Translated Content:
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns in the strongest terms the heinous crime that occurred this morning at the aid distribution point near Morag, south of Khan Yunis, which claimed the lives of dozens of starving civilians, some killed and others injured, as a result of a stampede and suffocation while waiting to receive food. While the center holds the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the forces supervising the distribution operations fully responsible for this catastrophe, it also affirms that this massacre has revealed a new face of the transformation of aid into tools of oppression and death traps.
According to field information, 20 citizens were suffocated to death this morning, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, and dozens more were injured as a result of the severe stampede as they attempted to cross the main gate of the aid distribution point known as Morag, south of Khan Yunis. The point is supervised by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in coordination with Israeli forces and US forces operating on the ground.
According to eyewitnesses, the American soldiers assigned to secure the site closed the gate to thousands of civilians who had gathered since the early hours of the morning awaiting food aid. They then fired pepper spray directly at them, causing extreme panic and suffocation. This led to an unprecedented crush at the gate and among the iron wires. Dozens of people fell to the ground, including children and young people who suffocated to death under the feet of the stampeding crowd. The victims were transported by animal-drawn carts to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where 17 victims have been identified to date, while unidentified bodies remain in morgues.
An eyewitness recounted what happened at the distribution point. M. Z., 17, a single man who lives in a tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis and was there at the time of the incident, said: “With the scarcity of food supplies and their skyrocketing prices, I went more than once to the American aid distribution points to bring in whatever food I could to stave off our hunger.” Today, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at around 5:00 a.m., I went with my cousin (Z. N.) to the Al-Tina Street area to go to the American aid distribution point in the Morag area, south of Khan Yunis. After we arrived, we sat at the end of a street called Lemon Street, which is the only road leading to the Morag point, and is about a kilometer and a half away from the distribution point. Suddenly, there was shooting from an Israeli tank that was stationed in the middle of the street. At around 6:30 a.m. on the same day, the tank withdrew, which meant that the distribution point was open and people could cross the street and go inside the point to obtain aid. Indeed, my cousin and I ran at top speed towards the point. There were huge numbers of people heading to obtain aid. When we arrived at the main gate, we were crowded between the fence as if it were a milking machine for inspection. We were surprised after our arrival when the American soldiers closed the gate before we entered, and they fired pepper gas at us. Then, a stampede and collision occurred among the people, and many of us fell on the ground. The ground, especially the children, was underfoot. People were trampled underfoot by the crowding and jostling, and no one was able to rescue them. Everyone wanted to get away from the gas and, at the same time, get aid. After that, we opened the gate that the American soldiers had forcibly closed and entered the distribution point. I took some legumes and cooking oil and put them in an empty flour bag that I always take with me. People crowded around me as I sat on the ground searching for some 1-kilo bags of flour. I felt extremely suffocated, so I immediately grabbed the bag I had placed in which I had placed some of the food and shouted at the people above me to get me out. After the jostling and shouting, I was able to get out. As I was outside, near the main gate, I saw about 15 people lying on the ground, some of whom were motionless, and others whom people were trying to help. I grabbed the bag I had with me and returned home, feeling extremely exhausted. I still feel suffocated from the gas the Americans fired at us. It should be noted that the American-Israeli mechanism, implemented by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has claimed the lives of more than (650) citizens since it began operating on May 27, 2025, and more than (183) on aid convoy routes.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns this heinous crime and holds the parties responsible for managing and distributing aid, primarily the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the military forces supervising it, fully responsible for this crime. This crime adds to a long list of crimes committed against civilians in the Gaza Strip, and the continued use of aid distribution points as a means of repression, control, and collective punishment, through what has become known as "death traps," an inhumane distribution mechanism that uses abuse against unarmed civilians crowded together for survival.
Accordingly, the Center calls on the international community to open an urgent and transparent international investigation into this incident and other similar incidents, and to hold accountable all those responsible for this crime and previous crimes, including those who operate or support these checkpoints. It also calls for the immediate cessation of this inhumane mechanism, which has proven its goal of re-engineering hunger to ensure the multiplication of civilian suffering and harm.
The Center reiterates its call for the international community to intervene immediately to compel the occupying state to halt the crime of genocide, impose a ceasefire, abandon the use of collective punishment and starvation as weapons, lift the blockade, and ensure the continued flow of humanitarian aid to the maximum extent possible. The Center emphasizes that allowing the passage of humanitarian relief consignments is a humanitarian, moral, and legal duty incumbent upon all countries of the world. Relief access must not be subject to any political considerations, except for humanitarian standards that preserve the lives and dignity of civilians. In this context, the Center calls for support for the efforts of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and for enabling them to continue their life-saving role and interventions in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA is the only agency that has proven over decades its commitment to international humanitarian standards and its ability to implement neutral and safe relief operations that respect human dignity and rights. The Center emphasizes that the continuation of this approach, based on humiliation and forced hunger engineering, constitutes a full-fledged humanitarian crime and a dangerous indicator of the moral decline in the mechanisms for dealing with the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
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The mission of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is to promote respect for and protection of human rights, particularly economic, social, and cultural rights, in the Gaza Strip. Part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
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