Political and aid leaders are reacting to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in which several Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers said they were ordered to deliberately fire on Palestinians at aid distribution sites in Gaza.
One soldier reportedly described the scene as a “killing field” adding, “Our form of communication is gunfire.”
Israel’s leadership has rejected the report with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz saying the article includes “malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world.”
Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department and the IDF for comment via email on Saturday.
Why It Matters
The ongoing Israel-Gaza war has led to mass destruction, death, and famine in the enclave for 20 months. At least 1.9 million people—about 90 percent of the population in Gaza—have been internally displaced by Israeli bombardments, according to the United Nations. Israel’s ground and air attacks have killed more than 55,300 Palestinians, per the Gaza Health Ministry.
Last weekend, the U.S. joined Israel in its war against Iran by bombing three nuclear sites. The U.S., Israel’s top diplomatic and financial ally, provides more than $3.8 billion in annual military aid, with an additional $17.8 billion authorized since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people and took 250 as hostages.
In late-May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and U.S.-backed group, began distributing aid in the enclave that the World Food Programme warns is on the brink of famine. The group has received international criticism from various aid groups and leaders over its approach to distribution, which has resulted in hundreds of Gazans killed while waiting for aid. Israel controls the flow of aid into Gaza.
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What To Know
The Israeli newspaper’s graphic report relied on several IDF soldiers and officers, who remained anonymous for security reasons. The report opens with the sentence: “Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites over the past month.”
The report found that commanders allegedly ordered soldiers to fire on crowds of Gazans awaiting food aid to drive them away or disperse them, even though they posed no threat.
Between 400 and 550 people have been killed and thousands wounded near aid centers and in areas where residents are waiting for food trucks since late May, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza and the U.N. There are currently four GHF food distribution sites in Gaza, three in the south and one in the center, with limited time frames for aid collection, often leading Gazans to line up early.
An IDF soldier reportedly told Haaretz, “It’s a killing field.” The soldier continued, “Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”
The soldier added that “there’s no danger to the forces,” and noted that the individual is “not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons.”
Last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
The report comes a day after the European Council called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, unconditional release of all hostages, and a permanent end to all hostilities.
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What People Are Saying
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement Friday: “The State of Israel absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels that have been published in the Ha’aretz newspaper, according to which ‘IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid.’ These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world…The soldiers of the IDF receive clear orders to avoid harming innocents – and operate accordingly…”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday that the GHF is “inherently unsafe,” and “it is killing people.”
He added: “People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence.”
A GHF spokesperson told Reuters on Friday: “It is unfortunate the U.N. continue to push false information regarding our operations. Bottom line, our aid is getting securely delivered. Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome the UN and other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza.”
Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said in a Friday statement: “The Israeli-US food distribution scheme in Gaza that was launched one month ago is forcing Palestinians to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minuscule amounts of aid…This system is a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid, and it must be immediately dismantled. Aid must not be controlled by a warring party to further its military objectives.”
The European Council said in a Thursday statement: “It deplores the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation. The European Council calls on Israel to fully lift its blockade on Gaza, to allow immediate, unimpeded access and sustained distribution of humanitarian assistance at scale into and throughout Gaza and to enable the U.N. and its agencies, and humanitarian organizations, to work independently and impartially to save lives and reduce suffering.”
J Street, a nonprofit who identifies as “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-Democracy America,” wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Friday: “This is a deeply troubling report, and a painful read for all who care about Israel’s moral standing and Jewish values. These incidents demand thorough and transparent IDF as well as independent investigations into potential war crimes.”
George Conway, an attorney and co-founder of the anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project, wrote in an X post on Friday: “…a chilling report from Haaretz that everyone should read. Even if only a fraction of this (and some of the paper’s previous detailed reporting on possible war crimes) is true, we should all be deeply saddened and sickened, as I am right now.”
Kenneth Roth, former Human Rights Watch executive director, wrote in an X post on Friday: “Israeli officers and soldiers report being ‘ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present.’ Hundreds of Palestinians were killed. The military prosecution seeks review of possible war crimes.”
Piers Morgan, who hosts Piers Morgan Uncensored wrote in an X post on Saturday: “Then the Israel govt should let international journalists into Gaza to verify that the IDF is indeed utterly blameless and behaving in the most moral way of any army in history, as it keeps insisting. The ongoing ban suggests it doesn’t want the world to know the truth.”
What Happens Next?
The fate of GHF is unclear, as several international human rights and aid organizations have called for its end as a “privatized, militarized” form of aid delivery.