A newspaper report published in Hebrew and English quoting Israeli soldiers saying commanders have ordered them to shoot at unarmed hungry crowds of people in Gaza trying to reach food distribution sites prompted a scathing response by Israel's prime minister on Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement calling the Haaretz report "blood libel."
"These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the most moral military in the world," they added.
Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 500 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded by Israeli forces while seeking food aid in the past month.
The Haaretz report quotes multiple anonymous Israeli soldiers describing what they say are the military's attacks on people trying to get food aid in Gaza since May 27. The soldiers say they were ordered by commanders to fire at unarmed civilians who were approaching food distribution sites during off hours, even when the crowds posed no threat.
The report is the latest to shed light on what aid workers and critics say is a flawed plan by Israel to control food in Gaza after 11 weeks of full Israeli blockade and continued restrictions on the entry of aid into the territory. This week, for the first time in months, the United Nations was able to bring in some medical supplies into Gaza.
NPR has not independently confirmed Haaretz's reporting. The head of the U.N. told reporters the world doesn't need reports like this to acknowledge massive violations of international law in Gaza.
"Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said.
Troops describe firing at crowds of aid seekers
One soldier quoted in Haaretz says the army fires machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars at crowds — who pose no threat — while waiting for the distribution sites to open. The distribution sites are manned by U.S. contractors inside, in areas under Israeli military control. The soldier says there are no crowd-control measures, only gunfire being shot at crowds near these sites.
The soldier says it's akin to a lethal version of the children's game "red light, green light," and calls it a "killing field."
Another soldier quoted in the report says Israeli commanders take the law into their own hands in Gaza.
Israel's military says it rejects the accusations in the Haaretz article and that soldiers are not instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians. The military says reports of such "incidents are being examined" by military authorities. Haaretz says a military body is being asked to investigate incidents at these distribution sites for suspected war crimes.
These food distribution sites operate at erratic times and some days, not at all. They are run by a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is receiving $30 million from the Trump administration to bolster its operations. The State Department says GHF offers a creative solution to keep aid from reaching Hamas, the group that Israel is at war with in Gaza.
There are only four GHF sites distributing food in Gaza. These fenced-off facilities were placed in expansive military "red zones," where Israeli troops are positioned and where Palestinians have been told not to be, outside of the GHF's erratic and often short operating times.
People in Gaza walk to these sites, three of which are far south, and grab food, without vetting or I.D. checks, according to witnesses and survivors who have spoken to NPR.
Inside these sites, people take what they can carry, ripping GHF boxes open. People in Gaza have told NPR that some of the canned food and other goods from these sites have ended up sold at exorbitant prices on the black market, suggesting looters and traders are among those taking the food.
GHF denies shootings are taking place near its sites, but has acknowledged challenges in getting food to people, describing it as a "learning loop." It called on Israel to investigate the allegations made in the Haaretz story and publish the findings.
Aid workers and medics call for end to GHF distribution plan
Doctors Without Borders, one of the many nongovernmental aid groups in Gaza refusing to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, says aid must not be controlled by a warring party to further its military objectives.
The medical NGO says one of its clinics has been receiving 10 or more patients a day with injuries from GHF distribution sites, but that the clinic does not have the lifesaving treatment needed for blood transfusions and surgery.
"This system is a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid, and it must be immediately dismantled," the aid group said.
Adil Husain, a physician from Dallas, Texas, who's been volunteering in southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital for the past two weeks, told NPR that every day he's treating people shot near GHF sites. He called it a horror movie on repeat.
"I can't tell you how many boys, young boys and adults that get rushed into my resuscitation bay, bleeding out from their abdomen, bleeding out from the head," he said. "When I'm exposing them trying to look for their injuries, what I find is empty bags. Empty bags that they had only hoped to fill with food, just so that they could survive for a few more days."
He says instead, people are left without food and with life-changing injuries. Dr. Husain shared images with NPR of a thin, frail-looking teenager who died after being shot in the head, and of two young boys, one who lost his eye and another now paralyzed from the neck down, whom he said were shot by the Israeli military near GHF sites while trying to get food this week.
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