In a worrying occurrence, Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians and injured dozens more as they opened fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah.
The latest killings came early on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at the Flag Roundabout, near an aid hub operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that 184 wounded people had been taken to its field hospital in Rafah, 19 of whom were found dead on arrival, and eight others died later of their wounds.
The 27 dead were transferred to Nasser hospital in the city of Khan Younis.
It was the third such incident around the Rafah hub in as many days.
The Israeli military said that it “is aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into.”
It added that it had fired shots as “a number of suspects” deviated from the regulated routes, on which a crowd was making its way to the GHF distribution complex.
The “suspects” were about 500 metres (approximately 550 yards) from the site, the military said in a statement on Telegram, adding that it was looking into reports of casualties.
The Israeli military, in its statement on Telegram, said that troops had fired warning shots as people deviated from “designated access routes” and “after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops.”
However, it denied firing on civilians or blocking them from accessing aid. In its statement, the Israeli military claimed “IDF troops are not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites.”
This account echoes statements around similar incidents on Sunday, when 31 aid seekers were reportedly killed, and on Monday, when three more were killed.
Gaza’s authorities report that more than 100 aid seekers have been killed with 490 others injured since the United States- and Israel-backed GHF started operating in the enclave on May 27, with reports of violence, looting and chaos rife.
Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel of “a horrific, intentionally repeated crime,” saying it has been luring starving Palestinians to the GHF centres – controversially opened following an 11-week total blockade to take over most aid distribution from the United Nations and other aid agencies – and then opening fire.
It described the new aid distribution arrangements being forced on the territory by the Israeli government as “mass death traps” as it called the shootings at or near aid distribution centres “horrific, intentionally repeated crimes.”
Wilful Restriction On Food Distribution In Gaza May Constitute War Crime By Israel
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday the impediment of access to food and relief for civilians in Gaza may constitute a war crime, describing attacks on civilians trying to access food as unconscionable.
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jeremy Laurence, told the media in Geneva, “For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”
At the weekend, Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General described the aid distribution system being enforced by Israeli authorities as a “death trap.”
Lazzarini added that “This humiliating system has forced thousands of hungry and desperate people to walk for tens of miles to an area that’s all but pulverized due to heavy bombardment.”
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