The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) unequivocally condemns the horrific killing committed by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) this afternoon, when an Israeli drone targeted a group of civilians and local security personnel supervising a community initiative to distribute flour at a symbolic price to residents in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

According to information collected by PCHR’s fieldworkers, the crime took place at approximately 1:20 PM on Thursday, June 26, 2025, near the al-Birka junction in the northern part of the city, next to al-Radwan Printing Press in Abu Samra neighborhood. A number of security personnel, in cooperation with local families, were gathering quantities of flour from merchants who were selling it at exorbitant prices, with the aim of reselling it to citizens at a reduced rate.

As the flour was being gathered inside a warehouse belonging to the Abu Samra family, and while dozens of citizens were gathered to purchase it, an Israeli drone fired a missile directly at the location, killing at least 18 civilians, including security personnel and civilians, and injuring approximately 22 others. Some of the injured are in critical condition and have been admitted to the intensive care unit at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

This crime is part of a systematic Israeli policy that targets starving civilians and routinely and unjustifiably strikes every effort to organize the delivery of aid—whether through community initiatives, local organizations, or security personnel, including local committees. This reflects a deliberate intent to create humanitarian chaos and impose systematic starvation on the besieged civilian population in the Gaza Strip. This is further confirmed by Israel’s continued use of aid distribution points under its control as death traps and killing fields for the starving.

PCHR considers this direct shelling of a food aid distribution site a blatant expression of the Israeli occupation’s policy of imposing starvation and using it as a weapon in its ongoing crime of genocide, alongside targeting civilians and obstructing relief efforts and the provision of basic necessities for the population under occupation.

PCHR reiterates its urgent call to the international community to take immediate action to stop the genocide, ensure effective protection for civilians, and secure safe corridors for humanitarian aid, including local initiatives that are striving to provide a minimum level of aid amidst the complete collapse of the humanitarian system.

It also demands the accountability and prosecution of the Israeli occupation leaders for this crime and all previous ones, which represent an escalating pattern of targeting civilians as part of the genocide and the forced starvation.