After the U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation accused Hamas of attacking two American employees at its distribution center, eyewitnesses and local journalists say the GHF fired grenades on the crowd first before aid-seekers threw them back at them.
July 8, 2025
MONDOWEISS
Palestinians carry food packages distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, June 16, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
On Saturday, July 5, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement that members of Hamas had thrown hand grenades at its employees, allegedly injuring two of its American staff members. The organization added that the assailants later fled into crowds of people at the aid distribution center located at al-Teena Street in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The GHF said it was “fully committed” to its alleged mission of “feeding the people of Gaza safely,” papering over the fact that aid massacres at its distribution centers have caused the deaths of over 751 people since the GHF started operating in Gaza.
The Israeli-backed and U.S.-run organization, tasked with distributing aid to Palestinians in Gaza instead of the UN, leveraged allegations of “credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food,” presenting Hamas as the impediment to Gazans receiving aid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished “a speedy recovery” to the American GHF employees wounded in the “terrorist incident.”
But according to testimony obtained by Mondoweiss from local journalists, Gaza officials, and eyewitnesses, the GHF’s account does not add up.
Targeted aid-seekers throw GHF grenades back at them, eyewitnesses say
Although the sites where GHF distributes aid are monitored by cameras from all angles, it did not publish any video or photo evidence to support its claim that Hamas members threw hand grenades at its staff, a local journalist told Mondoweiss. Had the story been true, the journalist said, such footage would have been widely broadcast.
Field testimony reveals another version of events.
Mondoweiss spoke with several journalists at the scene, some of whom shared what they witnessed on the condition of anonymity. One said that the incident was originally a fight between an aid-seeker and one of the local Palestinian workers employed by the GHF through private companies like al-Khuzundar or armed groups associated with Israeli-backed gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab.
“Employees of the GHF intervened to break up the fight by using pepper spray,” the journalist said. “When the situation escalated, armed employees of the organization threw stun grenades to disperse the crowd. However, the aid seekers picked up the grenade and threw it back at the American staff — their grenade was returned to them.”
The practice of throwing teargas canisters back at Israeli soldiers during demonstrations is common in the West Bank and Gaza, local journalists pointed out, and the GHF was treated like the [Israeli] occupation.
Amir Zaarab, 19, was one of the eyewitnesses at the site on Saturday. He said he saw what took place from a distance.
The American staff members first threw the grenades, Zaarab said, and some youths in the area picked them up and threw them back at the employees. “This followed a fight between residents seeking food and one of the Palestinian workers hired by the American organization through a private firm,” Zaarab said. “People paid little attention to who the workers were or to the distribution center itself. Their only concern was to return home alive and carry some food for their families.”
An official in the Gaza government’s security apparatus also told Mondoweiss that no confirmed or credible information from independent sources had been recorded to support the claim of Palestinians initiating the throwing of grenades at aid distribution centers. “These allegations — especially those circulated by the U.S. State Department — lack evidence from the ground and rely on biased narratives from the Israeli occupation, aimed at justifying continued killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians,” the security source said.
The source emphasized that American and Israeli media claims are politicized and meant to “tarnish the image” of Hamas. “They represent an effort to tarnish the image of the Palestinian resistance and justify crimes committed at aid distribution sites, which have come to be known as death traps.”
The security source added that Gaza security services have information indicating attempts to stir chaos and pin the blame on the resistance, creating a “pretext for the use of force and absolving the American organization of responsibility for the massacres committed.”
Separately, the Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement that the accusations against Hamas are a “blatant attempt to whitewash the image of an organization involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity—especially given that more than 130 international humanitarian organizations have refused to deal with it and have deemed it a front for Israeli military’s aims,” referring to the GHF.
The office called for an independent and impartial international investigation into all the crimes committed at the GHF’s sites, demanded the cessation of its operations, and urged the restoration of the central role of UN agencies operating under international humanitarian law principles, away from any political or military manipulation of aid.
On Saturday, July 5, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement that members of Hamas had thrown hand grenades at its employees, allegedly injuring two of its American staff members. The organization added that the assailants later fled into crowds of people at the aid distribution center located at al-Teena Street in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The GHF said it was “fully committed” to its alleged mission of “feeding the people of Gaza safely,” papering over the fact that aid massacres at its distribution centers have caused the deaths of over 751 people since the GHF started operating in Gaza.
The Israeli-backed and U.S.-run organization, tasked with distributing aid to Palestinians in Gaza instead of the UN, leveraged allegations of “credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food,” presenting Hamas as the impediment to Gazans receiving aid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished “a speedy recovery” to the American GHF employees wounded in the “terrorist incident.”
But according to testimony obtained by Mondoweiss from local journalists, Gaza officials, and eyewitnesses, the GHF’s account does not add up.
Targeted aid-seekers throw GHF grenades back at them, eyewitnesses say
Although the sites where GHF distributes aid are monitored by cameras from all angles, it did not publish any video or photo evidence to support its claim that Hamas members threw hand grenades at its staff, a local journalist told Mondoweiss. Had the story been true, the journalist said, such footage would have been widely broadcast.
Field testimony reveals another version of events.
Mondoweiss spoke with several journalists at the scene, some of whom shared what they witnessed on the condition of anonymity. One said that the incident was originally a fight between an aid-seeker and one of the local Palestinian workers employed by the GHF through private companies like al-Khuzundar or armed groups associated with Israeli-backed gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab.
“Employees of the GHF intervened to break up the fight by using pepper spray,” the journalist said. “When the situation escalated, armed employees of the organization threw stun grenades to disperse the crowd. However, the aid seekers picked up the grenade and threw it back at the American staff — their grenade was returned to them.”
The practice of throwing teargas canisters back at Israeli soldiers during demonstrations is common in the West Bank and Gaza, local journalists pointed out, and the GHF was treated like the [Israeli] occupation.
Amir Zaarab, 19, was one of the eyewitnesses at the site on Saturday. He said he saw what took place from a distance.
The American staff members first threw the grenades, Zaarab said, and some youths in the area picked them up and threw them back at the employees. “This followed a fight between residents seeking food and one of the Palestinian workers hired by the American organization through a private firm,” Zaarab said. “People paid little attention to who the workers were or to the distribution center itself. Their only concern was to return home alive and carry some food for their families.”
An official in the Gaza government’s security apparatus also told Mondoweiss that no confirmed or credible information from independent sources had been recorded to support the claim of Palestinians initiating the throwing of grenades at aid distribution centers. “These allegations — especially those circulated by the U.S. State Department — lack evidence from the ground and rely on biased narratives from the Israeli occupation, aimed at justifying continued killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians,” the security source said.
The source emphasized that American and Israeli media claims are politicized and meant to “tarnish the image” of Hamas. “They represent an effort to tarnish the image of the Palestinian resistance and justify crimes committed at aid distribution sites, which have come to be known as death traps.”
The security source added that Gaza security services have information indicating attempts to stir chaos and pin the blame on the resistance, creating a “pretext for the use of force and absolving the American organization of responsibility for the massacres committed.”
Separately, the Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement that the accusations against Hamas are a “blatant attempt to whitewash the image of an organization involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity—especially given that more than 130 international humanitarian organizations have refused to deal with it and have deemed it a front for Israeli military’s aims,” referring to the GHF.
The office called for an independent and impartial international investigation into all the crimes committed at the GHF’s sites, demanded the cessation of its operations, and urged the restoration of the central role of UN agencies operating under international humanitarian law principles, away from any political or military manipulation of aid.
No comments:
Post a Comment