Satellite imagery, witness accounts and open source analysis reviewed by The National show a sharp shift in how the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is running its aid centres.
What began on 27 May with fenced queues, intense screenings, and segregated entry and exit lanes seems to have devolved into near-total disorder in which crowds surge from every direction. There have been reports of live fire and tank fire at crowds almost every day since the sites have been up and running. At least 60 Palestinians have now been killed at or near the sites.
The UN and every major humanitarian agency operating in Gaza have refused to work with the GHF, arguing that its structure and procedures breach long-standing humanitarian principles. Israel’s army maintains that the centres are essential for getting relief into the territory, yet since the first one opened, the death toll has risen sharply. Palestinian health officials report more than 200 additional casualties, many with bullet wounds to the head or chest, overwhelming the ICRC field hospital and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Recent high-resolution satellite images confirm that the compounds were built with two main corridors to separate arrivals and departures. Other social media footage shows watchtowers overlooking each site, while makeshift utility poles carry floodlights around sand berms designed to contain crowds.
Layout of one of the controversial US-Israeli aid distribution points in Rafah
Queues to chaos
On the day the site opened, Palestinians were channelled through narrow, fenced lanes and reportedly subjected to biometric screening.
By the early hours of Sunday, June 1, those cordons and queues had vanished. Social media clips show people climbing over the sand berms and rushing at aid pallets from all directions, with no visible crowd management.
In one video geolocated to the southern Rafah centre, a US security contractor mutters “here they come” as the barrier appears to open and the mass surge begins.
Shooting into crowds
Footage from earlier that morning, just before sunrise, shows Palestinians taking cover on bare sand while floodlights from the aid site glare in the background. Five bursts of gunfire ring out in a 16-second clip, and a voice urges people to lie flat.
As dawn breaks, further videos show at least nine bodies sprawled in the sand within minutes, the same utility-pole lighting visible behind them. “People were shot at without warning; chaos broke out,” Ibrahim Abu Taima told The National, saying his cousin was killed and his nephew wounded.
Spotlights at aid distribution centres visible near the site of the shooting on June 1
What we know
About 60 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 wounded during attempts to retrieve aid from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites since 27 May. Satellite imagery and verified videos show the sites were originally set up with fenced lanes, sand berms and watchtowers to separate entrants and exits, yet by the early hours of 1 June, those entrances and exits were no longer in use. Footage captures multiple bursts of live fire directed towards civilians near to the collection points. Major aid organisations refuse to work with GHF because its procedures violate humanitarian standards, while the foundation itself has offered no public explanation.
What we don't know
It remains unclear is exactly why the crowd-control system was dismantled, who ordered or carried out the shootings and whether the use of live ammunition was proportionate to any threats from crowds. Precise timelines, independent hospital casualty logs and ballistic forensics are still needed to corroborate witness accounts and determine full accountability.
‘It's an ambush,’ says official
“This is not aid, it’s an ambush,” said Ismail Al Thawabti, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office. “Israel and the US administration are orchestrating massacres under the pretence of humanitarian relief, killing civilians in cold blood without any deterrent.”
Israel’s military insists its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the aid site”, conceding only that shots were discharged “about 1km away” before the site opened. The claim is hard to reconcile with bullet impacts and bodies filmed metres from the site.
Sunday’s killings were not isolated. On May 27, at the same Rafah centre, mobile phone footage captured at least 14 shots – seven single rounds followed by a burst – as crowds filed through fenced lanes. People ducked and scattered. Across those two days alone, conservative tallies point to more than 50 deaths and 220 injuries. GHF officials have not explained what happened and have declined repeated interview requests.
The combined satellite evidence, front-line footage and witness testimony indicate an operational collapse by design or neglect in safeguarding civilians converging on the GHF hubs. The UN is calling for an independent inquiry and an immediate suspension of operations until safe, transparent procedures are restored.
*Graphics and animations by Nour Hayani
