In the early hours of Tuesday morning, thousands of starving people made the long journey to south Gaza, many walking tens of kilometres in the scorching summer heat to reach a newly established aid distribution centre run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Among them was Walaa Abu Sa’da (35), mother of three children who decided to go to Rafah by herself.
“My children were on the verge of starving. No milk, no food, not even baby formula. They cried day and night, and I had to beg neighbours for scraps,” Abu Sa’da told Al Jazeera.
While the previous United Nations-led distribution network operated about 400 sites across the Strip, the GHF, guarded by armed private security contractors working for a US company, has set up only four “mega-sites” for Gaza’s population of about two million Palestinians.
Long walk south
Three of GHF’s distribution sites are in Rafah, situated within areas where the Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings. The fourth site is in Gaza City, near the boundary with Deir el-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering. None of the distribution points are located north of the Netzarim Corridor.
The UN and aid groups say the GHF does not abide by humanitarian principles, accusing it of weaponising aid and warning that it could serve to depopulate northern Gaza, as planned by the Israeli military.
