GAZA — More than 300 Palestinians have been killed in just 48 hours as Israeli forces intensify their military campaign across the Gaza Strip, targeting civilians at aid distribution centers, displacement shelters, and residential areas. The Gaza Government Media Office said Thursday that Israeli forces had carried out “26 bloody massacres” over the last two days alone.
Among the latest victims were at least 33 Palestinians gunned down while attempting to collect food at sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial aid initiative backed by Israel and the United States. The killings occurred without warning, according to eyewitnesses and survivors who described scenes of panic and horror as gunfire tore through the crowds.
“People were just waiting for food. Then, bullets. No warnings, no signs — just shooting,” said one survivor to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum in Deir al-Balah. “We thought we were going to die trying to get bread.”
The Israeli assault also struck other civilian areas. Thirteen Palestinians were killed in al-Mawasi when a tent sheltering displaced families was hit. Another 11 people died when an Israeli airstrike targeted the Mostafa Hafez School, which had been converted into a shelter for displaced families in western Gaza City.
Medical officials at Nasser Hospital held funeral prayers for several victims of the attacks, including those killed at GHF sites. The hospital morgue, overwhelmed for months, has now become a center of collective mourning.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israeli forces in the last 48 hours have targeted:
Crowded displacement centers
Civilian shelters
Residential homes
Public rest stops such as al-Baqa
Markets and food lines
Starving Palestinians searching for aid
These strikes, the Office said, were part of a deliberate strategy to starve and terrorize civilians.
Humanitarian groups and international media are raising alarm. The Associated Press reported that private U.S. contractors guarding the GHF aid sites have been using live fire and stun grenades on civilians. Two whistleblowers employed at the sites described the behavior of these contractors as reckless and dangerous, saying many were heavily armed, untrained, and lacked oversight.
Since GHF operations began in late May, over 600 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food and aid. Nearly 4,000 more have been wounded in similar incidents, including stampedes, gunfire, and explosions near distribution centers.
On Tuesday, over 130 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Save the Children, and Oxfam, signed a joint statement calling for the immediate closure of the GHF, accusing it of acting as a cover for Israeli attacks on civilians. “These sites have become death traps,” the statement read. “Aid is not being delivered — it is being used as bait.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that the total death toll has now surpassed 56,647, with 134,105 injured since Israel began its assault on October 7, 2023. This includes large numbers of women and children. In contrast, Israeli authorities say 1,139 people were killed during the October 7 Hamas-led attack inside Israel.
As ceasefire negotiations remain fragile, the latest wave of killings threatens to derail any potential breakthrough. International pressure is mounting, but Palestinians on the ground continue to face indiscriminate violence, growing hunger, and an increasingly collapsed humanitarian system.
The situation in Gaza has moved beyond crisis into full-scale catastrophe. Aid seekers are being killed while reaching for survival. What remains is a population under siege, trapped between starvation and airstrikes — and a world watching in silence.
