Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Eighteen-year-old Hani Hammad by no means imagined that his each day seek for flour would finish with him suffocating and being trampled.
On Wednesday morning, he left his tent within the al-Mawasi space of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, the place he’s been displaced from Rafah alongside along with his seven siblings, heading to a meals distribution level run by the much-criticised, United States-backed GHF.
“We left at daybreak and stood among the many hundreds gathered. About 5am [02:00 GMT], they [US staff and Israeli army] signalled to open the gate, and folks rushed ahead,” Hani informed Al Jazeera.
“The gate was open, however individuals had been packed into a really slender hall resulting in it – solely about seven metres vast,” he stated, struggling to catch his breath after arriving at Nasser Hospital gasping and barely aware.
“I received in with the gang with problem. All of the sudden, American guards began spraying pepper spray and firing gasoline bombs, and folks started stampeding by the hall,” he added.
‘I collapsed. They trampled my face.’
“I felt like I used to be dying. I couldn’t transfer ahead or backwards. I collapsed. My face and facet had been trampled. Nobody might pull me out. However God gave me a second likelihood,” Hani stated.
He was rushed unconscious to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on a tuk-tuk and initially positioned beside the our bodies of others who had died, some from suffocation, others from bullet wounds.
“I used to be unconscious, couldn’t see or hear. I drifted out and in. They put me beside the lifeless. I believed I used to be certainly one of them.”
Early Wednesday, 21 Palestinians were killed, together with 15 by suffocation, whereas attempting to gather meals help.
The incident occurred close to a gate managed by the GHF in western Khan Younis. Dozens extra had been reportedly injured, with some nonetheless in intensive care.
Hani is the oldest of eight siblings who dwell subsequent to their uncle’s tent – their mother and father stay in Jordan, the place they travelled for medical therapy only a month earlier than the warfare started.
“I really feel like I carry an enormous burden. We’ve endured the pressures of displacement and warfare with out our mother and father and with none assist from them,” he stated.
Although he acknowledges that lining up for help from the GHF is a serious each day danger, he provides: “Our intense starvation pushes me to go day-after-day.”
“There’s no different alternative. I’ve no cash to purchase the overpriced items out there within the markets. My solely possibility is to strive my luck with help distributions,” says the younger man.
“Every time is a near-death expertise. There’s gunfire, tanks, drones and assaults. What sort of help distribution is that this? We’re exhausted, really exhausted.”
“We’re shot at like animals”
Mohammed Abedin, 24, now lies in a hospital mattress with a leg wound after heading to the identical help centre in Khan Younis early Wednesday.
For the primary time, he says, he selected to show again after sensing the hazard of the gang surge.
The younger man, a first-year accounting scholar, arrived about 3am (00:00 GMT) on the distribution web site, however he seen that issues regarded totally different. The identical web site had been closed for 2 days earlier than reopening.
“Earlier than, we used to enter from a number of entry factors, and the entryway was vast. However this time, we had been funnelled by one lengthy, slender hall, fenced in with steel,” he says.
“When the gates opened, everybody rushed ahead, and folks started falling underfoot.”
Mohammed described a terrifying scene of individuals crushed in opposition to the steel limitations, screaming and gasping for assist, as pepper spray and gasoline bombs had been fired by American guards and quadcopters above.
“I used to be standing near my cousin, watching. We determined to not go in due to the overwhelming numbers. I noticed youngsters screaming, choking, males and youth trapped. Nobody might transfer ahead or again.”
“The fenced hall, with gasoline bombs raining down and folks being pushed by, grew to become a loss of life entice,” he says.
Mohammed and his cousin tried to go away, however simply as he thought he had made a sensible alternative, a quadcoptor shot him within the leg. His cousin was additionally injured.
“There’s all the time random gunfire from quadcaptors, tanks, or troopers within the space. This time, I used to be the unfortunate one,” he stated. “However thank God, I survived.”
Mohammed displays on the tragic state of affairs confronted by Palestinians, caught between hunger and loss of life, compelled to danger their lives for meals. He helps his displaced household of 9, initially from Rafah and now sheltering in al-Mawasi.
“We dream each day of consuming bread. I am going for help virtually day-after-day and normally return empty-handed. However the days I introduced house just some kilos of flour felt like ‘an eid’ [a celebration] for my household.”
Flour is the highest precedence for Mohammed, particularly with Gaza being below siege for 4 months, the borders sealed, and humanitarian and industrial items blocked by Israel.
“Bread is what drives me to danger loss of life. There’s no various,” he stated, awaiting surgical procedure at Nasser Hospital to take away a bullet from his leg. “Has the world failed to supply a protected channel for help supply?”
“There’s no system, no organised aid, no police or UN intervention. We’re shot at like animals. If we don’t die of starvation, we die within the chaos and stampedes.”
In late Might 2025, the GHF launched its help distribution efforts in Gaza following an Israeli-imposed near-total blockade, which continues to be in impact and has prevented the entry of humanitarian provides.
In keeping with United Nations figures, at least 798 Palestinians have been killed since then whereas attempting to achieve or obtain help from the organisation’s distribution factors.
Widespread criticism has emerged from UN companies and rights organisations that argue the operation is politicised and endangers civilians. The UN has acknowledged that the GHF’s operations violate humanitarian neutrality and are inherently unsafe, highlighted by the a whole bunch of deaths at their websites.
“Both we return with flour, or we don’t return in any respect”
Ziad Masad Mansour, 43, displaced along with his spouse and 6 youngsters from central Gaza to al-Mawasi in Khan Younis after their house was destroyed within the warfare, is one other frequent customer to the help traces.
“I head there at 10 at night time and sleep on the sand like hundreds of others. We endure the mud and humiliation,” stated Mansour, who was wounded within the head on Wednesday.
“Generally I handle to get flour, generally a couple of cans. Different occasions, I return empty-handed. I even assist others carry their luggage in alternate for some meals.”
“Yesterday, there was horrific crowding: gasoline bombs, bullets, and we had been packed tightly within the slender hall. I used to be attempting to flee the crush after I received shot within the head and misplaced consciousness.”
Mansour is now recovering at Nasser Hospital. “Greater than 20 individuals died in the present day – for a bag of flour. What extra is there to say?”