Chaos in Gaza as Hunger Drives Deadly Rush on UN Aid Warehouse

Two Palestinians lost their lives after crowds desperate for food overwhelmed a United Nations aid warehouse in central Gaza, highlighting the deepening hunger crisis in the region. The World Food Programme (WFP) reported that “hordes of hungry people” stormed the al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir el-Balah. Initial reports suggest two fatalities and several injuries, although the WFP is still verifying the details.

The organization stressed the urgent need to increase food aid to Gaza to prevent further desperation and ensure people do not starve. It called for immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access to facilitate organized food distribution.

Although Israel lifted an 11-week blockade under international pressure, the limited aid now permitted is far from sufficient. Sigrid Kaag, the UN's coordinator for the Middle East peace process, likened the aid levels to a lifeboat after a shipwreck, emphasizing that famine threatens the entire Gaza population.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said the country would allow continued deliveries through both the UN and the newly created, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). However, Danon urged the UN to cooperate with this new system, while aid agencies criticized the GHF plan for being non-neutral and controlled. UN officials argued that the system is designed around surveillance and reinforces policies of deprivation, undermining humanitarian principles.

Violence continued at aid distribution points, with at least 10 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during incidents at the GHF site in southern Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Dozens were injured as thousands rushed to collect food aid.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Thursday claimed at least 30 lives across the Gaza Strip. Among the dead were seven people sheltering in a kindergarten in Jabalia and 19 others killed in residential areas of the Bureij refugee camp, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported.