\u201cI got closer to death that day than a piece of bread\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He stood in line with hundreds of others. There were children, women, and elderly men. \u201cSome were barefoot, some had been waiting since the night before,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
As his group inched closer to the point where they hoped they would be able to grab a parcel of items, gunshots rang out. Khalil ran for his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey began shooting directly at unarmed civilians,\u201d he said. \u201cThe bullets were chasing us as if we were targets on a shooting range, and not just hungry people. We scattered under a hail of bullets. I got closer to death that day than a piece of bread.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khalil survived that quest for food \u2014 alive to starve another day instead. But at least 36 Palestinians did not, and 207 more were wounded, according<\/a> to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Since Israel broke its ceasefire<\/a> with Hamas in mid-March, more than 875 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food.<\/a><\/p>\n Reporting from inside Gaza over the last few months, The Intercept observed a famine that is manufactured and an aid distribution system seemingly designed to cause more suffering and death. Amid the war, Israel has rendered Gaza inaccessible to the foreign press; American journalist Afeef Nessouli accessed the Strip by volunteering as an aid worker for a medical nonprofit and reporting in his off-hours.<\/p>\n Usually during war, the distribution of medical care and food to a besieged population would not be administered by any party waging war against it, much less by an illegally occupying military. And in most situations, aid operations would closely involve established organizations already active in the area.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the case in Gaza. Israel has effectively banned<\/a> the biggest and longest-running aid group in the region: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA. And by gutting<\/a> the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, a critical funding vehicle for aid groups including UNRWA, U.S. President Donald Trump has strangled international aid in Gaza.<\/p>\n Israel and the U.S. have instead rolled out a new scheme centered around a fledgling U.S.-based nonprofit that operates alongside the same Israeli military responsible for killing more than 230 journalists<\/a>, 1,400 health care workers<\/a>, and 17,000 Palestinian children<\/a> in the last two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n With a few small exceptions, all aid reaching Gaza since May has moved through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established in Delaware in February. The organization has received tens of millions<\/a> from the U.S. to distribute aid in Gaza \u2014 and, reportedly, some $100 million<\/a> from an unnamed country. GHF did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.<\/p>\n Since it started operations, the number of locations in Gaza where residents could receive aid has plummeted from around 400 to four sites.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes only one hub is actually operating,\u201d said Hanya Aljamal, the senior project coordinator at the aid group Action for Humanity, who is based in Deir al Balah. Sometimes, Aljamal said, the sites are closed for security reasons, other times for maintenance. Khalil corroborates this: \u201cI went a few days ago and it wasn\u2019t open.\u201d He says now he checks the GHF\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>, which informs people of the schedule. Aljamal says she believes \u201cthey operate semi-daily for only two hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n Arriving in Gaza in late March just as Israel broke the ceasefire, The Intercept witnessed firsthand what happened to Gaza\u2019s most vulnerable after the U.S. defunded USAID and UNRWA and turned those agencies\u2019 work over to the Israeli military and GHF.<\/p>\n Famine has been a problem in Gaza since <\/a>the early days <\/a>of the war<\/a>. But when Israel and Hamas announced a ceasefire on January 19, 2025, access to goods became easier. \u201cMeat, vegetables and chicken \u2014 and even snacks \u2014 were reachable, albeit at a slightly expensive price,\u201d Aljamal said. \u201cBut we had options.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When the holy month of Ramadan began on February 28, it wasn\u2019t hard to find a simple meal of rice or lentils for dinner, or labneh and za\u2019atar for suhoor before fasting for the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n But on March 2, Israel cut off food imports to Gaza when it imposed a blockade. On March 18, Israel shattered the ceasefire when it restarted its campaign of airstrikes. Even after Eid, which marked the end of the Holy Month, one meal a day remained standard practice \u2014 if not a luxury.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time, community kitchens like Shabab Gaza<\/a> were running low on food. But they were still delivering what they could to areas the Israeli military referred to as \u201cred zones\u201d\u2014 swaths of land Israel has evacuated and banned aid from entering, such as Khan Yunis. By spring, 70 percent of Gaza<\/a> was considered a \u201cred zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Shabab Gaza, \u201cthe youth of Gaza\u201d in Arabic, was making meals of rice so people could break their fast at sundown. Inside a makeshift kitchen housed in a tent, the men, fasting themselves, worked in groups to cook the rice in vats. They packaged it quickly to deliver to the surrounding area, but neighbors also\u00a0showed up with pots and pans, ready to grab the food for their families, or ready to eat themselves.<\/p>\n The Shabab Gaza community kitchen in Al Qarara, Khan Yunis, Gaza, seen on June 1, 2025. There were about 170 operational community kitchens<\/a> before the crossings closed in early March. Just two months later, dozens had ceased operating.<\/p>\n The blockade halted the entry of vital goods for months, resulting in scarcity and price hikes. It was made worse by the resumption of fighting between Israel and Hamas, which restricted access to domestic produce \u201cbecause of new evacuation orders from the north, Rafah, and areas in Khan Yunis where new crops were cultivated,\u201d Aljamal said.<\/p>\n At the market, produce was fresh but limited. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, and sometimes potatoes were for sale, grown on the shards of Gazan farmland remaining. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, reported<\/a> that Israel has destroyed 83 percent of Gaza\u2019s agricultural cropland and restricted access to some of what remains, rendering less than 5 percent of cropland \u201cavailable for cultivation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be that three kilos of these onions were just $3,\u201d an older woman said in her makeshift kitchen in eastern Khan Yunis. By April, an onion cost a dollar apiece. Flour became incredibly expensive, with a single bag selling for hundreds of dollars. Because nearly every bank branch and ATM remain inoperable<\/a> in Gaza, people cannot find cash to pay for even a single bag of flour. They are reliant on an unregulated network of cash brokers to get money for daily life with commissions hovering around 40 percent.<\/p>\n Even domesticated chickens have been laying fewer eggs than usual, one international aid worker said. \u201cFood isn\u2019t available for them, neither are supplements or animal feed that provide stuff like calcium, which is essential to egg production,\u201d the worker said. And like humans, chickens also experience stress. The Israeli military\u2019s bombs and quadcopters<\/a> are loud<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of July, OCHA reports<\/a> that 100 percent of the population in Gaza was projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity. That includes 1 million people facing \u201cemergency\u201d levels of food insecurity, and 470,000 facing \u201ccatastrophic\u201d levels of food insecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI have lost nearly 37 kilos,\u201d said Basel, one of the men at Shabab Gaza\u2019s community kitchen. He showed pictures of himself from 2023, back when he used to weigh 247 pounds. <\/strong>Basel is bald with blue eyes, with a 6-foot, 2-inch frame. Now 165 pounds, he looks thin, his face gaunt.\u00a0Several men showed pictures of this kind of transformation. They described the indignity of going hungry every day and how weakened they feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLook at what they are doing to us. We are so tired,\u201d Basel explained. \u201cBy God, it has been almost two years, really we are so hungry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Nessouli, the Intercept reporter, volunteered in Gaza with Glia, a medical nonprofit, from late March to early June. With other medical workers, he ate once per day \u2014 usually rice or lentils. Sometimes there would be tomatoes or peppers, occasionally canned tuna. During that time, he lost 12 pounds.<\/p>\n People begging for food at the market, rushing international aid workers\u2019 cars on the seaside road, or even knocking on doors looking for flour became commonplace.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we are reduced to one meal per day,\u201d Aljamal, the aid worker, explained, which usually consists of \u201ca variation of the same thing: lentils.\u201d Lentils can take the form of soup or falafel, be steamed, or cooked into a gravy. But sometimes, Aljamal said, the sole meal of the day consists of \u201cbread, plain bread.\u201d<\/p>\n UNRWA was set up in 1949 to provide humanitarian relief <\/a>to Palestinians displaced<\/a> by the 1948 Arab\u2013Israeli War. Originally, it was intended to provide jobs on public works projects and direct relief. It grew to offer education, health care, and social services<\/a> to wide swaths of Palestinian society, even serving more than 5 million registered Palestinian refugees<\/a> and their descendants in the diaspora.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Palestinian Authority has been a recipient of UNRWA\u2019s services and support as it has governed the West Bank since 1993 and Gaza until the U.S.-monitored election of 2006, in which Hamas gained power. \u00a0<\/p>\n At its height, UNRWA employed over 30,000 staff, 99 percent of whom were Palestinian. Most of UNRWA\u2019s funding came from European countries and the United States, but this largely disappeared after Israel accused<\/a> UNRWA employees of participating in the October 7 attacks. (A U.N. investigation<\/a> cleared most of the accused UNRWA workers but found that nine of the 13,000 people who worked for the organization in Gaza may have participated in the attacks.)\u00a0<\/p>\n USAID also once provided financial support to the Palestinian people for various development and humanitarian projects<\/a>. Since 1994, the United States has steered more than $5.2 billion in aid <\/a>to Palestinians. This funding dried up<\/a> after Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised in March to cut USAID\u2019s foreign grants by 83 percent<\/a> before shuttering it entirely<\/a> on July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ending USAID, a Cold War tool of soft power founded in 1961 as \u201can independent executive branch agency responsible for administering foreign aid and economic development assistance outside the US,\u201d\u00a0has been a signature policy of Trump\u2019s second administration. For decades, the agency has played a key role in treating HIV\/AIDS<\/a> and in providing lifesaving care to LGBTQ+ people, including in Gaza. One study estimates the USAID cuts will result in the deaths of 14 million people<\/a> by 2030.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Over the decades, most international aid to Gaza has been run through either UNRWA or USAID partners, though Qatar too has been a key funder, providing over $1 billion<\/a> in reconstruction funds and stipends for poor Palestinians between 2014 and 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much of the Strip\u2019s economic activity has been reliant on aid infrastructure, with UNRWA specifically playing a critical role in the distribution of food even before the war began.<\/p>\n \u201cUNRWA has been the backbone that held Gazan society together,\u201d Aljamal said. \u201cAs a child I went to UNRWA schools and was offered the best possible education available with the smallest of resources. When me or any of my siblings got sick or needed medical attention, we rushed into subsidized UNRWA clinics that even provided us with the needed meds, too. When it comes to food, lots of refugee families relied on their three-month dry ration distributions,\u201d which consisted of \u201cflour, cooking oil, sugar, rice, lentils, chickpeas per family member for three months.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, this program helped ensure food security in the region. \u201cWe often held great pride in the fact that wherever you went and however bad it had gotten, you wouldn\u2019t possibly sleep without food,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Community kitchens also played a critical role in aid distribution in Gaza. Glia\u2019s head of mission, Moureen Kaki, a Palestinian American, moved from Texas to Gaza more than a year ago to help; she never left. She also volunteers at Shabab Gaza in Khan Yunis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kaki, who switches breezily throughout her day between Palestinian Arabic and English with a slight Texas lilt in her voice, notes that when she arrived, community kitchens across Gaza were producing 250,000 meals a day, feeding about 800,000 people \u2014 about 45 percent of the Strip\u2019s population. Back then, community kitchens were able to reliably source food via donations and USAID. But now, it is extremely difficult to operate.<\/p>\n Today, community kitchens still exist, but their capacity has dropped from 250,000 meals a day to about 25,000, Kaki says, because they simply cannot source supplies.<\/p>\n The current famine, she says, is \u201cthe worst I have seen, hands down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n World Central Kitchen \u2014 founded by chef Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s and one of the most recognized food distributors in Gaza, and whose workers were killed in a 2024 Israeli airstrike<\/a> \u2014 ceased operations in May after it ran out of supplies; it resumed<\/a> operations recently. Smaller mutual aid organizations like the Sameer Project have continued to churn out as many meals as they can, even after their camp coordinator Mosab Ali <\/a>was killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shabab Gaza\u2019s capacity dropped from 15,000 meals a day to 3,000 in June \u2014 and by July had to stop operations because rice became too expensive. The group hopes to resume as soon as possible.<\/p>\n As long-standing aid providers languish in Gaza, Israel and the United States have embraced a new approach: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the New York Times<\/a>, Israeli officials, military leaders, and businesspeople began discussing the concept of an Israeli-backed food distribution system in December 2023, and had brought a former CIA agent-turned-private security contractor on board by the summer of 2024.\u00a0The new program was announced<\/a> on May 19, 2025, as a U.S.-led initiative, with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee<\/a> saying it was \u201cwholly inaccurate\u201d to characterize it as an Israeli plan. By June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated<\/a> that the initiative had in fact originated in Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike prior aid distribution systems, GHF planned to use a small number of distribution hubs in southern Gaza that would be secured by private U.S.-backed contractors, with the Israeli military keeping watch \u201cat a distance<\/a>.\u201d The aid would be prepackaged, filled with a hygiene kit, medical supplies, and food rations. Each meal was budgeted<\/a> to cost only around $1.30 each.<\/p>\n Soon after it launched, officials said the GHF system would attempt to screen people for involvement with Hamas by using facial recognition or biometric technology<\/a>, violating a core tenet of addressing hunger: that no political litmus test can be imposed for access to human rights like food and water.\u00a0<\/p>\n The United Nations rejected<\/a> the new U.S.-backed distribution plan and sayings that it did not meet its long-held principles of \u201cimpartiality, neutrality and independence.\u201d The U.N. aid chief said the new system would force further displacement, expose people to harm, and restrict aid to one part of Gaza. Oxfam and 240 other nongovernmental organizations called<\/a> for immediate action to end the Israeli distribution scheme.<\/p>\n In late June, Israeli soldiers corroborated<\/a> what Palestinians had been claiming about the GHF aid distribution sites: Commanders explicitly ordered soldiers to shoot unarmed civilians. Massacres were a result of soldiers doing what they were told to do.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Video obtained by Afeef Nessouli<\/p>\n One video shows thousands of people crowded all around at GHF distribution site in Rafah, according to Al Jazeera<\/a>. The phone camera pans to the left, and the sound of gunshots hitting a mound of earth about 200 meters in front of the crowd is piercing. The video shows sand kicking up in a whirl upward from the bullets as people crawl on their knees trying to dodge the gunfire.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cImagine if Toronto was starving,\u201d Dorotea Gucciardo hypothesized\u00a0at a press conference at the Canadian Parliament in June. Gucciardo is the director of Glia, the NGO Nessouli volunteered with in Gaza, and with whom he and reporter Steven Thrasher have also worked to deliver antiretroviral medication into Gaza since reporting on AIDS in the Strip in January<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In this Canadian analogy, Gucciardo said, \u201cThe U.N. system would deploy over 1,300 distribution sites. The GHF model? Ten. In Montreal, the U.N. would open 850 sites, while GHF\u2019s version? Six.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd in Gaza, the UN. .had a well-maintained system of 400 aid sites,\u201d she said. \u201cGHF has replaced those with only three.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Glia was founded in 2015 with a focus on providing low-cost medical supplies using 3D printing technology, beginning with a stethoscope design. Over the years, its services have expanded. Since 2017, the group has rotated doctors, nurses, and other personnel into Gaza to support local health care workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAid is distributed by gunpoint by American mercenaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Glia doctors operating in Gaza\u2019s incredibly damaged health care system have been treating malnourished patients throughout the war. Since GHF began operating on May 26, \u201c20 to 50 Palestinians have been killed per day at the aid distribution sites,\u201d Gucciardo explains. They are treating an ever-rising number of malnourished patients injured waiting for food. \u201cEverybody my medical team treats is skin and bones,\u201d Gucciardo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gucciardo called the switch to the GHF program an engineered starvation. \u201cAid is distributed by gunpoint by American mercenaries. It is inhumane, degrading, dangerous, and it violates every principle of humanitarian law,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n The AP has reported that GHF contractors have shot live ammo<\/a> at aid sites, allegations that GHF denies. GHF has also denied<\/a> that multiple<\/a> violent incidents have even occurred near their aid distribution sites, regularly blames outside agitators<\/a> for the incidents it does acknowledge, and stated that \u201cGHF remains focused on its mission: to safely, quickly and effectively feed as many people as possible, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n When GHF\u2019s original executive director, American veteran and entrepreneur Jake Wood, announced he was stepping down after just a couple of months, one reason he cited<\/a> was because it was impossible to fulfill GHF\u2019s \u201cplan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the outset, they were placed in active red zones \u2014 especially in southern Gaza, in Rafah,\u201d said Majed Jaber, a Palestinian volunteer emergency room doctor who has worked at several hospitals in the southern part of Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw far too many headshots to ever call it random.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cAt Nasser and the Red Crescent hospitals, where I worked during those distributions, we regularly received 50 to 100 wounded people in a single day. Dozens arrived already dead or died shortly after,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery other day, the number would spike. The injuries were horrific. Limbs blown off by high-caliber bullets. Vital organs pierced \u2014 hearts, aortas, lungs. We saw far too many headshots to ever call it random.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tarek Loubani, a Canadian doctor in Gaza and the medical director of Glia, observed a similar pattern of wounds in those killed or injured at GHF distribution sites. \u201cToday, I saw patients with gunshots to the head, gunshots to the neck \u2026 the gunshots to the head and neck are almost always targeted. Usually shot by snipers,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When there are shots to other parts of the body, Loubani explained, it\u2019s usually from \u201ca machine gun being used to shoot on the crowd.\u201d\u00a0For its part, GHF acknowledges the dangerous proximity of the Israeli military to its distribution centers, writing on Facebook<\/a>, \u201cOur dear precious residents of Gaza, We ask you not to be near our centers between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m., for your safety, due to the possibility of the IDF conducting military operations in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n [newsetter][\/newsletter]<\/p>\n Amal, a trans woman who lives in Gaza City, sent The Intercept a picture of her bandaged arm on WhatsApp in early June. Amal gave The Intercept a pseudonym for safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDo you see what happened to me?\u201d Amal said in her voice note. Her voice was trembling and angry, but still soft.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, I went to the GHF distribution point to pick up some aid to get a bag of flour,\u201d she said. \u201cI finally got a bag after a really hard time, I was exhausted. And then after all of that, thieves stole my bag and stabbed me with a knife.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hunger is painful, Amal said. She complained of joint pain, stomach pain, and a lack of concentration. \u201cI faint and fall,\u201d said Amal, who stands 6 feet tall and weighs just 119 pounds. \u201cI do not want anything, I only want to eat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the Trump administration axing thousands of USAID awards (and firing the accompanying officers who managed these funds), GHF does not seem to lack for funds. Earlier this month, Reuters reported<\/a> that the State Department is considering giving GHF an additional $500 million. Zeteo reported<\/a> that GHF requested $30 million dollars from USAID.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s social media accounts regularly publish accusations against international aid groups and journalists. GHF has denounced the U.N.<\/a> and Oxfam<\/a> for standing \u201cby helplessly while their aid is looted,\u201d and allege<\/a> that The Associated Press\u2019s \u201cMiddle East bureau has sadly devolved into a propaganda vehicle \u2014 amplifying unverified claims, omitting critical context, and publishing narratives that serve a designated terrorist group.\u201d Its belligerent posts have a Trumpian quality, down to the use of all caps <\/a>(\u201clet\u2019s go through the history of how we got here in the first place. \u2026 HAMAS IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION WITH AN ACTIVE PROPAGANDA ARM\u201d) and are marked with denial<\/a> of any problems with their approach (\u201cScenes like this prove the GHF model is working\u201d).<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have been comparing it to \u2018Squid Game\u2019 or \u2018Hunger Games.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n On June 17, reports emerged that Israeli tanks had killed over 50 Palestinians as they were waiting for aid trucks in Khan Yunis in the southern part of the Strip. On July 16, over 20 Palestinians were killed at a GHF distribution site in southern Gaza. Most of the victims were reported<\/a> to have died in a stampede. Many Palestinians in Gaza who have limited supplies refuse to go to the new aid sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t go to GHF aid points because they\u2019re death traps,\u201d says E.S, a 28-year-old restrained to a walker because of complications due to his HIV status<\/a>. \u201cI can\u2019t fight through the crowds because of my disability plus we all know the whole situation is messy,\u201d he continues. \u201cThere is no line and there is no distribution method at all, they offload everything into a big arena, in fact, people have been comparing it to \u2018Squid Game\u2019 or \u2018Hunger Games,\u2019\u201d E.S explains. \u201cIt becomes a battle because everyone is desperate for food.\u201d<\/p>\n The number of people reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire at GHF aid distribution sites continues to climb, as the people of Gaza face starvation. The Gaza Health Ministry has counted 1,021 people killed and another 6,511 wounded at GHF sites since the program was put in place, including at least 38 killed by Israeli fire this past weekend. A newborn baby died<\/a> of malnutrition at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday, and Palestinian journalists have been posting image after image of people dying of starvation.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Shabab-Gaza-Founder-with-signage-1.jpg\")
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Photo: Afeef Nessouli<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Basel-weight.jpg\")
\n Basel on July 17, 2023, on the left, and on July 12, 2025 on the right.Photo: Courtesy of Basel Lehya <\/p>\n![\"DEIR](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1768403880-2.jpg\")
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\n Moureen Kaki speaks to a man at Shabab Gaza community kitchen on June 1, 2025, in Al Qarara, Khan Yunis, Gaza.Photo: Afeef Nessouli <\/p>\n\n
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