{"id":297588,"date":"2025-06-30T12:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=297588"},"modified":"2025-06-30T05:50:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:50:29","slug":"israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-at-unarmed-palestinians-waiting-for-aid-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/06\/israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-at-unarmed-palestinians-waiting-for-aid-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Soldiers Ordered to Shoot at Unarmed Palestinians Waiting for Aid: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gaza: People carrying sacks of flour walk along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on 17 Jun 2025.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Israeli military is managing aid distribution sites with live fire against crowds of unarmed civilians. Hundreds are dead.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

27 Jun 2025\u00a0<\/em>– Soldiers in the Israeli military have told the Israeli news outlet Haaretz<\/em><\/a> that aid distribution centers in Gaza<\/a> have become \u201ca killing field,\u201d with military leadership ordering soldiers to fire on unarmed Palestinians.<\/p>\n

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Massacres at aid distribution sites have become a common occurrence in recent weeks as the Israeli military ever so slightly loosened its blockade<\/a> against humanitarian aid into Gaza, and tasked itself with aid management under the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, estimates that 549 have been killed and several thousands injured near aid sites since late May, when the foundation first began operations. The United Nations estimated<\/a> that least 410 had been killed at aid sites over a similar time frame.<\/p>\n

Soldiers and officers in the Israeli Defense Forces<\/a> who spoke to Haaretz <\/em>paint a bleak picture of the scene, indicating the killings are the result of IDF policies targeting civilians in violation of international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day,\u201d one soldier said. \u201cThey\u2019re treated like a hostile force \u2014 no crowd-control measures, no tear gas \u2014 just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same soldier called the scene \u201ca killing field,\u201d adding that he was \u201cnot aware of a single instance of return fire. There\u2019s no enemy, no weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another enlisted officer acting as security for a GHF aid center said that \u201cit\u2019s neither ethically nor morally acceptable for people to have to reach, or fail to reach, a [humanitarian zone] under tank fire, snipers and mortar shells.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Israel\u2019s blockade against humanitarian aid, Palestinians in Gaza have been living in rubble under near famine conditions<\/a>. Despite the creation of the GHF, the United Nations issued a report<\/a> earlier this month indicating that its operations were insufficient, and it was imperative for an \u201cunlimited and unfettered supply of aid to enter\u201d Gaza.<\/p>\n

According to IDF sources who spoke to Haaretz, <\/em>the Israeli military is theoretically not supposed to be in direct contact with Palestinians at aid points. But as the over 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza become increasingly desperate for life-sustaining resources, their efforts to secure what limited amounts of food they can are being met with gunfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cA combat brigade doesn\u2019t have the tools to handle a civilian population in a war zone,\u201d an Israeli officer said. \u201cFiring mortars to keep hungry people away is neither professional nor humane. I know there are Hamas operatives among them, but there are also people who simply want to receive aid. As a country, we have a responsibility to ensure that happens safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

One officer, serving in the division of the notorious<\/a> IDF Brigadier General Yehuda Vach, said that it was Vach who instituted the policy of using live munitions to disperse crowds. \u201cThis is Vach\u2019s policy,\u201d they said, \u201cbut many of the commanders and soldiers accepted it without question. [The Palestinians] are not supposed to be there, so the idea is to make sure they clear out, even if they\u2019re just there for food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another soldier, a tank operator, told the publication that while technically tank fire was supposed to be used as a warning, \u201cfiring shells has just become standard practice. Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there\u2019s never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, as President Donald Trump attempted to enforce a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, reports emerged that dozens of Palestinians<\/a> \u2014 as many as 50 \u2014 as well as three aid workers, were killed by IDF gunfire while awaiting aid in Southern Gaza. Similar massacres are taking place on a near daily basis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk about using artillery on a junction full of civilians as if it\u2019s normal,\u201d one military source told Haaretz<\/em> of a meeting they attended with leaders of the IDF\u2019s Southern Command. \u201cAn entire conversation about whether it\u2019s right or wrong to use artillery, without even asking why that weapon was needed in the first place. What concerns everyone is whether it\u2019ll hurt our legitimacy to keep operating in Gaza. The moral aspect is practically nonexistent. No one stops to ask why dozens of civilians looking for food are being killed every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Markers of the callousness in the IDF\u2019s operations within Gaza continue to elicit shock after more than a year of brutality. One source who spoke to Haaretz<\/em> indicated that the militarized aid operation in his region of Gaza has a name: Operation Salted Fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cSalted Fish\u201d is a reference to an Israeli children\u2019s game similar to red light, green light.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it\u2019s not right. You feel it\u2019s not right \u2014 that the commanders here are taking the law into their own hands,\u201d one soldier said. \u201cBut Gaza is a parallel universe. You move on quickly. The truth is, most people don\u2019t even stop to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Nikki McCann Ram\u00edrez is a Politics Reporter at <\/em>Rolling Stone, where she covers breaking political news, far-right media, and misinformation. Prior to joining the team, Nikki was an Associate Research Director at the progressive watchdog <\/em>Media Matters for the US.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Original – rollingstone.com<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 Jun 2025\u00a0– The Israeli military is managing aid distribution sites with live fire against crowds of unarmed civilians. Hundreds are dead. Israeli soldiers told Haaretz that aid distribution centers in Gaza have become \u201ca killing field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":297589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,1854,101,100,1199,2242,87,3505,865,1966,1050,88,715,1147,427,99,965,886],"class_list":["post-297588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-famine","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-ghf","tag-genocide","tag-hunger","tag-imperialism","tag-israel","tag-massacre","tag-nazism","tag-palestine","tag-structural-violence","tag-war-crimes","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297590,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297588\/revisions\/297590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}