Occupied Palestinian Territory – The international community and complicit governments bear responsibility for the ongoing horrific crimes against starving civilians at aid distribution points operated by the Israeli-American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central and southern Gaza Strip.
The organisation's operations must be halted immediately, and an independent international investigation must be launched to ensure its officials are prosecuted before international and national courts for their involvement in systematic mass killings at distribution sites. These sites are run by a criminal entity forcibly imposed by the Israeli military as a replacement for the UN mechanism that had operated in the Strip for nearly a year and a half.
International and national judicial bodies must move to hold US President Donald Trump criminally accountable for his complicity in the genocide in the Gaza Strip. This includes his adoption and direct support of the Israeli aid distribution mechanism, imposed by force and transformed into arenas of mass slaughter against starving civilians, as well as his administration's full-scale provision of military, financial, political, and diplomatic backing that enabled Israel to commit and expand the crime for over 21 months.
The massacre that took place on the morning of Saturday, near an aid distribution point in the Al-Shakoush area north of Rafah city, and resulted in the killing of 30 Palestinians and the injury of over 180 others, came just days after the closure of three central distribution points. This led to the overcrowding of tens of thousands of starving civilians in one area in search of food, amid Israel's systematic starvation policy used as a main tool in carrying out the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Documented field testimonies indicate the involvement of personnel from a private American security company working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in opening fire and launching tear gas grenades at gathered civilians, alongside Israeli occupation soldiers. This places direct responsibility on the foundation and its security partners for committing fully-fledged international crimes against the population of the Gaza Strip, including active participation in the crime of genocide.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reviewed circulating video footage showing security personnel affiliated with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation directly throwing grenades at civilians gathered around aid distribution points. This serves as further evidence of the foundation's involvement in systematic violence against starving residents and its active participation in the commission of grave international crimes.
A survivor of the massacre told the Euro-Med Monitor team:
"There is a large pit roughly 1,000 metres before the entrance to the aid point, which civilians use to hide before the gate opens. Today, we were surprised to see three sand mounds opposite the pit, but as usual, people entered the pit. Once it was full of civilians, we were shocked to see three tanks mount the mounds, each armed with machine guns and accompanied by around 30 heavily armed infantry soldiers and snipers. They began by firing several stun grenades over the people in the pit. When people tried to flee, anyone who attempted to get out was shot at directly. Crowds poured out of the pit, and the tanks opened heavy fire directly at them. Some bullets passed through multiple people at once due to the density of the crowd and proximity of the tanks. All of this happened between 8:30 and 9:30 this morning."
Israeli forces and American security personnel have killed no fewer than 829 Palestinians and wounded around 5,500 others in less than two months near aid distribution points,?sites deliberately designed to serve as tools of killing, starvation architecture, and the degradation of human dignity.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation falsely promoted as a civilian relief entity, actually serves as a field cover for policies of siege, starvation, and killing. It plays a direct role in managing aid distribution points in a way that reinforces starvation as a weapon, while providing private security protection for designated killing zones under the guise of "order".
The United States, through this organisation and other instruments, continues to provide political, logistical, financial, and military cover for Israel's crimes, rendering current and former American officials, foremost among them President Donald Trump, subject to international criminal accountability.
Even in cases where a threat is alleged, international law does not legally justify the use of lethal force. Security forces are bound by international legal standards to follow the principle of proportionality and gradual escalation in the use of force. Lethal force may only be used as a last resort, and only when there is a real and imminent threat to life—conditions that were not met in the documented cases, rendering such killings a grave and explicit violation of international law.
The deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians, through killing and injuring them while they attempt to access food, alongside the use of starvation as a weapon, constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. These acts amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute, including wilful killing, targeting civilians, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare—all of which are categorically prohibited in armed conflicts.
The pattern of these violations, with their widespread nature and systematic repetition against the civilian population, meets the criteria for crimes against humanity, particularly murder, persecution, and inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury to body or mental health, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.
Placing these crimes within their broader context, including the systematic destruction of means of survival, the obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the imposition of deadly living conditions on the civilian population, alongside public statements made at various political and military levels in Israel, reveals a clear and declared intent to destroy the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. This constitutes, under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, an act of genocide, specifically through the deliberate killing of members of the group and the imposition of living conditions intended to bring about their physical destruction, in whole or in part.
Israel, as the occupying power, bears a legal obligation under international humanitarian law to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid and to meet the basic needs of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. However, this obligation does not, under any circumstances, grant Israel the authority to manage or control the distribution of such aid. The distribution of humanitarian assistance must remain solely in the hands of neutral and specialised humanitarian actors. Any military or political interference by Israel in this process constitutes a grave violation of international law and a distortion of the humanitarian purpose of relief efforts.
Israel, which is using starvation as a central tool in carrying out the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,?with the goal of eliminating them as a national group, cannot, under any circumstance, be regarded as a legitimate party in any humanitarian operation. Involving Israel in organising or overseeing aid efforts only serves to transform that aid itself into a weapon of destruction, used to eliminate the population, impose coercive choices on survivors, and pave the way for their forced displacement as part of a colonial project aimed at erasing their presence and annexing their land by force.
The continued management of aid distribution points by complicit parties has become an existential threat to Palestinian civilians. These locations have turned into open graves, where civilians are lured by hunger, only to be bombed or deliberately shot at.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor calls for holding U.S. President Donald Trump and all state and government leaders involved in the crime of genocide committed in the Gaza Strip accountable, whether through direct or indirect participation in its execution, by providing political, military, or financial support, or by facilitating its commission in any form. Such acts constitute criminal complicity under Article 25 of the Rome Statute. It holds states that failed to take serious measures to prevent or stop the crime legally responsible under their international obligations, particularly under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Euro-Med Monitor further calls for independent and comprehensive international investigations into the role played Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in facilitating and executing grave crimes against Palestinian civilians. These investigations must include individual accountability for the organisation's founders, directors, logistics coordinators, team leaders, and any of its personnel, whether through planning, facilitation, direct contribution, or conscious omission that enabled the commission of crimes.
Euro-Med Monitor further urges all states with territorial or universal jurisdiction to launch immediate criminal investigations against all individuals associated with the organisation or its contracted private security firms, to hold them accountable for their roles in crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza, particularly wilful killings, starvation, and cruel or degrading treatment.
It also calls for civil lawsuits to be initiated in national courts, demanding that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and all implicated entities and individuals provide compensation for the severe harm inflicted on victims and their families. This includes deaths, physical and psychological injuries, and the forced deprivation of the right to life, food, and dignity. Ensuring criminal and civil accountability for those involved is essential to achieving justice for victims, ending impunity, and preventing future crimes from being committed under the guise of humanitarian work.
Euro-Med Monitor urges all states and international bodies to exert maximum pressure on Israel to stop killing starving civilians and immediately end its inhumane aid distribution mechanism. It calls for urgent steps to restore humanitarian access and lift the illegal Israeli blockade on Gaza, as the only way to halt the rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis. This includes ensuring the entry of humanitarian aid and goods amid the looming threat of famine, establishing safe humanitarian corridors under UN supervision to ensure food, medicine, and fuel reach all areas of Gaza, and deploying independent international observers to verify compliance.
Euro-Med Monitor calls on all states—individually and collectively—to fulfil their legal obligations and act urgently to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms, taking all effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians. States must also ensure that Israel complies with international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and that it is held accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people. It further urges the implementation of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister and former Minister of Defence at the earliest opportunity, and for them to be handed over to international justice, in accordance with the principle that there is no immunity for international crimes.
Lastly, Euro-Med Monitor calls on the international community to impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for its grave and systematic violations of international law. This includes a comprehensive ban on the export or import of weapons, spare parts, software, and dual-use goods; an immediate halt to all forms of political, financial, military, intelligence, and security support to Israel; the freezing of financial assets belonging to political and military officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; the imposition of travel bans on them; the suspension of Israeli military and security companies from international markets; the freezing of their assets in international banks; and the suspension of trade, customs, and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages enabling it to continue committing crimes against the Palestinian people.
