Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Hani Hami, eighteen, never imagined that his daily research of flour would end with suffocating and being trampled on.
On Wednesday morning, he left his tent in the Al-Mawasi region of Khan Younis de Southern Gaza, where he was moved from Rafah with his seven brothers and sisters, heading for a very criticized GHF on a food distribution.
“We left at dawn and stayed among the thousands of people gathered. Around 5 am (02:00 GMT), they (American staff and the Israeli army) reported to open the door, and people rushed forward,” Hani told Al Jazera.
“The door was open, but people were packed in a very narrow corridor leading to this-only about seven meters wide,” he had trouble catching his breath after arriving at Nasser hospital out of breath and barely aware.
“I entered the crowd with difficulties. Suddenly, the American guards started to spray pepper gas and gas bombs, and people started to dab in the corridor,” he added.
“I collapsed. They trampled on my face.
“I felt like I was dying. I couldn’t go back or backwards. I collapsed. My face and my side were trampled on. No one could take me away. But God gave me a second chance,” said Hani.
He was precipitated unconscious at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on a tuk-tuk and initially placed next to the bodies of other deceased, some of suffocation, others of ball wounds.
“I was unconscious, I could neither see nor hear. I derived and went out. They put me next to the dead. I thought I was one of them. ”
Early Wednesday, 21 Palestinians were killed, including 15 by suffocation, while he was trying to collect food aid.
The incident occurred near a door managed by GHF in western Khan Younis. Dozens of others have been injured, some still in intensive care.
Hani is the eldest of eight brothers and sisters who live next to their uncle’s tent – their parents stay in Jordan, where they traveled for medical treatment a month before the start of the war.
“I have the impression of carrying a huge burden. We have undergone the pressure of movement and war without our parents and without any help from them,” he said.
Although he recognizes that the garnish of the help of GHF is a major daily risk, he adds: “Our intense hunger pushes me to go there every day.”
“There is no other choice. I have no money to buy too expensive products available on the markets. My only option is to try my luck with help distributions, ”explains the young man.
“Each time, an imminent death experience. There are shots, tanks, drones and attacks. What type of help distribution is it? We are exhausted, really exhausted.”
“We are slaughtered like animals”
Mohammed Abedin, 24, is now in a hospital bed with a leg injury after going to the same aid center in Khan Younis early on Wednesday.
For the first time, he said, he chose to turn around after feeling the danger of the crowd.
The young man, a student in the first year, arrived around 3 a.m. (00:00 GMT) on the distribution site, but he noticed that things seemed different. The same site had been closed for two days before the reopening.
“Before, we used to enter several access points, and the entrance was wide. But this time, we were channeled through a long narrow corridor, fenced with metal,” he said.
“When the doors opened, everyone rushed and people started falling under the feet.”
Mohammed described a terrifying scene of people crushed against metal barriers, shouting and breathing in help, because the pepper spray and gas bombs were fired by American guards and quadcopters above.
“I was standing near my cousin, looking at. We decided not to enter because of the overwhelming figures. I saw children cry, suffocate, men and young people trapped. No one could go forward or back. “
“The closed corridor, with crying gas bombs and people pushed through, have become a death trap,” he said.
Mohammed and his cousin tried to leave, but just as he thought he had made a wise choice, a quadcoptor shot him on the leg. His cousin was also injured.
“There are always random shots of quadcaptors, tanks or soldiers in the region. This time, I was unlucky,” he said. “But thank God, I survived.”
Mohammed reflects on the tragic situation in the face of the Palestinians, taken between famine and death, forced to risk their life of food. He supported his inappropriate family, from Rafah and now returned to Al-Mawasi.
“We dream daily to eat bread. I’m going to look for almost every day and I usually turn empty hands. But the days when I brought home a few pounds of flour looked like “an EID” (a celebration) for my family. “
Flour is the top priority for Mohammed, in particular with the headquarters of Gaza for four months, sealed borders and humanitarian and commercial goods blocked by Israel.
“The bread is what pushes me to risk death. There is no alternative,” he said, while waiting for surgery at Nasser hospital to remove a bullet from his leg. “Didn’t the world provide a safe channel for help delivery?”
“There is no system, no organized relief, no police or UN intervention. We are slaughtered like animals. If we do not die of hunger, we die in chaos and stamps.”
At the end of May 2025, the GHF launched its Aid distribution efforts in Gaza following an almost total blockade imposed by Israel, which is still in force and prevented the entry of humanitarian supplies.
According to United Nations figures, at least 798 Palestinians have since tried to reach or receive the help of the organization’s distribution points.
Generalized criticisms have come out of the United Nations agencies and rights for the defense of rights which argue that the operation is politicized and endangers civilians. The UN said that GHF operations violated humanitarian neutrality and are intrinsically dangerous, highlighted by hundreds of dead on their sites.
“Either we come back with flour, or we don’t come back at all”
Ziad Masad Mansour, 43, moved his wife and six children from the center of Gaza to Al-Mawasi to Khan Younis after destroying her from their house during the war, is another frequent visitor to the aid lines.
“I go at 10 a.m. and sleep on the sand like thousands of others. We endure dust and humiliation,” said Mansour, who was injured in the head on Wednesday.
“Sometimes I can get flour, sometimes a few cans. Other times I come back empty -handed. I even help others carry their bags in exchange for food. ”
“Yesterday, there was horrible overpapple: gas bombs, bullets, and we were well wrapped in the narrow corridor. I was trying to escape the crushing when I was shot in the head and lost conscience.”
Mansour is now going back to Nasser Hospital. “More than 20 people are dead today – for a bag of flour. What more can I say? “
