Israel accused of mixing opioid drugs into Gaza aid - What we know

The Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been accused of distributing flour laced with opioid drugs - the latest scandal to have dogged the controversial US and Israel-backed food distribution group.

This follows the ongoing killings of Palestinians at the aid sites while seeking desperately-needed supplies.

The New Arab takes a look at the latest controversy surrounding the GHF.

Drug-laced aid

Gaza's government media office on Friday said that Oxycodone pills were mixed into bags of flour, with some pills being found inside packages of aid meant for distribution to Palestinians.

“We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for this crime, which aims to spread addiction and destroy Palestinian society from within,” the office said in a statement.

Gaza's anti-drug committee warned Palestinians to beware of the  "death traps called US-Israeli aid centers" and urged citizens to report foreign substances discovered in aid packages. 

Palestinians in Gaza have shared photographs to social media purportedly showing pills discovered inside sacks of aid.

What is Oxycodone?

Oxycodone is an opioid drug comparable to morphine, which is used for the relief of severe pain. The drug is usually prescribed for post-operative pain, accident victims or cancer patients.

Gaza-based pharmacist Omar Hamad said on X that he and others in his profession had seen Oxycodone pills in four sacks distributed in Gaza.

Writing on X, Hamad said that the drug "acts on specific receptors in the nervous system, causing severe addiction, a decrease in heart rate, impaired awareness and consciousness, and dangerous respiratory depression. Its side effects are numerous and can transform a person into something unrecognizable—a shell of who they were".

Aid as a weapon

Israel has long been accused of using food as a weapon of war against the Palestinians, with the UN this week condemning Tel Aviv's "weaponization of food", amid further killings of Palestinians at aid sites.

Prior to the establishment of the Israel-backed GHF distributions centres in Gaza in late May, Israel had blocked all aid into the enclave, using the resumption of humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Hamas.

More than 580 Palestinians have been killed over the past few weeks in the vicinity the food distribution sites, with Israeli soldiers admitting to Haaretz this week that they were ordered to deliberately fire at crowds seeking aid.

Israel has also admitted to using aid trucks to smuggle soldiers into residential areas, including in the June 2024 Nuseirat massacre, in which more than 200 Palestinians were killed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also admitted to funding and arming criminal gangs in Gaza - gangs accused by Hamas of stealing aid and attacking aid trucks.

Netanyahu, along with former defence minister Yoav Gallant, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for using starvation as a weapon of war, among other charges.