Gaza: Starvation or Gunfire. This is Not a Humanitarian Response: July 1, 2025

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Gaza: Starvation or Gunfire. This is Not a Humanitarian Response

Caritas Internationalis joined more than 160 NGOs in calling for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme in Gaza, including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. They are urging a return to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms and demanding the lifting of the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies. During the temporary ceasefire, 400 aid distribution points operated across Gaza.

These have now been reduced to just four military-controlled distribution sites, forcing over two million people into overcrowded and militarised zones. There, civilians face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other life-saving supplies.

Palestinians in Gaza today are confronted with an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while attempting to secure food for their families. The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution scheme have been among the deadliest and most violent since October 2023.

In less than four weeks, over 500 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 4,000 injured while attempting to access or distribute food. Israeli forces and armed groups—some reportedly backed by Israeli authorities—routinely open fire on civilians risking their lives to survive.

The humanitarian system is being systematically dismantled by the Israeli government’s blockade and restrictions. This blockade is now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favor of a military-controlled alternative that fails to protect civilians or meet basic needs. These measures are perpetuating a cycle of desperation, danger, and death. Experienced humanitarian organizations are ready to deliver assistance at scale. Yet more than 100 days after Israeli authorities reimposed a near-total blockade, conditions in Gaza are collapsing faster than at any point in the last 20 months.

Under the new scheme, starved and weakened civilians must walk for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones to reach fenced, militarised distribution sites. These have a single entry point and offer limited supplies. Thousands of people are forced into chaotic enclosures, often resulting in violence and repeated massacres. These scenes demonstrate blatant disregard for international humanitarian law. Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, and children have been harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites.

With Gaza’s healthcare system in ruins, many of the injured are left to bleed to death, beyond the reach of ambulances and without access to medical care. Amid severe hunger and famine-like conditions, families report they are too weak to compete for food. Those who do manage to secure rations often bring back only a few basic items, which are nearly impossible to prepare without clean water or fuel. Fuel is nearly gone, halting essential services like bakeries, water systems, ambulances, and hospitals. Families are sheltering under plastic sheets, cooking amid rubble, without fuel, clean water, sanitation, or electricity.

This is not a humanitarian response. Forcing over two million people into further confinement just to feed their families is not a plan to save lives. For 20 months, Palestinians have endured relentless bombardment, the weaponisation of food and water, repeated displacement, and systematic dehumanisation—all under the watch of the international community. The Sphere Association, an organisation that sets global humanitarian standards, stated that this system is unlawful.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s approach violates core principles of humanitarian aid.

The Sphere Association

This normalisation of suffering cannot be allowed to continue. States must reject the false choice between deadly military-controlled food distribution and total aid denial. They must uphold international humanitarian and human rights law, including prohibitions on forced displacement, indiscriminate attacks, and obstruction of aid. They must ensure accountability for grave violations of international law.

We, the undersigned organisations, once again call on all third states to:

Take concrete steps to end the blockade and uphold the right of civilians in Gaza to safely access aid and protection.
Urge donors not to fund militarised aid schemes that violate international law, ignore humanitarian principles, and risk complicity in atrocities.
Support the restoration of a unified, UN-led coordination mechanism that follows international humanitarian law and includes UNRWA, Palestinian civil society, and the wider humanitarian community.

We reiterate our urgent calls for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, the release of all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, full humanitarian access at scale, and an end to the impunity that enables ongoing atrocities and denies Palestinians their dignity.

Editor’s Note:

On June 15, the Red Cross field hospital in Al Mawasi received at least 170 patients injured while trying to reach a food distribution site. The next day, June 16, more than 200 patients arrived at the same hospital—the highest number recorded in a single mass casualty event in Gaza. Of those, 28 Palestinians were declared dead. A WHO official noted, “The recent food distribution initiatives by non-UN actors every time result in mass casualty incidents.”

These deaths add to the broader toll: since October 2023, over 56,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including at least 17,000 children.

Read the full list of signatories here.

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