Report by Doctors Without Borders: Aid Distribution Centers of the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" Must Be Closed

SadaNews - Doctors Without Borders conducted an analysis of its medical data, patient testimonies, and direct medical evidence at its two clinics in Gaza, Palestine. The results revealed the directed and random violence practiced by Israeli forces and private American contractors against starving Palestinians at the food distribution sites managed by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Doctors Without Borders calls for the immediate dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's scheme; the restoration of the aid delivery mechanism coordinated by the United Nations; and urges governments, particularly the United States, as well as private sector donors, to suspend all financial and political support for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been shown to effectively turn its sites into death traps.

Doctors Without Borders released its latest report titled "This is Not Relief, but Systematic Killing," which documents the atrocities witnessed by the Doctors Without Borders team at two clinics that regularly received large numbers of mass casualties following violence at the sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates on behalf of Israel and the United States, militarizing food distribution. Between June 7 and July 24, 2025, we received 1,380 injured individuals, of whom 28 were fatalities, at the Médecins Sans Frontières clinics in Al-Mawasi and Al-Attar in southern Gaza, located near the distribution sites managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. During those seven weeks, our teams treated 71 children injured by gunfire, 25 of whom were under 15 years old. Faced with a lack of alternatives to find food, starving families often send teenage boys to these bloody sites, as they are often the only physically capable males in the family.

Among the patients was a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the abdomen with a bullet that passed completely through, and five young girls, one of whom was eight years old and was shot in the chest.

In this regard, the general director of Doctors Without Borders, Raquel Aiora, says, "Children have been shot in the chest while trying to obtain food. People have been trampled or choked during the rush. Entire crowds have been shot at distribution points. In nearly 54 years of Doctors Without Borders operations, we have rarely witnessed such levels of organized violence against unarmed civilians."

Aiora adds, "The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hides behind 'relief,' and its sites have become a field for brutal experimentation. It must be stopped immediately."

An initial analysis of gunshot injuries among patients arriving at the Al-Mawasi clinic indicated that 11 percent of gunshot injuries were to the head and neck, while 19 percent were in areas including the chest, abdomen, and back. Those arriving from the Khan Younis distribution center were more likely to come in with gunshot wounds to their lower limbs. These injuries exhibit distinctive patterns and extreme surgical precision, strongly indicating that they represent intentional targeting of individuals at and around the distribution sites, rather than simply incidental or random fire.

Mohammed Riyad Tabasi, a patient treated at the Doctors Without Borders Al-Mawasi clinic, says, "We are being slaughtered. I was hit perhaps 10 times. I saw with my own eyes about 20 corpses around me. They were all shot in the head and abdomen."

In May, Israeli authorities sought to dismantle the UN-led humanitarian response mechanism and replace it with a militarized food distribution plan managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. All four distribution sites managed by the foundation are located in areas under full Israeli military control and are "secured" by armed American private contractors. The Israeli and American governments have promoted the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as an "innovative solution," representing a response to their unproven allegations of aid theft in Gaza and unfounded accusations of UN failure. These sites are nothing more than a bloody scheme, reinforcing the starvation policy imposed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, which began on March 2 with the total siege imposed on the sector as part of ongoing genocide.

This scheme strips people of their dignity. Over seven weeks, Doctors Without Borders teams treated 196 injured patients following the chaotic stampede at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's distribution sites. Among the patients was a five-year-old child with severe head injuries, and a woman who died from choking, often due to the crush of the crowd.

Those who manage to secure any food rations at the sites often face the risk of violent looting and theft of aid by others suffering from starvation. Our medical teams were asked to add a new description to the patient records: patient beaten by others. This refers to individuals who were injured either due to the stampede among crowds or because they were beaten and robbed of their aid immediately after receiving it. This is a premeditated stripping of human dignity.

Eitor Spalgoyasakua, the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, says, "On August 1, the same day that the US special envoy to the Middle East visited the sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Mahmoud Jamal Al-Attar, a 15-year-old boy, was killed near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site in the Al-Shakoush area while trying to get food. He arrived at the Doctors Without Borders Al-Mawasi clinic after being shot in the chest."

Spalgoyasakua adds, "We are only treating a small fraction of the total number of killed and injured at these sites. The killing of children can only be described as a heinous crime. Despite the condemnations and calls to dismantle this institution, global inaction in the face of it is shocking."

Between July 27 and August 2, the Al-Mawasi and Al-Attar clinics of Doctors Without Borders provided treatment for 186 people injured by gunshots, fragments, or assaults and stab wounds sustained at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, two of whom died. On August 3, Doctors Without Borders clinics received three more wounded individuals, one of whom was shot in the neck and two in the head.