32 Palestinians shot dead trying to reach US group's food distribution sites, Gaza authorities say
Source: AP
By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
Updated 4:11 AM CDT, July 19, 2025
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Israeli troops opened fire Saturday toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group in southern Gaza, killing at least 32 people, according to witnesses and hospital officials.
The shootings occurred near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which launched operations in May. The U.S. and Israel seek to replace the traditional U.N.-led aid distribution system in Gaza, asserting that Hamas militants siphon off supplies. The U.N. denies the allegation.
While the GHF says it has distributed millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, local health officials and witnesses say that Israeli army fire has killed hundreds of people as they try to reach the hubs. GHFs four sites are in military-controlled zones.
Israels army, which is not at the sites but secures them from a distance, says it only fires warning shots if crowds get too close to its forces. The military on Saturday said it fired warning shots near Gazas southernmost city of Rafah after a group of suspects approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance. It said the incident occurred overnight when the distribution site was closed.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-ghf-mideast-war-e3eead77195dc9c4dd07ac5fe640d00e

sad. 😪
Kid Berwyn
(21,351 posts)They set up a blind near the water hole and shoot the animals when they come in for a drink.
I'd say, "Same thing," but it's not. Palestinians are people who don't deserve to be murdered, like their neighbors occupiers the Israelis.
Irish_Dem
(72,487 posts)Bastards.
nowforever
(564 posts)Scott Alan Swaggerty
(43 posts)niyad
(125,303 posts)brush
(60,608 posts)with killing just a few Palestinians at a time as they know some will brave coming to the aid sites to get food because they are starving, and can therefore be picked off at leisure.
Such 'valiant' and patient war criminals.
Linda ladeewolf
(972 posts)Israel should be ashamed. They are becoming what they hated and feared.
Scott Alan Swaggerty
(43 posts)thought crime
(508 posts)I think many of us are ashamed. Our protests fall on deaf ears of leaders without moral authority. History will judge us.
AloeVera
(3,284 posts)Starting with banning the UN, reducing the number of aid hubs by 99% and continuing with every other negation of humanitaran principles especially the militarization of aid in the hands of the occupying army.
Everything the UN warned about has come true. But instead of admitting GHF is a total failure and a humanitarian catastrophe has unfolded - and allowing the UN to take over and save lives - I'm sure there are people very much celebrating its "success".
Because GHF was never more than another tool, a very important one, in the ethnic cleansing toolbox.
Beastly Boy
(13,053 posts)Bloodlust! Ethnic cleansing! Bait! Another tool in the ethnic cleansing toolbox!
Does anyone pay attention to the simple math anymore?
Even if accounts of the ubiquitous "local health officials and witnesses" are to be taken for granted as god's honest truth, even if the definition of ethnic cleansing is to be flushed down the toilet, even if the concept of baiting is to somehow account for kills half a mile away from the bait, even if the obvious absurdity of such baiting and the logistics involved in it is to be totally disregarded, how can one escape the reality of simple math?
The article states, and I quote: "While the GHF says it has distributed millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, local health officials and witnesses say that Israeli army fire has killed hundreds of people"
This amounts to roughly one death per 10,000 (ten thousand) meals distributed. A totally absurd and prohibitively lavish ratio. What kind of a reality defying ignoramus would come up such patently idiotic plan? What kind of a moron ethnic cleanser wannabe would approve of and implement such inanity? What kind of an inept hunter would not scoff at such wanton waist of bait?
Ridiculous!
AloeVera
(3,284 posts)
The ethnic cleansing is not in the killing of aid seekers, which is just plain murder.
It is in creating the "impossible-to-stay-alive-in" conditions that will make the ethnic cleansing unavoidable and "necessary".
Eventually, after the murder of many more food and water seekers and tent and rubble-dwellers, Palestinians will realize that to stay in Gaza is a death sentence. At which time they will decide to "voluntarily" leave.
That this was the plan all along and tools like the systematic, long-standing obstruction of aid, the demolition of all homes and infrastructure, and the deliberately non -humanitarian GHF were put in place to help carry out that plan - is what makes the coming "voluntary emigration" -- to no less than the hellholes of the world -- ethnic cleansing.
So glad I could clear that up for you.
Beastly Boy
(13,053 posts)your source is. By any chance, are these your own descriptions, and are you quoting yourself as a competent authority on the subject?
If you want to clear anything up, it would help to cite your sources. On the other hand, if you don't, putting anything in quotation marks doesn't add any credence to what you are saying, and sadly, I cannot rely on you clearing things up in this case.
Likewise, I cannot seriously address your latest reply unless you can make understandable references to what you are talking about. Is it still ethnic cleansing? Or is it some other unrelated creative theory? Are you its author, and if so, why is there such conspicuous absence of Israeli hostages or their captors in it? Why is there no mention of Hamas leaders who are on record bragging about creating... how did you put it? Oh yeah, "the "impossible-to-stay-alive-in" conditions" for Gazan civilians?
In fact, I noticed this conspicuous absence in the vast majority of your posts. How do they consistently end up playing no role in your theories?
Linda ladeewolf
(972 posts)Those considered undesirable by the current regime in whatever country is making the attempt. Israel wants all Palestinians removed, one way or another. Here in the United States our current regime is needlessly attacking any one that isnt white and a few that are if they dont fit the current image. However it is done it is wrong. Trump is going to blow billions of dollars getting rid of those that are here legally as well as the few that are criminals.
Beastly Boy
(13,053 posts)Last edited Mon Jul 21, 2025, 11:26 PM - Edit history (2)
Now I have no doubt that it is not the competent legal institutions that inform you about ethnic cleansing. Hate to disappoint you, but you will not find "removing undesirables" in any definition of the term other than your own. Terrorists are undesirable. Enemy combatants are undesirable. Removing them is not even a war crime. Wanting to remove all Palestinians, even if that was theoretically possible, is not ethnic cleansing. Being wrong is not ethnic cleansing. And certainly, changing the subject to Trump and the United States does not turn war into ethnic cleansing.
Add one more to the absurd responses in this thread.
Stargleamer
(2,463 posts)you frequently seem to express doubts here on DU on the accuracy of these reports of these slaughters.
Beastly Boy
(13,053 posts)There is a reason for it. While I find none of the available sources for casualty numbers in Gaza particularly trustworthy, my trust or mistrust doesn't matter anyway. It is the responses to the OP I am commenting on. The header of my post should have been sufficient to establish this.
Of course I doubt the accuracy of the numbers that presume all casualties in a war zone to be civilians and to be caused by only one belligerent side of the armed conflict between several warring armies. This proposition is ridiculous on its face, but it is an entirely different ridiculous proposition that I am talking about here.
In anticipation of your deflection I also stipulated that my post loses none of its cogency "even if accounts of the ubiquitous "local health officials and witnesses" are to be taken for granted as god's honest truth". So you may presume whatever you wish about the accuracy of the cited sources, and whatever your presumption may be, it will have no effect on the point I am making.
And, getting back to my point, it has to do with the absolute absurdity of conspiracy theories about IDF setting up a bait, or a trap, or a "kill zone", or otherwise creating conditions to commit ethnic cleansing by distributing millions of meals to Gazan civilians.
Stargleamer
(2,463 posts)that your main points/claims were in your view the absurdity of using the ratio of number of Palestinians killed to the number of meals served is real low and thus it strains credulity that the IDF would come up with such a plan if they are trying to maximize Palestinian deaths. A second main point or claim you make is it is absurd in your view to believe that the IDF was using the free food offered to Palestinians as bait to kill more Palestinians at a certain location, as to use your words there are logistical problems in doing that to maximum effect, as referenced by your claim that there were kills half a mile away.
However, when you write, "Even if accounts of the ubiquitous "local health officials and witnesses" are to be taken for granted as god's honest truth. . .", you are making a minor point or claim that it is at best uncertain or at most doubtful that such accounts can be trusted. Even if implies doubt or at least uncertainty. At least that's how I see it. And so i asked you what source do you trust, which you didn't address, because you are making other points rendering any answer of no consequence to your 2 main points or claims. But it is only natural when one reads your post to wonder what sources you trust given your uncertainty or doubt of the accuracy of such reports of these slaughters, even if it is just a minor point or claim.
But to get to one of your main points, you state that the article gives a ratio of number of Palestinians killed to the number of meals served is "one death per 10,000" meals served and then you proceed to use that "absurd" ratio to argue against claims you view as absurd, that the IDF would take a such a course of action given its low kill ratio. But the denominator in this ratio strikes me as off and faulty and misleading, given that each and every hungry Palestinian wasn't just having one meal out of every 10,000 that were served but probably had to go back numerous times to be fed sufficiently. If I and someone go out for dinner and we are each served 5 entrees and I eat 3 of them and my companion eats 2, and then I am struck dead by an IDF bomb while my companion lives to tell the tale, then 1 person died out of the 5 entrees that were served, (a 20% ratio) but there were only 2 people there at that restaurant and one died out of 2 (a 50% ratio), well, I think you should begin to see how faulty using number of meals served as a denominator. Given the uncertainty of the denominator, I don't think you can employ this ratio to argue that it is absurd that the IDF would come up with such a plan, given how little carnage it would yield, because this ratio gives you no clearcut evidence of how many were slaughtered per number of unique individuals who have eaten at such food distribution centers.
Beastly Boy
(13,053 posts)in the absurdity of the responses in this thread, which is the only point/claim I am making. There is no other.
And it is the absurdity of the responses that boggles my mind, "even if" one presumes absence of any doubt where it is rightfully called for. This is not a legitimate presumption, but I conceded it in order to avoid needless diversions into side issues that are irrelevant to my point/claim:
The point you choose to challenge has no other purpose than to illustrate how some sentiments I found in this thread defy elementary mathematics and are therefore absurd. It has no bearing on what the IDF may or may not do. It speaks directly to the content of certain posts in this thread.
Try as you may, the ratio of meals to kills (and I am using this comparison in a manner sufficiently distasteful to fit into a theme of absurd propositions) doesn't change with the circumstances that may or may not be responsible for it. And the numbers that make up this ratio are clearly stated in the cited article. My questions about the ignoramuses and ethnic cleanser wannabes who might conceivably find any sense in this equation are entirely rhetorical.
cabotnn22
(138 posts)Amazing how some of the people appalled have said nothing about the ACTUAL genocide going on in Syria - you know, the one where Christians and Druze are being slaughtered? As per usual, no Jew, no news.
red dog 1
(31,465 posts)AloeVera
(3,284 posts)this sociopath...is why all those children are dead.
I hope they haunt his nightmares and those of his fellow repuke sociopaths for the rest of their miserable days.
Polybius
(20,535 posts)
walkingman
(9,576 posts)FirstLight
(15,493 posts)I mean I know the UN has issued arrest warrants or whatever but Jesus isn't there something somebody can do? Of course I'm sure there's people saying that about us here in the United States.. so much evil and hatred and violence still in this world.
🥺😔
iemanja
(56,274 posts)Israel doesnt care. Netanyahu is already facing charges of genocide at the ICC.
Beastly Boy
(13,053 posts)I wonder why nobody thought of this yet.
cliffside
(1,047 posts)what could go wrong?
cliffside
(1,047 posts)the population is being pushed to those aid stations leaving a good portion of beachfront property in the north.
Plan to Indefinitely Displace Palestinians Threatens to Derail Gaza Truce
"An Israeli proposal to force much of Gazas population into a small enclave is now overshadowing negotiations over a truce."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-cease-fire.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE8.IUCA.1GfLrc3RhbpA&smid=url-share
Trump's Gaza 'Riviera' echoes Kushner waterfront property dreams
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-gaza-riviera-echoes-kushner-waterfront-property-dreams-2025-02-05/
"... But it was not the first time Trump has spoken of Gaza in terms of real estate investment opportunities. In October last year, he told a radio interviewer Gaza could be "better than Monaco" if rebuilt in the right way..."
Irish_Dem
(72,487 posts)Bastards.
cliffside
(1,047 posts)
Irish_Dem
(72,487 posts)We didn't know he meant heaven.
Trump and Netanyanu are sick bastards.
Scott Alan Swaggerty
(43 posts)InAbLuEsTaTe
(25,394 posts)Bluestocking
(177 posts)If you read the last paragraph it states that they fire warning shots if get to close to military and Gazans approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance.
Israels army, which is not at the sites but secures them from a distance, says it only fires warning shots if crowds get too close to its forces. The military on Saturday said it fired warning shots near Gazas southernmost city of Rafah after a group of suspects approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance.
Johnny2X2X
(23,078 posts)BiBi and Trump have a plan. To kill or eject every man, woman, and child in Gaza. They dont care which.
Nothing can save Gaza now. Its fate was sealed last November when Trump won.