Israeli military officials admitted Monday that troops fired on Palestinians gathered at humanitarian aid distribution points in Gaza, including with artillery shells, even when civilians posed no threat, according to a report by Haaretz newspaper, while experts condemned the attacks, saying that they amount to a genocide.
The admission followed a report by Haaretz on Friday that cited testimonies from Israeli soldiers and officers who said they had received orders to open fire on starving civilians near aid centers.
Unnamed officials from the Israeli army’s Southern Command confirmed that civilians had been killed due to what they called “inaccurate and uncalculated” artillery fire, the newspaper reported.
The latest revelations come amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s months-long assault on Gaza, which has left tens of thousands dead and triggered a worsening humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
Rights groups and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that aid distribution in Gaza remains dangerous and chaotic, with many civilians killed while trying to access food and medical supplies.
They confirmed that "in the most serious incident involving shelling of civilians, between 30 and 40 people were targeted-some killed, others wounded to varying degrees.”
"The shelling was aimed at maintaining order at food distribution sites,” they added.
Despite the repeated deadly attacks on starving civilians, the officials asserted that the army has since shifted to "other methods.”
Since May 27, Israel and the U.S. have implemented a limited aid distribution plan in Gaza, bypassing the oversight of the U.N. and international agencies.
Israeli forces have been firing on Palestinians waiting in line for food, effectively forcing civilians to choose between starvation and the risk of being shot.
At the same time, Israel has kept Gaza’s border crossings tightly sealed since March 2, allowing only a few dozen trucks to enter, while aid organizations estimate the territory needs at least 500 trucks daily to meet basic needs.
Southern Command officials also told Haaretz there is "no famine” in Gaza and claimed that "the population is generally satisfied with the food distribution process.”
However, they acknowledged that "much of the food brought in via aid convoys has been looted by clans” due to what they described as "Hamas' lack of control over large parts of the Gaza Strip.”
They added that the Israeli army "does not act against those looting the convoys,” saying: "Its responsibility lies in securing the entry of aid into Gaza, not its delivery to distribution points.”
One unnamed soldier described the situation as "a complete collapse of the Israeli army’s moral standards in Gaza.”
Another soldier told Haaretz: "It’s a killing zone. In the area where I was stationed, between one and five (Palestinians) were killed daily. They were treated as hostile forces.”
He admitted to using heavy weapons such as machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars against ordinary Palestinians.
"We used live fire in every possible way. Once the center opened, we stopped shooting, and people knew they could approach. Our only means of communication was gunfire.”
The soldier added, "We fired early in the morning if someone tried to line up a few hundred meters away. Sometimes we attacked from close range. There was no threat to the Israeli forces.”
As of Sunday, Gaza's Government Media Office reported that at least 580 Palestinians had been killed and over 4,216 injured while attempting to access U.S.-Israeli-distributed aid near humanitarian centers since May 27. An additional 39 people have gone missing.
Meanwhile, the deliberate shooting and killing by Israeli soldiers of unarmed Palestinian civilians awaiting humanitarian aid at food distribution points in Gaza amounts to genocide, legal experts told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Commenting on a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealing that Israeli commanders ordered soldiers to deliberately open fire on Palestinians arriving at aid distribution points, experts said this was a continuation of Israel's crimes against Palestinians that have gone on for years.
Martin Shaw, a British sociologist and academic, said Israel has used heavy weapons against Palestinian civilians for the past 20 months, destroying the very foundations of life and making people completely dependent on humanitarian aid.
"They (Israel) block the aid, so that people starve. Then they block genuine humanitarian organizations from working in Gaza, making people dependent on a new U.S. body which provides inadequate food," Shaw said.
"Then they shoot and kill the starving as they try to get aid. It is difficult to imagine a clearer pattern of genocide."
Israel is acting under the guise of "humanitarian camouflage," Shaw said, referring to remarks by U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese.
"There is no evidence that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) seriously investigates war crimes by its soldiers," he said.
"War crimes are part of Israel's genocidal strategy to destroy the Palestinian people of Gaza, and any investigations are purely token," he noted.
On the shooting of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid, Luigi Daniele, associate professor at Italy's University of Molise, said: "These are, in my opinion, some of the most blatant war crimes we have seen in entire decades of armed conflicts. These are clearly direct attacks on civilians, as such intentional."
Noting that these crimes are opposed by the international community as a whole, Daniele stated: "So not only in The Hague they should be prosecuted, but also if these soldiers, these commanders travel elsewhere in the world, they should actually risk prosecution."
He added that Israel will lose the genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), saying: "My impression here is that the Israeli executive, and sadly, (most) sectors of its society, are so wrapped up in these exterminatory ideology dehumanizing Palestinians that they don't even realize how the rest of the world is horrified at watching what they are doing."
Daniele said the occupation Israel has carried out for nearly 60 years has now reached the extreme point of disregarding international law.
"Israel has created a labyrinth of suffering for the Palestinians," he said, adding that the obligation to prevent genocide arises not only after genocide is committed but when the risk of genocide becomes evident.
He said: "How can a third state ignore this when there have been not one, not two, but three provisional measures orders (by ICJ) in a row?"
"So, from this point of view, acting on the profile of state responsibility, isolating this fanatic messianic genocidal Israeli executive is in my opinion, at this point not only a moral duty of third states, but a very clear and well-defined legal duty," Daniele stated.
Ata Hindi, faculty member of Tulane University in the U.S., also emphasized that Israel must unconditionally withdraw from the occupied territories.
Stressing that the advisory opinion of the ICJ has already stated that Israel must unconditionally end the occupation, Hindi stated: "The occupation has to end and it must end without any conditions whatsoever."
Regarding the role of the US, he stated: "This is not strictly the Israelis. There is responsibility on the Americans - direct responsibility. It is not just aiding and abetting at this point; they are facilitating these types of violations."
"It's part of a genocide and to ensure the forced transfer of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip. This is what they want. This is what they've always wanted," he added.
Over 56,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
