Stop the Israeli Aid Death Traps in Gaza

Killing of Palestinians at will by Israeli soldiers.

In the shadow of war, where hunger meets desperation, the people of Gaza are being forced to make an impossible choice: risk death for a bag of flour or starve in silence. Since October 7, 2024, Gaza’s Health Ministry reports over 57,000 Palestinians killed—a figure that Israel disputes as inflated, while independent researchers suggest it may be understated due to bodies still buried beneath rubble.

But the horror doesn’t end with airstrikes or collapsed buildings. It continues at the very places meant to offer relief. Aid distribution centers, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and coordinated with Israel, have become what UN officials call “death traps”. Hundreds have been killed while queuing for food, many shot by Israeli forces under open-fire policies that soldiers themselves have described as “a hunting game”.

The question is no longer whether these killings are accidental. It is whether they are systemic, deliberate, and part of a broader strategy to depopulate Gaza and break Palestinian resistance. When aid is weaponized—when food becomes bait and queues become kill zones—the moral collapse is complete.

This collapse is not confined to the battlefield. It echoes in classrooms. Reports and academic studies have long warned that Israeli school curricula often dehumanize Palestinians, portraying them as threats rather than neighbours. When children are taught that violence against Palestinians is justified or even heroic, the seeds of apartheid are sown early.

And apartheid is not just a metaphor. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and even the International Court of Justice have concluded that Israel’s policies amount to apartheid—a system of racial domination and segregation designed to privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians.

Yet despite global condemnation, Israel continues to act with impunity. Why? Because its powerful allies—particularly the United States—have failed to hold it accountable. Instead of demanding transparency and access for UN observers, they have helped build the very infrastructure that now facilitates death.

If this is the vision of “Greater Israel”—a land cleansed of Palestinians, fortified by walls and iron domes, and surrounded by fear as pursued by PM Netanyahu to deny Palestinians statehood—it is not a vision of peace. It is a blueprint for perpetual conflict.

True security cannot be built on the graves of the hungry. It cannot be sustained by denying the humanity of one’s neighbours. It must be rooted in equality, dignity, and shared prosperity. The earlier Israel and its mentors realize this, the better—for Palestinians, for Israelis, and for the region as a whole.