The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has condemned Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, calling them ‘inhuman acts’ that may amount to war crimes, and urging a swift, impartial investigation to hold those responsible accountable.
In a statement on Tuesday, Türk criticised the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for targeting civilians attempting to access humanitarian aid, highlighting the dire conditions in Gaza where residents are being forced to choose between ‘dying of hunger’ or ‘dying by bombs while trying to obtain food’.
He emphasised that the deliberate obstruction of food and essential supplies to civilians may constitute a war crime under international law, particularly when access is denied on such a scale.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israel has imposed a blockade on aid crossings for over 90 days, pushing 2.4 million Palestinians toward famine through a policy of deliberate starvation.
In a recent admission, the IOF acknowledged opening fire on Palestinians near an aid distribution point in the Al-Alam area of Rafah, citing alleged ‘suspicious movement’.
These centres, located in so-called ‘buffer zones’, have become scenes of chaos, where large crowds of starving civilians often face lethal force instead of food.
Recent days have seen repeated disruptions in aid deliveries, further exacerbating the humanitarian disaster.
Aid supplies reaching Gaza are described as meager and wholly insufficient to meet the overwhelming needs of the population.
Human rights and UN organisations have condemned the current distribution system, which forces desperate civilians to pass through iron cages lined with barbed wire – an image many observers have compared to Nazi ghettos in World War II Europe.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza – backed unconditionally by the United States – has resulted in over 179,000 Palestinians killed or wounded, most of them women and children.
More than 11,000 are missing, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
During the 24 hours up to Tuesday midday, hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the bodies of 35 civilians who were killed in fresh Israeli attacks, along with the bodies of five other people who were reported missing in previous attacks.
According to Gaza’s health ministry on Tuesday, 208 citizens were also injured following Israeli attacks.
Accordingly, a total of 4,240 people have been killed and 12,860 others have been injured since the Israeli occupation army resumed its genocidal war on Gaza on March 18, 2025.
The new fatalities increased the death toll from the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, which started on October 7, 2023, to 54,510 dead, the health ministry stated.
The ministry added that the total number of the wounded also surged to 124,901 people.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway to recover the bodies of more people who are still missing in different areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas Movement said that former US state department spokesman Matthew Miller made an ‘important confession’ when he affirmed in recent remarks that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and that the Biden administration attempted to conceal the truth about Israel’s practices.
‘Miller clearly revealed that he was not allowed to tell the truth while being in office and that he was forced to abide by the official US government narrative regarding the occupation’s practices,” Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday.
Hamas said that Miller’s remarks ‘exposed the successive US administration’s deep political complicity with the Israeli occupation state in its brutal violations.’
Hamas stressed that such a confession by a senior US official does not only condemn the Israeli occupation but also holds Washington directly responsible, as an active accomplice, for the war crimes and genocide being committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas added that this US complicity ‘is evident through funding, arming, providing political and diplomatic protection, and spreading misleading media coverage’.
The Movement called on the international community and its judicial bodies to hold accountable everyone involved and complicit in the war crimes in Gaza.
In press remarks to the Sky News Trump100 podcast on Monday, Miller, who spent months defending Israel’s conduct in the war on Gaza, acknowledged that the Israeli army had ‘without a doubt’ committed war crimes in the Palestinian territory.
He also said the former US administration ‘should have been tougher’ on Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and put him under more pressure to accept a ceasefire proposal.
The ex-spokesperson served as one of the public faces of former president Joe Biden’s staunch support for Israel as it killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and flattened much of the enclave.
Miller’s comments raise questions on why the Biden administration continued to arm Israel despite US laws restricting military aid to countries that commit violations of human rights and international law.
Meanwhile, the Hamas Movement has condemned the continued mistreatment and torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, describing these actions as an extension of Israel’s broader campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas highlighted what it called a ‘systematic policy of abuse’ against Palestinian prisoners, noting a growing number of disturbing reports and testimonies.
The latest, involving degrading conditions in Ofer prison, illustrates the extent of suffering endured by detainees in Israeli custody.
The statement warned of the grave and deteriorating humanitarian situation inside Israeli prisons, particularly as policies of deliberate medical neglect and inhumane torture escalate.
Detainees are being deprived of their most basic rights, including access to adequate healthcare, food, and sanitation.
‘These blatant violations of international law demand urgent intervention,’ Hamas asserted, calling on international human rights and humanitarian organisations to act decisively.
Hamas urged these bodies to hold ‘the Israeli fascist government accountable for state-sanctioned torture and killings inside detention facilities.’
Hamas also appealed to Palestinians in the West Bank and the 1948 occupied territories to escalate protests and acts of resistance in solidarity with Palestinian detainees.
The Movement emphasised the need to increase pressure on Israel to halt its practices and to ensure justice for those affected.
The statement concluded by describing the plight of Palestinian prisoners as inseparable from the wider campaign of genocide being carried out in Gaza and across all occupied Palestinian territories.
In addition, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence, Mahmoud Basal, has accused Israeli occupation forces (IOF) of deliberately targeting emergency services, and described the US aid distribution system in the besieged enclave as catastrophic and enabling theft, noting that it fails to address the humanitarian crisis triggered by Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Basal said that 115 members of the Civil Defence have been killed and more than 300 others wounded since the beginning of the Israeli military assault on Gaza in October 2023.
He added that 27 of the wounded remain in intensive care, with dozens requiring treatment that cannot be accessed in the Strip due to the blockade.
Basal said Israeli forces have directly targeted ambulances and fire trucks, destroying vehicles and killing first responders. ‘All of our facilities have been hit – 15 buildings completely destroyed, the rest partially,’ he said.
With most of its infrastructure in ruins, Gaza’s Civil Defence is operating under extreme limitations. Currently, it is left with just 13 fire trucks, two rescue vehicles, seven ambulances, and three rapid response units to serve the entire population of more than 2.3 million people.
‘These vehicles are barely functional, but they are all we have. Our teams are still responding despite the siege and the destruction,’ Basal added.
Basal also condemned the system through which aid is being distributed in Gaza, particularly US-sponsored assistance. ‘It’s chaotic, degrading, and unsupervised. It resembles military detention camps — people are herded into metal cages to receive a limited supply of food with no transparency or registration,’ he said.
He accused Israel of using starvation as a tool of war and alleged that distribution mechanisms are being exploited by ‘organised thieves’ working in collaboration with the occupation forces. ‘The process is unsafe, insufficient, and designed to humiliate,’ he said.
According to Basal, the number of distribution points in Gaza has dropped to just two for the entire territory – down from an already inadequate 10 points per city in previous months.
He also questioned US claims regarding aid volume. ‘The US ambassador said five million meals have been distributed. Simple maths tells us that with 2.3 million people in Gaza, that figure doesn’t add up – unless people were receiving two meals per day, which they absolutely are not,’ Basal said.