO official spoke about his visit on Thursday to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, located in the southern part of the Strip. For weeks, the facility has experienced "daily injuries in the tens and hundreds." The health facility is struggling to function amid dire shortages of fuel and medical supplies.
“Now you cannot even call it a general referral hospital – it’s operating as one massive trauma ward,” Peeperkorn said, mentioning that he saw patients undergoing intubation procedures on the hospital floor.
There, he saw a 13-year-old boy “shot in the head, fighting for his life,” who had been rendered quadriplegic.
“His father […] approaching me – ‘You need to assist me. My boy needs to be medevac’ed out,’” he recounted, describing the man as “completely traumatized and overwhelmed”.
The WHO official said that, since the last ceasefire ended on March 18, only seven medical evacuations have been permitted (involving a total of 370 patients and 504 companions; the most recent was on Wednesday, to Jordan and Turkey).
However, this is a drop in the ocean compared to the actual need for medical evacuations.
According to the agency's estimates, at least 10,000 people in Gaza need medical evacuation. Peeperkorn called for "all routes to open up, including to East Jerusalem and the West Bank."
He described trauma cases involving "mainly young boys" who go to distribution sites to get food for their families and get shot "in the head, neck, chest, abdomen, and knees."
"No parent is prepared to witness this," he said. "There is no roadmap [for] this kind of heartbreak."
With international media access to Gaza completely blocked, Peeperkorn said that he wished that journalists could be present in Nasser Medical Complex, adding, “you could witness it for yourself and you could ask those patients, you could ask the fathers and you could ask their friends” about the violence at aid distribution sites.
UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said OHCHR recorded 613 killings “both at GHF points and near humanitarian convoys” over the course of a month since the start of operations by the GHF on May 27.
Following the press briefing she explained that out of this total, 509 killings were at or near GHF distribution sites. Shamdasani added that OHCHR is continuing to corroborate new accounts of casualties coming in.
According to media reports quoting officials in Nasser Hospital, more deaths near distribution sites in southern Gaza occurred on Friday.
The OHCHR spokesperson highlighted “the challenges of verifying information because we don't have eyes and ears on the ground”.
“International press is not being allowed and neither are we,” she said. “We are doing what we can to try to verify these figures, but there's a time lag and we will perhaps never be able to grasp the full scale of what's happening here because of the lack of access.”
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on tents and schools housing displaced people continue, resulting in additional mass casualties. Over the past three months, over 714,000 people, or a third of Gaza’s population, have been displaced.
Fuel is running out, which puts lifesaving services, including intensive care units and water production facilities, at risk of shutting down imminently. Without fuel, child protection workers have been forced to travel on foot, delaying urgent missions and placing unaccompanied, separated, and other vulnerable children at heightened risk.
Since March 18, 2025, Israeli forces have escalated their bombardment of the Gaza Strip from the air, land, and sea and have expanded their ground operations. According to Gaza health officials, more than 6,450 people have been killed and more than 22,500 injured since Israel broke the ceasefire.
Health officials report that Israeli forces have killed over 57,000 Palestinians, primarily children, women, and the elderly, and injured over 134,000 others in attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
However, the true number of deaths is believed to be much higher. Thousands more remain buried under the rubble as a lack of equipment and insecurity hinder rescue efforts for the wounded and missing. Additionally, thousands more are estimated to have died from indirect causes, such as lack of medical care, lack of shelter, dehydration, and starvation.
Since the start of 2025, at least 107 aid workers have been killed, including nine in the previous week. This brings the total to 479 since October 2023, including 326 UN staff members.
According to a June UN report, Israeli security forces were the worst perpetrators of grave violations against children last year, including killing and maiming children, as well as attacking schools and hospitals. Israeli forces accounted for 19 percent of the verified graved incidents worldwide.
Israel's war in Gaza continues to be marked by grave war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by officials in the Israeli military and government.
These crimes include the collective punishment of civilians, the use of starvation as a method of warfare, the denial of humanitarian aid, the targeting of civilians, the targeting of aid workers, indiscriminate killings, the carrying out of disproportionate attacks, the deliberate attack of civilian objects and undefended buildings, forced transfers, torture, and enforced disappearances.
Despite being accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide — some of the worst crimes known to humanity — the Israeli government continues to receive financial, military, economic, and political support from the United States and a few other allies.
Human rights organizations and human rights experts point out that Israel's actions in Gaza, including the blockade and obstruction of humanitarian aid, are not only flagrant war crimes but also part of a genocide against Gaza's population.
According to their findings, the Israeli government's actions are apparently aimed at deliberately inflicting living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group or part of a group, as defined in the Genocide Convention.
On Thursday, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in OPT, called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel, as well as accountability for global corporations that profit from genocide in Gaza.
In her report to the UN Human Rights Council, Albanese revealed the substantial global involvement of companies in supporting Israel during its 21-month assault on Gaza and exposed the international business and legal systems' failure to protect the most fundamental rights of Palestinians in the OPT.
She urged UN member states to impose a full arms embargo and suspend all trade and investment agreements while holding corporate entities accountable for violations of international law.