Chaos at Gaza aid center on 1st day under Israeli oversight; UN voices concern

Photo taken with a mobile phone on May 27, 2025 shows Palestinians after receiving humanitarian aid from a distribution center in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. [Photo/Xinhua]

Thousands of Palestinians crowded into a humanitarian aid distribution center in Rafah on Tuesday, triggering chaos and a breakdown of order on the site's first day of operation under Israeli military oversight, Palestinian witnesses and sources told Xinhua.

The center, established at the Al-Alam roundabout in southern Gaza by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-based organization, was intended to deliver food aid to a population facing severe shortages due to Israel's blockade. But scenes of disorder quickly unfolded as residents overran the facility, seizing food parcels and even dismantling parts of the barbed wire fencing that surrounded the site.

Eyewitnesses described the situation deteriorating rapidly, with overcrowding and a stampede exacerbating the chaos.

Footage circulating on social media showed large crowds storming the area, grabbing boxes of aid. The Israeli military said its troops, deployed outside the site for security, fired warning shots but denied firing directly at the compound or from a helicopter.

Palestinian sources said American private security personnel contracted to guard the center withdrew as the situation escalated. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Hamas-run Gaza media office condemned the aid rollout, calling it a "disastrous failure" and accusing Israel of using humanitarian relief as a tool of political leverage. The statement denounced the Israeli-U.S. initiative for distributing aid in so-called "buffer zones" and accused Israel of pursuing a strategy of "systematic starvation."

The statement called for the reopening of Gaza's crossings and for international humanitarian organizations to be allowed to operate without restrictions.

The GHF, which operates independently of the United Nations and major international aid agencies, has faced mounting criticism in Gaza, where residents and local authorities say it undermines Palestinian dignity and marginalizes longstanding humanitarian organizations.

The United Nations has also publicly expressed reservations about the initiative. "We have been watching the video coming out of Gaza around one of the distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. And frankly, these videos, these images, are heartbreaking to say the least," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said on Tuesday.

"As the Secretary-General noted last week, we and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by Member States to get aid to the desperate population," Dujarric added, insisting on an "operationally sound plan."

According to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, the Palestinian death toll since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, has surpassed 54,000.