
© Yousef Zaanoun/ActivestillsA Palestinian man is seen wounded as hundreds more walk along Al-Rashid Street carrying bags of flour after aid trucks entered through the Zikim area in northern Gaza City, June 17, 2025. Several of those seeking aid were shot by Israeli forces.
Near-daily Israeli massacres at food distribution sites have killed over 400 Palestinians in the past month alone. Survivors describe stepping over corpses to get their hands on a bag of flour: 'What choice do we have?'
In the early hours of June 11, before sunrise, 19-year-old Hatem Shaldan and his brother Hamza, 23, went to wait for aid trucks near the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip. They hoped to return with a bag of white flour for their family of five. Instead, Hamza returned with his younger brother's body wrapped in a white burial shroud.
The Shaldan family had lived virtually without food for nearly two months due to Israel's blockade, crammed into a classroom-turned-shelter in eastern Gaza City. Their home, once nearby, was destroyed completely by an Israeli airstrike in January 2024.
At around 1:30 a.m., the two brothers joined dozens of starving Palestinians on Al-Rashid Street along the shore upon hearing that trucks carrying flour would enter the Strip. Two hours later,
they heard shouts of "The trucks are coming!" followed immediately by the sound of Israeli artillery shelling.
Comment: The IDF can claim that it is 'working to ensure safe' food distribution but, as
Haaretz reports, their own soldiers have confirmed that they are ordered to target starving civilians:
Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites over the past month.
Conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds to drive them away or disperse them, even though it was clear they posed no threat.
One soldier described the situation as a total breakdown of the Israel Defense Forces' ethical codes in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 549 people have been killed near aid centers and in areas where residents were waiting for UN food trucks since May 27. Over 4,000 have been wounded, but the exact number of those killed or injured by IDF fire remains unclear.
Comment: The IDF can claim that it is 'working to ensure safe' food distribution but, as Haaretz reports, their own soldiers have confirmed that they are ordered to target starving civilians: