GazaHerald – Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Friday that the humanitarian aid system in Gaza has devolved into a “regular bloodbath,” as Israeli forces repeatedly target starving civilians trying to access food.
The rights organization condemned the systematic campaign of killings at distribution centers run by the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” a system backed and coordinated by the Israeli military and U.S. contractors.
In a strongly worded statement, HRW said the Israeli army has established a flawed and deadly system for delivering aid, which has failed to protect civilians and instead turned food lines into scenes of mass death.
“The killing of Palestinians seeking food amounts to a war crime,” the organization stated, adding that Israel’s ongoing obstruction of humanitarian aid constitutes a crime against humanity and genocide.
HRW directly accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, a policy that has pushed Gaza’s population to the brink.
“The catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza are a direct result of Israel’s deliberate use of hunger to break the civilian population,” the group said, calling on both Israel and the United States to immediately suspend the current aid delivery mechanism and allow unfettered humanitarian access.
The warning comes as the death toll from hunger continues to rise in Gaza. Although the United Nations has not formally declared a famine, Palestinian and international sources confirm that starvation is widespread and accelerating, with children and the elderly among the most affected.
Growing International Warnings
In a separate alert, the International Crisis Group echoed these worries and warned that famine conditions are already developing throughout the Gaza Strip. Experts Robert Blecher and Chris Newton pointed to mounting UN data indicating famine is all but inevitable without immediate, large-scale intervention.
“Israeli policies have crossed into disaster,” they wrote, arguing that what began as supply restriction has now become a full-scale humanitarian collapse.
Since the U.S.-affiliated Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took control of aid distribution, at least 1,330 Palestinians have been killed and more than 8,800 injured near the aid centers it operates, according to figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. These fatalities have been attributed to Israeli occupation forces attacks and gunfire from armed personnel securing the aid convoys and distribution zones.
Human rights organizations and humanitarian agencies have repeatedly sounded the alarm about Israel’s total control over the entry and distribution of aid into Gaza. In recent weeks, the Strip’s two million besieged residents have been facing starvation under what many now openly describe as a siege-induced famine.
HRW is calling on the international community to pressure Israel to lift its blockade and allow immediate, unrestricted delivery of humanitarian supplies, warning that failure to act will result in further mass deaths.
