Israel Kills Over a Dozen Seeking Food Aid in Gaza as Famine Fears Grow

Israeli fire killed at least a dozen people in the past 24 hours as they sought food aid in Gaza, the Associated Press reported.

The report comes amid a deepening starvation crisis in Gaza and less than a week after the killing of more than 85 Palestinians by Israeli forces at a food aid checkpoint.

Newsweek has reached out to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for comment via email and WhatsApp on Saturday.

Why It Matters

Humanitarian aid groups have warned for months that Gaza is nearing famine. Israel, which controls the entry of aid into the enclave, has severely restricted access—tightening constraints even further since the collapse of the last ceasefire in March. From March to mid-May, no aid was allowed into Gaza.

In addition to limited supplies, the distribution of aid has turned deadly, with human rights groups criticizing the U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund’s (GHF) approach, which has forced Palestinians into fenced mazes and exposed aid seekers to Israeli fire. The United Nations estimates that Israel has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since May.

Reports and images of starving Gazans comes as the Trump administration cut short ceasefire negotiations on Thursday, stating Hamas “shows a lack of desire” to reach a truce with Israel.

Israel has repeatedly said that aid deliveries must be delivered in a “safe framework” that does not give supplies to Hamas, and notes that GHF is bringing food into Gaza. Israel has used aid restrictions as a pressure tactic to bring Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, to negotiate the release of hostages that were taken in its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

What To Know

Overnight Friday and into Saturday, Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 42 people, the AP reported. Dozens were shot at waiting for aid trucks near the Zikim crossing, in northern Gaza. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd “in response to an immediate threat” and it was not aware of any casualties.

On July 20, Israel shot at crowds of food seekers in the same area, killing 85.

One witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, told the AP on Saturday that people started to run when they saw a light they assumed was an aid truck, but as they approached they discovered it was an Israeli tank. The tank then began firing on the people, killing some.

Recent reports and images of emaciated children and adults in Gaza come as hunger-related deaths continue to rise. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 127 people, including 85 children, have died from starvation. The ministry reported that six died over the past 24 hours, among them a 5-month-old baby.

“Severe acute malnutrition is surging and almost a third of families miss meals for days at a time,” the U.N. World Food Programme warned. One in five children in Gaza City is malnourished, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), noted.

Human rights, aid and medical organizations warn that malnutrition weakens the immune system, increasing the risk of disease and potentially leading to death—especially among children and vulnerable populations.

Israel has repeatedly rejected claims of forced starvation in Gaza. In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied people are starving in Gaza, saying that Israel takes “thousands of prisoners” from Gaza and photograph them, and you “don’t see one, not one, emaciated.”

What People Are Saying

Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a Thursday statement: “Severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, and the world is watching it happen … Children must be protected – not killed, and not left to starve.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post Friday: “Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff got it right. Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal. Together with our U.S. allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region.”

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner, wrote in a Friday X post: “One in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day. When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold. Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need. More than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger.”

Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, told Vox in a Friday article: “When you have a population that is that stressed, whose health has deteriorated that much, or is [already] in such an advanced state of population-level food deprivation and malnutrition, then things can turn bad very rapidly, because there is nothing to stand in the way of starvation… In most famines, we see mortality coming from a mix of both outright starvation and opportunistic infections.”

He added: “Famines have a momentum, and the longer that they are allowed to deepen, the harder they are to reverse.”

Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres wrote in an X post on Friday: “Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis – it is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience. We will continue to speak out. But words don’t feed hungry children. The @UN stands ready to make the most of a ceasefire to dramatically scale up humanitarian operations.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, wrote in a Friday X post: “The Netanyahu government’s extermination of Gaza intensifies. Malnutrition is rampant, children are starving to death, people are shot while waiting for meager food rations — and US weapons allow it to happen. Trump and Congress must act NOW. Stop the slaughter. Feed the people.”

The AP, AFP, BBC, and Reuters all said in a joint statement this week: “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.”

What Happens Next?

France and Saudi Arabia are set to co-chair a previously postponed United Nations conference on the issue of a Palestinian state, humanitarian aid, and hostage release next week.

International pressure for a ceasefire and expanded humanitarian aid in Gaza continues to mount. On Saturday, Israel’s military announced aid airdrops including flour and canned foods will commence in Gaza. Humanitarian corridors for U.N. convoys will also be established, although it was not specified when and where.