US-backed Gaza aid sites risk fuelling chaos used to justify killings of Palestinians, report finds

A Harvard-linked report says US-backed Gaza aid sites are poorly placed, creating chaos later used to justify Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians.
3 min read
24 June, 2025
Last Update
26 June, 2025 08:43 AM
The new report sheds light on how the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid sites triggered the killing of scores of Palestinians [Getty]

A new report published this month through the Harvard Dataverse reveals how the layout and inaccessibility of US-backed aid sites in Gaza contributed to deadly chaos and disorder, which was then used to justify the killing of Palestinian civilians.

Authored by Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, the report uses spatial analysis and data mapping to examine how Israeli attacks, movement restrictions, and the flawed placement of aid sites have fuelled civilian deaths.

Access, obstruction, and aid site design

The report also critically assesses the role of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), arguing that its structure appears to have been shaped more by Israeli military strategy than by humanitarian needs.

Using location data and spatial analysis, Garb finds that most of Gaza's population could not reach GHF aid compounds.

These sites were largely inaccessible, cut off from the southern areas of Gaza by the Israeli-controlled Netzarim corridor. Their location inside declared "buffer zones" meant that civilians seeking aid had to enter areas formally barred to them by the Israeli army.

According to the report, poor infrastructure, lack of motorised transport, and a near-total absence of safe passage routes made access even more difficult.

Garb writes that the design and operation of the aid compounds "seems likely to be an engine for continuous friction and mishap", noting that the allocation model, providing rations for exactly 5.5 people for 3.5 days, effectively forced civilians to make repeated, dangerous crossings into militarised zones.

"The fact that four of the five compounds lie south of the Morag corridor - repeatedly indicated by Israeli officials as the intended destination for concentration of Palestinians to be displaced from the remainder of Gaza in an impending intensification of the military attacks - is not reassuring," the report warns.

No dignity, no protection

The report highlights that little to no measures were taken to protect the dignity or safety of civilians seeking aid. The sites lacked basic facilities such as shade, water, toilets, first aid stations, or dedicated access for vulnerable groups. There was typically only one entry and exit point, no crowd management, and scenes of chaos were common.

It also argues that the very architecture of these aid compounds was designed in a way that risked repeated outbreaks of disorder, conditions that were then used to justify violence against civilians.

"Overall, these aid compounds seem to reflect a logic of control, not assistance, and it would be a misnomer to call them 'humanitarian aid distribution hubs'. They do not adhere to humanitarian principles, and much of their design and operation is guided by other objectives, which undermine their declared purpose," the report concludes.

The report comes as Gaza's health ministry confirmed on Tuesday that at least 450 people have been killed and around 3,500 wounded since late May while trying to access humanitarian aid.

According to the ministry, most of those killed were struck near or on the way to GHF distribution sites backed by the United States.

Editor's note: This article was updated on 26 June 2025 to correct an earlier version that mistakenly reported the study found at least 377,000 people in Gaza were unaccounted for since the start of the war. That figure was based on a misreading of a map in the study. The author clarified that the map was meant to highlight how poorly located the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid compounds are in relation to population centres, using widely circulated Israeli figures to label those areas.