Skip linksSkip to Content
play
Live
Navigation menu
  • News
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • US & Canada
    • Latin America
    • Europe
    • Asia Pacific
  • Middle East
  • Explained
  • Opinion
  • Sport
  • Video
    • Features
    • Economy
    • Human Rights
    • Climate Crisis
    • Investigations
    • Interactives
    • In Pictures
    • Science & Technology
    • Podcasts
play
Live
Navigation menu
  • Israel-Palestine conflict
  • What is the Global March to Gaza all about?
  • Does Netanyahu want Hamas gone?
  • Gaza aid turmoil: how it unfolded
  • Who is 'Madleen'?

In Pictures

Gallery|Gaza

Faced with hunger, Palestinians crowd a controversial aid centre in Gaza

Israeli soldiers have fired warning shots to disperse the thousands who thronged the aid centre seeking food.

A boy cradles a clear bottle of what appears to be cooking oil in a crowded scene.
A child cradles a bottle of cooking oil outside an aid distribution site in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 27. [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
Published On 27 May 202527 May 2025
facebooktwitterwhatsappcopylink

Thousands of Palestinians have overwhelmed a food distribution centre in southern Gaza, driven by hunger after nearly three months without access to fresh supplies.

It was a chaotic scene on Tuesday in the southern city of Rafah, as men, women and children thronged the aid centre, seeking food to stave off malnutrition and starvation.

Israeli soldiers used gunfire to disperse the desperate crowds, as they tugged at the fences separating them from food boxes. Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that three Palestinians were killed and 46 wounded at the site. Several more remained missing.

Starting on March 2, Israel had imposed a total blockade on aid into war-torn Gaza, as part of the military offensive it began in the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.

As fears of famine grew, so too did international pressure on Israel. Allies including the United Kingdom, France and Canada warned Israel earlier this month that it could face sanctions if aid restrictions were not lifted.

Days later, Israel announced it would allow “minimal” deliveries of essential supplies to resume.

Advertisement

But that announcement was controversial, not least for Israel’s decision to bypass traditional aid distribution networks, like those run by the United Nations.

Instead, it tapped the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a United States-backed nonprofit, to lead the effort.

“There were a lot of questions raised, even within the Israeli government, about how exactly this was going to operate,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan.

“Now, as you can see here, the private company that was put in place to distribute this aid has completely lost control.”

Israel has blamed the armed Palestinian group Hamas for the chaos at the aid centre, something the group has denied.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Hamas instead blamed Israel for failing to “manage the humanitarian crisis it deliberately created”.

Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Vall also reported there was no evidence that Hamas has disrupted the aid distribution. He instead pointed to the sheer need: More than two million Palestinians live in Gaza.

“These are the people of Gaza, the civilians of Gaza, trying to get just a piece of food — just any piece of food for their children, for themselves,” he said.

Vall added that there was also scepticism on the ground about the motives behind concentrating aid distribution in the south of Gaza.

“They say the reason why [Israeli officials] did this, the reason why they established these distribution points only in the south is that they want to encourage people — or even force them — to flee from the north,” Vall explained.

Advertisement

The fear remains, he said, that moving Palestinians southwards could be a “preliminary phase for the complete ousting” of Gaza’s population.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 54,056 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, which humanitarian aid groups and United Nations experts have compared to a genocide.

Here are some scenes from Tuesday’s aid distribution efforts.

A man with a package of rice in each hand gestures in southern Gaza, making a sweeping motion with his arms.
Thousands of Palestinians showed up at an aid centre on Tuesday set up by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
Advertisement
A boy flashes a peace sign as he balances a cardboard box of supplies on his head.
Cardboard boxes packed with thousands meals were prepared for distribution as the aid site opened. [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
Crowds of thousands gather on a road as they seek supplies in southern Gaza.
Organisers were forced to briefly close the distribution centre, as aid-seekers rushed the site out of hunger. [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
Palestinians reach into an open cardboard box of aid, featuring "Teatime biscuits" and cans of food.
The packages included food supplies like rice, cooking oil, biscuits and canned food, though Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary said one box was unlikely to feed a family for long. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
A child leans against two stacked cardboard boxes labelled GHF
Israel only recently began allowing limited aid shipments into Gaza to resume, after imposing a total blockade in March. [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
A young boy carries a bulging cardboard box on his shoulder
Critics fear the limited aid entering Gaza will be insufficient to cover the needs of the more than 2 million residents living in the Palestinian territory. [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
Advertisement
A bearded man carries a cardboard box over his shoulder, flashing a peace sign with his free hand.
Fears of famine as a result of the aid blockade has amplified the pressure on Israel to allow food and other basic supplies to reach Gaza's people. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
A view of the crowd receiving aid in Rafah, including a white car, a mule, a boy carrying cardboard boxes labeled GHF and many people.
Some Palestinians arrived at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid centre with cars, carts or mules, in order to better transport much-needed supplies. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
A man uses both hands to hoist a cardboard box atop one shoulder as he walks through a crowd.
The aid centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been controversial, in part due to its ties to Israel and its ally, the US. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
A woman balances a package of food atop her head as she leaves a humanitarian aid centre
Experts with the UN have called the situation in Gaza 'one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time'. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
A boy holds up a glass jar of food as he sits on the back of a cart filled with cardboard boxes. The men and boys around him gesture, some with their arms in the air.
This month, the UN reported that 57 children have died of malnutrition since the start of the blockade on March 2. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]


    • About Us
    • Code of Ethics
    • Terms and Conditions
    • EU/EEA Regulatory Notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cookie Preferences
    • Sitemap
    • Work for us
    • Contact Us
    • User Accounts Help
    • Advertise with us
    • Stay Connected
    • Newsletters
    • Channel Finder
    • TV Schedule
    • Podcasts
    • Submit a Tip
    • Al Jazeera Arabic
    • Al Jazeera English
    • Al Jazeera Investigative Unit
    • Al Jazeera Mubasher
    • Al Jazeera Documentary
    • Al Jazeera Balkans
    • AJ+
    • Al Jazeera Centre for Studies
    • Al Jazeera Media Institute
    • Learn Arabic
    • Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights
    • Al Jazeera Forum
    • Al Jazeera Hotel Partners

Follow Al Jazeera English:

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • youtube
  • instagram-colored-outline
  • rss
Al Jazeera Media Network logo
© 2025 Al Jazeera Media Network