DaysofPal – The Palestinian Government Media Office in Gaza has confirmed that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed a massacre targeting starving civilians gathered at so-called “aid distribution centers” in Rafah, southern Gaza. The attack left 3 civilians dead, 46 injured, and 7 others missing.
In an official statement, the Media Office described the attack as yet another crime in the long and bloody record of the occupation. Civilians had gathered in what the occupation refers to as “buffer zones” to receive aid—desperately seeking food after enduring over 90 days of starvation due to the ongoing blockade.
The IOF, stationed in or near these zones, opened live fire on the crowd, many of whom had been summoned under the promise of aid. The Office expressed deep concern that this pattern may be repeated, risking even more deaths, injuries, and disappearances.
The statement described the event as a deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime, targeting civilians weakened by months of starvation and deprivation. With over 20 months of ongoing genocide, and near-total denial of food and medicine, the incident was framed as part of a larger strategy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, openly admitted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.
The Media Office stressed the failure of the “buffer zone” aid delivery model, citing field reports, Hebrew media coverage, and expert analysis. Heart-wrenching footage showed thousands of starving Palestinians storming the aid centers, only to be gunned down by IOF soldiers.
“This massacre is irrefutable evidence of the occupation’s failure to manage the humanitarian disaster it has deliberately created,” the statement read. It pointed to a systematic policy of siege, starvation, bombardment, and destruction, which meets the criteria for genocide under Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The statement concluded:
“The creation of buffer ghettos and forced collection points amid threats of death and starvation does not represent humanitarian concern. It is instead a form of racist political engineering, designed to dismantle Palestinian society, deepen its suffering, and provide a façade of humanitarian legitimacy for the occupation’s military and security agendas.”
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