How many people have died in Israel's aid massacres in Gaza?

Over the past month, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while attempting to access food and humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on distribution sites and civilians gathering in aid queues, in what humanitarian groups and UN officials are now describing as a pattern of lethal attacks. While Israel claims it is acting to neutralise security threats, rights organisations warn the strategy amounts to the weaponisation of hunger and a series of war crimes.

The exact death toll is difficult to determine.

However, reports from medical sources, humanitarian workers, and media investigations suggest that more than 400 people have been killed and thousands injured since late May in or around aid distribution points, primarily in Rafah and Khan Younis.

The New Arab looks into these massacres, looking at the scale of the attacks and explores why Israel seems to be deliberately targeting Palestinians queuing for aid.

What happened in Rafah and Khan Younis?

On 16 June, over 80 people were killed across Gaza as Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on crowds waiting for food. Thirty-four of the dead were in Rafah, where people had gathered at a known aid point.

The following day, at least 70 more were killed in Khan Younis under similar circumstances. Witnesses and medics described scenes of panic as tanks and drones opened fire on people carrying bags of flour or lifting the wounded.

"They opened fire on people carrying flour,"  one survivor said. "We thought it would be safe. It wasn’t."

In many of these cases, video footage and eyewitness accounts contradict Israeli claims that militants were present or that warning shots were fired.

Earlier, on 1 June, between 24 and 51 people were killed at another distribution point near Rafah, according to varying reports. And on 20 June, another attack on a food queue in central Gaza left 23 dead and over 100 wounded.

Israel’s explanation?

The Israeli military has tried to defend its actions by labelling the affected areas as "combat zones". It says its forces were responding to perceived threats, and in some cases used warning shots to control or disperse crowds. It has also expressed concern that Hamas could exploit aid deliveries to conceal fighters or smuggle weapons.

However, no verifiable evidence has been presented linking any of the massacres to armed combatants. Human rights groups argue that the frequency and consistency of these attacks suggest deliberate intent, not mishap. In several recorded incidents, civilians appear to be targeted while doing nothing more than collecting food or assisting the wounded.

What is the Dahiya Doctrine?

Some analysts and rights advocates have connected Israel’s conduct to the Dahiya Doctrine - a military strategy of overwhelming force and collective punishment developed during the 2006 war in Lebanon. The doctrine explicitly targets civilian infrastructure and morale in areas believed to support hostile groups. Critics argue that the repeated killing of aid-seekers in Gaza may represent the doctrine’s application: not accidents, but a calculated effort to break civilian resilience.

They say that the killings at aid queues may represent a modern application of this doctrine in Gaza, where even access to food has become another weapon in Israel's arsenal.

What has the UN said?

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, called the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), the  current Israeli-backed aid system, "lethal"  and warned it could constitute a war crime.

"There is a clear pattern of attacks on desperate civilians seeking food. The system in place is not just failing — it is killing," he said.

Other UN officials have echoed that warning. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has said that attacks on aid-seekers and deliberate obstruction of humanitarian assistance could amount to the use of starvation as a method of warfare — a violation of the Geneva Conventions and prosecutable under international law.

International NGOs have likewise condemned the structure and operation of the aid delivery system, which they say forces starving people to choose between hunger and mortal danger.

What happens next?

Despite the rising death toll and international alarm, little accountability has followed. The US and UK have not publicly condemned the killings at aid queues, and Israel continues to manage access to Gaza's border crossings and to approve or reject aid convoys.

In Gaza, food queues have become synonymous with danger. Survivors speak of risking death for a bag of rice or flour. With no international protection and aid still tightly restricted, the number of people killed while seeking help is expected to rise.