Gaza food distribution 'orchestrated killing': Doctors Without Borders

BRUSSELS

The Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) food distribution is "orchestrated killing and dehumanization," French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.

The organization, known by its French acronym MSF, accused Israeli forces and private American contractors of carrying out targeted and indiscriminate violence against starving Palestinians attempting to access food at GHF-operated sites.

It described the GHF as an "Israeli-US proxy that has militarized food distribution" in Gaza.

Titled "This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing," the MSF report draws on medical data, patients’ testimonies, and firsthand observations from two MSF clinics located near GHF distribution points in southern Gaza.

Between June 7 and July 24, the two clinics treated 1,380 casualties linked to violence near GHF-run sites, including 28 who were declared dead upon arrival, the organization said.

Among those treated were 71 children with gunshot wounds, 25 of whom were under the age of 15. According to the MSF, many families, facing extreme food shortages, often send adolescent boys to distribution points, as they are often the only able-bodied males in the household.

The "MSF calls for the immediate dismantling of the GHF scheme; the restoration of the UN-coordinated aid delivery mechanism; and calls on governments, especially the United States, as well as private donors to suspend all financial and political support for the GHF, whose sites are essentially death traps," it said.

On May 27, Israel launched the separate aid distribution initiative through the GHF, bypassing the UN and international humanitarian agencies.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 61,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombing has destroyed the enclave, while the poor distribution of aid and a blockade has led to deaths by starvation.