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How two shocking stories from Gaza barely made global headlines [1]
['Walid El Houri']
Date: 2025-07-07
Two stories reported last week reveal some of the most harrowing war crimes of our time — yet they barely registered in global news cycles. In a world numbed by the normalization of suffering and impunity in Gaza, even revelations that should spark outrage and calls for accountability are met largely with indifference.
We were ‘ordered’ to shoot starving aid seekers
On June 24, Haaretz published a report detailing testimonies by Israeli soldiers who admitted they received explicit orders to open fire on Palestinians desperately trying to reach aid trucks in Gaza, describing it as a “killing field.”
According to the investigation, soldiers from multiple brigades said they were instructed to shoot anyone approaching the aid convoys without requiring that they pose a concrete threat.
One reservist serving in Gaza described it as a lawless space, confirming what human rights groups have warned about: “Gaza doesn’t interest anyone anymore, the loss of human life means nothing.”
Another officer confirmed: “It was pointless, they were just killed for nothing. This thing called killing innocent people, it’s been normalized.”
Another soldier explained: “These are areas where Palestinians are allowed to be, we’re the ones who moved closer and decided (they) endangered us.”
“So, for a contractor to make another 5,000 shekels and take down a house, it’s deemed acceptable to kill people who are only looking for food,” he added.
These chilling confessions come amid repeated attacks on crowds gathering around scarce humanitarian aid. Since Israel imposed a new, heavily militarized system of aid distribution earlier this year under the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — with aid convoys entering under Israeli army escort and often dumped in random locations — the phenomenon of “aid seekers massacres” has become a grim daily occurrence.
Over 743 Palestinians have been killed by Israel and 4,891 wounded in these massacres since the beginning of June, with more than 170 non-governmental organizations calling for the deadly scheme to be dismantled.
Addictive painkillers found in flour distributed to hungry Gazans
The second story is equally disturbing. On June 27, Gaza’s Government Media Office announced that laboratory tests on sacks of flour delivered via international aid shipments through the GHF found traces of oxycodone, a powerful and addictive opioid.
Local health authorities warned that the discovery of such substances in basic food staples could have devastating public health consequences in a population already weakened by malnutrition and trauma. Officials said further testing is underway to determine whether the contamination was accidental or deliberate. While independent verification remains pending, the mere allegation underscores the climate of profound mistrust and fear surrounding aid.
No major media outlets have extensively investigated these claims, and humanitarian agencies have yet to issue conclusive statements. Still, the incident adds to the layers of suffering imposed on a besieged population already struggling to survive under an air, land, and sea blockade.
A manufactured famine
On June 24, the United Nations Human Rights Office condemned the “weaponization of food in Gaza” as a war crime and called for the killings to “be promptly and impartially investigated,” and those responsible “held to account.”
Gaza has been under blockade by Israel — with Egyptian cooperation — since 2007, subjecting its 2.3 million residents to strict controls on goods, food, fuel, and medical supplies. The current genocidal war, which began in October 2023, has pushed this already dire situation into catastrophe.
UN agencies and human rights groups have repeatedly warned that Gaza is on the brink of — if not already — experiencing famine.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that “the entire population is expected to face Crisis or worse, acute food insecurity. This includes 470,000 people (22 percent of the population) in Catastrophe, over a million people (54 percent) in Emergency and the remaining half million (24 percent) in Crisis.”
As of early July, at least 66 children have died from starvation according to Amnesty International in what it described as the “continued use of starvation to inflict genocide,” though the real toll is feared to be significantly higher, given the collapse of the health system and lack of comprehensive monitoring.
Silence, impunity, and the erosion of outrage
That Israeli soldiers confessed to being ordered to shoot at starving people seeking food, or that flour given to desperate families possibly contained an addictive narcotic, should be front-page news worldwide. Yet global media coverage has been tepid regarding these stark illustrations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and there have been few — if any — meaningful international moves for investigations or accountability.
This muted international reaction is a testament to how deeply normalized the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza has become. As the blockade tightens, the bombs keep falling — with recent reports that Israeli army pilots dropped leftover bombs from Iran attacks on Gaza on their way back to their bases — and famine spreads, the world’s moral shock threshold seems to rise ever higher.
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[1] Url:
https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/07/how-two-shocking-stories-from-gaza-barely-made-global-headlines/
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