Chaos, confusion and killings: How the Israeli-backed aid plan in Gaza is unravelling
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed near aid distribution compounds in recent days, prompting renewed criticism of the controversial new Israeli-backed aid system for the Gaza Strip.
Only one of the four compounds has opened every day since 27 May, when the new system was launched.
It lies in the far south-west of the Gaza Strip, near the ruins of a town known as Swedish Village.
In just eight days, at least 64 people have been killed while seeking aid at the Swedish Village compound, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
That includes 27 who were reportedly killed on Tuesday morning, according to local officials and the nearby Red Cross field hospital.
The IDF said its forces had opened fire on “individual suspects who advanced towards troops” after “deviating from the designated access routes” near the distribution centre, and said it was looking into reports of casualties.
“Warning shots were fired approximately half a kilometre away from the humanitarian aid distribution site toward several suspects who advanced toward the troops in such a way that posed a threat to them,” a spokesperson said.
“After the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced towards the troops.”
The shootings happened at the al Alam roundabout, around 1km from the aid compound, and began at around 4am, according to witnesses.
In the footage below, verified by Sky News, gunfire can be heard as hundreds of Palestinians walk southwards towards the aid compound.
The attack on Tuesday was the fourth to take place at al Alam roundabout, and the third in three days.
Two days earlier, on 1 June, at least 31 people were reportedly killed. Sky News has verified footage, too graphic to publish, that shows eight bodies scattered on the beach near al Alam.
Eye-witness testimonies suggest a similar cause – that some Palestinians strayed from the indicated route, or advanced towards the compound too early, and were shot by the IDF.
“I didn’t expect to see such a large number of people in the distribution area,” wrote one man in a social media post.
“Tanks were firing at the ground […] to try to scare people and prevent them from approaching al Alam, but people did not listen to it and began to move forward.”
The IDF says its troops did not fire at civilians near or within the aid compound, and has said reports to the contrary are false.
Later that day, the GHF released undated footage which it said showed that aid was distributed at the site without incident.
Sky News was not able to verify the footage, which had been edited, but it showed the inside of an aid compound rather than the roundabout area where the shooting is alleged to have taken place.
The Israeli military later published footage which it said showed gunmen shooting at people collecting aid.
On Tuesday, Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said this footage “shows some of Hamas’s tactics to actually try and prevent Gazan civilians from coming and collecting aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund collection centres and humanitarian distribution points”.
However, Sky News has confirmed the footage was taken in a Khan Younis neighbourhood far from any GHF distribution compound.
Why is the new aid system so dangerous?
Sky News has analysed video from the area, heard eye-witness testimony, combed social media and spoken to Gaza aid experts to understand what has been happening.
In an official GHF WhatsApp channel on Tuesday morning, Palestinians complained about the rush to secure packages inside the distribution centre and the failure of the guards to maintain order.
“Literally, in less than five minutes it was finished,” said one user who attended the Swedish Village site that morning.
“I went there four times and did not receive anything,” said another. “I entered at the appointed time and found people upset, having gone in two hours early. God knows how.”
Palestinians carry aid supplies they received from the U.S.-backed GHF, in the central Gaza Strip, 29 May. Pic: Reuters
Sam Rose, acting director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in Gaza, told Sky News the lack of order at the distribution sites means Palestinians have little incentive to obey the rules if that means they will be pushed to the back of the queue.
“People are just grabbing whatever food parcels they can get their hands on,” he says.
When UNRWA was in charge of distributing aid, Rose says, “we would do orderly distributions where a certain number of people are called and invited to receive their food every day at hundreds of distribution points”.
“When they receive that food, they were counted off, and those details were then shared with other food providers to ensure that food is distributed as equitably and as comprehensively as possible,” he says.
“We’re seeing nothing of that. We’re basically just seeing riots.”
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UNRWA director decries new Gaza aid system
Instructions have been chaotic and contradictory
Sky News analysis suggests that issues with aid distribution are being compounded by poor communication from the group organising the sites, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The group’s website has no information about opening times or where to find this information.
A Facebook page under the GHF’s name, marked as “verified” by Meta, appears to be the only official channel for updates.
It has just 3.8 thousand followers, with its posts regularly receiving fewer than 50 engagements.
Even those closely following the page to learn when and where to find aid rarely receive more than an hour’s notice.
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday this week, the opening of the Swedish Village site was announced after 4am, with the site due to open at 5am.
The instructions given to Palestinians are also confusing and contradictory.
In the post on Tuesday morning, for instance, the GHF instructed Palestinians that they were not allowed to proceed south past the al Alam roundabout until 5am.
The accompanying map indicated the point at which Palestinians were to stop, along with coordinates. However, this was not the al Alam roundabout, but a junction 740 metres earlier.
GHF flyer
It is not clear whether the IDF expected Palestinians to stop at the roundabout or at the indicated location.
Eyewitnesses later reported that the IDF shot and killed 27 Palestinians near the roundabout. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that those killed were shot “after moving beyond the designated safe corridor”.
The new system has only provided 13% of the necessary meals
Problems with crowds at the new aid distribution centres began on the first day they came into operation.
On 27 May, the Swedish Village aid compound was overwhelmed by a crowd of Palestinians seeking aid.
The crowd, which had been contained inside a fenced entrance area, was able to easily topple the fences and scale the sand berms which surround the compound.
Analysis of footage from that day shows that the fences do not appear to be fixed to concrete foundations, making them relatively flimsy.
“As long as two million people try to come every day, there will definitely be massacres,” said one user in the GHF WhatsApp group.
“Of course, the reason is due to the idea that there is only one point for receiving – other points must be opened.”
The UN estimates that half of Gaza’s 2.1 million people live in the north of the territory, yet the GHF has not set up any aid distribution sites in this region.
It has three sites in the far south of the Gaza Strip, and one in the central region. The latter has only opened once so far, for a single day.
UNRWA’s Sam Rose says this set-up makes it “inevitable” that “thousands upon thousands” of people would seek aid at the Swedish Village compound, which has been the only open compound in recent days.
“[The GHF] are simply not able to cope with the crowds, with the complete desperation of people who have absolutely no choice, if they want to get food for themselves and their family, but to go through this,” he says.
“Wave upon wave of people are seeking the only means to get food, and this is the inevitable consequence of it.
“No entity with any clue about distribution of aid would have proposed such an inhumane system.”
Palestinians open a box containing aid delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Pic: (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
This issue is compounded by the limited quantities of food available.
Even by its numbers, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is feeding only a fraction of Gaza’s population.
On Monday, the organisation said it had distributed 5.9 million meals during its first week in operation, or an average of 840,000 per day.
Box containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, May 29, 2025. Pic: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The organisation has previously said three meals are enough to feed one person per day, meaning over the past week, it has distributed enough meals to feed just 13% of Gaza’s population.
“It seems that the group’s goal is to make us look like a barbaric people,” said one Palestinian in the GHF WhatsApp.
“If there was a system, everyone would get what they want, and things would be fine.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Israel has begun a pause in fighting in three areas of Gaza to address the worsening humanitarian situation.
The IDF said it would halt fighting in three areas, Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City, from 10am to 8pm local time until further notice, beginning today.
In a statement, the IDF said it would also establish secure routes to help the UN and aid agencies deliver food and other supplies.
Palestinians carry aid supplies. Pic: Reuters
Israel’s announcement of what it calls a “tactical pause” in fighting comes after it resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza.
While the IDF reiterated claims there is “no starvation” in Gaza, it said the airdrops would include “seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organisations”.
Reports suggest aid has already been dropped into Gaza, with some injured after fighting broke out.
Pic: IDF
In other developments, Bob Geldof has accused Israeli authorities of “lying” about starvation in the territory – telling Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the IDF is “dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers”.
He told Sky News: “This month, up to now, 1,000 children or 1,000 people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”
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Bob Geldof: ‘Israeli authorities are lying’
Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza from the start of March. It then reopened aid centres with new restrictions in May, but said the supply had to be controlled to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas militants.
On Saturday, reports referencing US government data said there was no evidence Hamas had stolen aid from UN agencies.
The IDF’s international spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, described such reports as “fake news” and said Hamas thefts have been “well documented”.
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Malnourished girl: ‘The war changed me’
Airdrops ‘expensive and inefficient’
It comes as the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said as of Saturday, 127 people have died from malnutrition-related causes, including 85 children.
They include a five-month-old girl who weighed less than when she was born, with a doctor at Nasser Hospital describing it as a case of “severe, severe starvation”.
Health workers have also been weakened by hunger, with some putting themselves on IV drips so they can keep treating badly malnourished patients.
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Aid waiting to be distributed in Gaza
On Friday, Israel said it would allow foreign countries to airdrop aid into Gaza – but the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned this will not reverse “deepening starvation”.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini described the method as “expensive” and “inefficient”, adding: “It is a distraction and screensmoke. A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will.
“Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.”
UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt waiting for permission to enter Gaza, he added.
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PM says UK will help drop aid to Gaza
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned on Friday that 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, and said the lack of food and water on the ground was “unconscionable”.
The UN also estimates Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food, the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Read more:
What does recognising a Palestinian state mean?
British surgeon claims IDF ‘deliberately’ shooting boys
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians”, and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were “under examination”.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has also previously disputed these deaths were connected with its organisation’s operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: “We just want to feed Gazans. That’s the only thing that we want to do.”
Bob Geldof has accused the Israeli authorities of “lying” about starvation in Gaza – after Israel’s government spokesperson claimed there was “no famine caused by Israel”.
Earlier this week, David Mencer claimed that Hamas “starves its own people” while on The News Hour with Mark Austin, denying that Israel was responsible for mass hunger in Gaza.
Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Geldof said the claims are false.
Follow latest: Gaza aid airdrops a ‘smokescreen’ and ‘distraction’
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Israel challenged on starvation in Gaza
Sir Trevor asked the Live Aid organiser: “The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel, there’s a manmade shortage, but it’s been engineered by Hamas.
“I guess the Israelis would say we don’t see much criticism from your side of Hamas.”
In response, Geldof said “that’s a false equivalence” and “the Israeli authorities are lying”.
The singer then added: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.
“And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.
“This month, up to now, 1,000 children or 1,000 people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”
He added: “If the newsfeeds and social feeds weren’t so censored in Israel, I imagine that the Israeli people would not permit what has been done in their name.”
Asked about the UK government’s reaction, Geldof said it was “not enough”.
“This is a distraction thing about ‘let’s recognise the state ‘ – absolutely, it should have been done ages ago, but it’s not going to make any material difference,” he said, referring to calls for Sir Keir Starmer to recognise Palestine as a state.
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Gaza: ‘This is man-made starvation’
In the Sky News interview earlier this week, Mr Mencer added: “This suffering exists because Hamas made it so. Here are the facts. Aid is flowing, through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Millions of meals are being delivered directly to civilians.”
He also claimed that, since May, more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza carrying supplies.
It comes after MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished.
The charity said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels, and said that at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks.
MSF then described the lack of food and water on the ground “unconscionable”.
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Aid waiting to be distributed in Gaza
In a statement to Sky News, an Israeli security official said that “despite the false claims that are being spread, the State of Israel does not limit the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip”.
It then blamed other groups for issues delivering aid. They said: “Over the past month, we have witnessed a significant decline in the collection of aid from the crossings into the Gaza Strip by international aid organisations.
“The delays in collection by the UN and international organisations harm the situation and the food security of Gaza’s residents.”
Read more:
What does recognising a Palestinian state mean?
Surgeon claims IDF ‘deliberately’ shooting boys at Gaza aid points
Security shot at Palestinians at Gaza aid centre – ex-guard
The IDF also told Sky News: “The IDF allows the American civilian organisation (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.
“Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned.
“The aforementioned incidents are under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”
World
‘I still have hope’: Parents of IDF soldier taken hostage by Hamas fear he’ll be one of last freed
Yehuda searches through a downstairs room looking for a plastic bag containing the most precious of objects.
It’s a small, blackened Rubik’s Cube that belongs to Yehuda’s son Nimrod – one of 20 living Israeli hostages still being held by the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
It was found in Nimrod’s burnt-out tank after the October 7th attacks.
“He likes PlayStation and Rubik’s Cube,” says Nimrod’s mother, Vicky.
“They found the Rubik’s Cube in the tank. It was complete but a little bit dark and they brought it back to us.”
Vicky Cohen
We spoke to Nimrod’s parents Yehuda and Vicky about the emotional rollercoaster hostage families in Israel are going through – as hope rises and fades of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
“I still have hope that maybe I will see Nimrod again,” says Vicky.
“It almost breaks my heart because I still had expectation,” she says – in spite of the latest failure to find resolution in talks between Israel and Hamas in Doha.
“But I still have hope that maybe something good will happen,” she says.
Nimrod’s charred Rubik’s Cube
Vicky says: “We heard [during] the last weeks, President Trump saying we will hear about a ceasefire soon – next week – in a few days.
“We heard our prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] say visiting Washington and meeting Trump was very successful – and heard members of the coalition talking about our prime minister eventually understanding he needs to end the war. But until now nothing.”
The delegation coming back to Israel doesn’t mean a total collapse of ceasefire talks, but US envoy Steve Witkoff said the response to the latest ceasefire proposals by Hamas showed “a lack of desire”.
And so the rollercoaster of emotion for the hostage families continues.
Middle East latest: Gaza aid airdrops a ‘smokescreen’
Nimrod
Nimrod’s father Yehuda Cohen said: “Of course it’s a disappointment but it’s not the first one. A long time ago I learned not to get my expectations up so the disappointment won’t be too deep.
“The solution is very simple – I’ve got it on my shirt – ceasefire and hostage deal. Meaning the only way to get all the hostages is ending the war.”
Nimrod’s father Yehuda
Yehuda shows us Nimrod’s bedroom at the family home. It’s exactly as it was when Nimrod left to return to his army duties a few days before the October 7 attacks.
Except in a corner, there’s a box of uniforms and personal possessions, including a wallet which Nimrod had left at his army outpost – all returned to the family by the IDF.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The IDF handed Nimrod’s parents a box of his possessions left at his army outpost
It’s just like the bedroom of any other teenager – Nimrod was 19 when he was kidnapped. But two birthdays have passed since then. Nimrod is 21 now – a milestone spent in captivity a few weeks ago.
It’s believed there are 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza – all male – and that Hamas is holding the bodies of 27 more hostages who have been killed.
Read more from Sky News:
Israel resumes airdrops into Gaza
Bob Geldof accuses Israel of ‘lying’
25% of children malnourished, charity says
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Starvation in Gaza continues
But even if a deal is agreed, the first phase is expected to secure the release of only half of the living hostages – and Nimrod’s parents say their son, as a soldier, is not likely to be one of the 10.
Yehuda says: “A partial deal means that the probability my son will be on that list is close to zero. So he’s going to be one of the last ones to be released, and that’s why we have to fight.”
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