The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) attack on security officers and civilians, who were securing the passage of humanitarian aid trucks via Salah al-Deen Street, specifically between Deir al-Balah main entrance and al-Mazra’a School in southern Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The attack resulted in the killing and injury of several of them, while the IOF turned a blind eye to the armed looters.

At approximately 22:40 on Thursday, 22 May 2025, when about 15 armed looters set up an ambush for aid trucks at Deir al-Balah’s southern entrance in the central Gaza Strip. The thieves used waste trucks to block the road before opening heavy fire to loot the aid trucks. As aid security and protection personnel attempted to intervene, Israeli helicopters and drones suddenly and directly fired missiles at them, killing and injuring several on the spot.

It did not end there as the Israeli quadcopters opened fire on anyone who approached to provide aid to the injured, constituting a compounded crime deliberately aiming to kill the wounded and obstruct rescue operations. Fifteen minutes later, the quadcopters fired more missiles on the same site, targeting other people who gathered nearby trying to evacuate the wounded. Later, five dead bodies were recovered, and six wounded were transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

This heinous crime undoubtedly reveals that IOF not only starve and impose siege on Gazans but also pursue those who try to secure humanitarian aid entry and insist on protecting criminals and thieves. This act has occurred dozens of times before, underscoring that Israel’s announcement to resume limited humanitarian aid entry into the Gaza Strip does not indicate in any way its real intent to respond effectively to the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza; rather, it is a clear manipulative attempt to clean up its image before the international community and global public opinion.

By facilitating the looting of aid, turning a blind eye to armed thieves, and directly targeting committees securing aid, Israel aims to pave the way for the implementation of the new aid distribution mechanism. Under this mechanism, the aid will be distributed by private companies in specific areas, primarily Rafah, and under the direct supervision of the IOF. This is considered a calculated attempt by the IOF to manage the starvation process and use humanitarian aid as a tool to pressure Palestinians and forcibly push them toward those areas, as a prelude to forcibly displacing and uprooting Palestinians from their lands.

Moreover, the repeated targeting of protection and rescue teams, including ambulances and civilians rushing to help the wounded, also reflects a systematic policy aimed at perpetuating death, obstructing aid deliveries, and perpetuating insecurity and instability in areas already devastated by the genocide that has been ongoing for 20 consecutive months.

This escalation confirms that the IOF continue to exploit the humanitarian suffering of Palestinians to serve its military and political objectives, most notably to cover up the genocide Israel is committing against more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by imposing a strangulating siege, deliberate starvation, mass killings and forced displacement alongside the massive destruction of infrastructure and life essentials.

In light of the above, PCHR reiterates its urgent call to the international community to take immediate and decisive action to stop the ongoing brutal genocide against the Palestinians, ensure respect for international humanitarian law, and implement strict measures to guarantee the full and unconditional entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. It also calls for the immediate and permanent lifting of the illegal imposed siege on the Gaza Strip, the provision of full protection for humanitarian and relief personnel, and enabling international organizations, foremost among them the United Nations, to supervise the aid distribution process and ensure its neutrality.

PCHR calls on the countries supporting Palestine to take urgent action to request the expansion of the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ in response to the case brought by South Africa against Israel, to document the IOF’s ongoing violations of these measures, and to pressure for the establishment of a permanent UN monitoring mechanism over the entry and distribution of aid under the Court’s jurisdiction, free from the Israeli control.

PCHR also demands that the States Parties to the ICC put an end to the culture of impunity, fulfill their legal obligations to prosecute and hold accountable the Israeli war criminals against whom arrest warrants have been issued and bring them to international justice wherever they may be found, and impose political, economic, and military sanctions Israel.