Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 Palestinians while they were trying to obtain food, water, or other basic aid in the Gaza Strip over the past 20 months, according to a major investigation that sheds new light on systematic attacks against civilians.
A year-long investigation by The New Humanitarian outlet found that 2,957 people were killed between January 2024, three months after the war began, and 9 September 2025, adding to mounting evidence of systematic Israeli war crimes in the battered enclave.
Nearly 20,000 others were wounded while trying to obtain aid during the same period.
The investigation examined around 200 assaults between January 2024 and July 2025, excluding those near aid-distribution points linked to the controversial Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It concluded that about 1,200 Palestinians were killed and nearly 4,700 were injured in those incidents alone.
Researchers later added deaths at GHF-linked sites, as well as figures from the UN’s humanitarian affairs office (OCHA), to The New Humanitarian's database. These additions dramatically raised the toll of Palestinians killed while trying to obtain aid amid Israel's two-year campaign of atrocities in Gaza.
Deaths at aid distribution points now account for 4.6 percent of all Palestinians killed in Israel's war on Gaza since October 2023, which has claimed at least 64,871 lives as of Tuesday. The true toll is likely higher because many people remain buried under rubble or unaccounted for.
Adil Haque, a professor of international law at Rutgers University in the United States, told The New Humanitarian that the assaults reflect "a pattern… and an acceptance on the part of the state that these attacks should continue indefinitely".
The database shows that Israeli forces killed and wounded Palestinians as they queued at soup kitchens and bakeries, collected food packages from humanitarian warehouses, fetched water and airdrops, and waited for convoys. The New Humanitarian excluded incidents not reported by multiple media outlets, NGOs, or the UN.
The investigation relied heavily on field reporting by Palestinian journalists and researchers, despite Israel's persistent targeting of media workers in Gaza.
The outlet said its figures likely underestimate the true scale of the killings, citing the decline in local reporting and the removal of reliable documentation from social media platforms.
The data also highlights the brutality at GHF-linked sites. Killings of aid seekers surged after May, when GHF distribution centres drew international condemnation and were described as "death traps" because of daily massacres carried out there by Israeli forces and US-backed mercenaries.
Before May, The New Humanitarian recorded 633 deaths among Palestinians seeking aid; over the following three months, the toll jumped by nearly 2,300.
In August, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing war crimes at GHF-linked sites, citing testimonies and satellite imagery as evidence that Israel deliberately targeted Palestinians seeking aid.
Since its creation, leading NGOs and organisations, including Oxfam and UNICEF, have accused GHF of weaponising aid, violating international law, and facilitating the killing of Palestinians who depend on humanitarian assistance.
In July, more than 170 aid groups demanded the dismantling of the GHF distribution system and called for aid deliveries to be restored under UN coordination.