Rafah, Gaza – In Gaza, a new day of torment unfolded under the shadow of hunger and desperation. Thousands of Palestinians, many already weak from months of starvation, made the long trek—some walking over 10 kilometres from central and southern Gaza—to reach aid distribution points on the southwestern edge of Rafah.

This was the first major food distribution conducted not by the United Nation's historic agency UNRWA, but by a US private security contractor known as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose presence was enforced under Israeli pressure and opposed by the UN, who argued this system violates the principles of neutrality and humanitarian independence.

Instead of relief, the scene resembled a concentration camp.

Desperately seeking food, Palestinians were corralled into metal cages under the desert sun, forced to wait in unbearable heat with no toilets, no water, no shade, and no shared language with the American staff.

The air was thick with dust and sweat; people fainted from heat and suffocation. At least two collapsed from lack of oxygen, according to eyewitnesses. 

Chaos then erupted as hungry civilians broke through the fences meant to “organise” the crowd, storming the area to seize whatever supplies they could.

Khaled Abu Shawarib, 29, from Deir al-Balah refugee camp, described his 12-kilometre journey as an act of survival that ended in horror. “People were pushing inside cages. I saw a girl get trampled. American staff and Israeli soldiers opened fire when people broke through the barriers,” he told TRT World. “It wasn’t a distribution site, it was a battlefield for bread.”

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli Apache helicopters hovered overhead as the American team was quickly evacuated.

No paramedics were present. No security plan was evident. Just fences, sand, guns, and grief.

A test of endurance

The humanitarian conditions in Gaza have been deteriorating since the resumption of Israeli military offensives in March, after the breakdown of the second ceasefire. With UNRWA defunded and sidelined after accusations of bias toward Hamas—a charge many Palestinians dispute—the aid vacuum has grown dire. GHF’s chaotic debut has only deepened the despair.

Amina Al-Sallout, 42, came from her tent in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, carrying her child and praying for a bag of flour. “It was like being trapped in a metal oven. I fainted. I saw a young man bleeding from the head. No one helped,” she recalled. “The scorching sun turned Rafah’s sand into burning coals. People screamed not for food, but for air to breathe.”

Her husband is unwell; he suffers from kidney failure, forcing Al-Sallout to be the family’s main carer and breadwinner. “This wasn’t just a crowd seeking food,” she added, “it was a ritual of public humiliation for famine victims."

"Since when has food become a tool to humiliate and degrade people?"

Many compared this moment to a fall from a fragile but functioning past. “UNRWA wasn’t perfect,” said one man, “but it never humiliated us like this. There was order, there was a system. Today, people bled and died for food.”

Khaled Hajjaj, 45, from Qizan An-Najjar in northern Khan Younis, walked over 10 kilometres only to return home empty-handed. 

“There were no lists, no system. It was luck. Some got two boxes. Some got nothing. The American staff seemed to be learning on the job. It felt like we were being studied, not helped. Like lab rats,” he said.

Hajjaj, a father of five, is tired, but he continued with a heavy voice, “They don’t want to feed us; they want to break us. It's in the queue, in the waiting, and in your children’s eyes as they watch you beg. This isn’t aid; it’s a performance meant to show that 'civilisation still cares about humanity.' But it’s a lie no one believes.”

The people of Gaza are enduring not only war and famine but what many describe as a psychological and physical dismantling of their dignity. The images of civilians suffocating in cages under foreign management have triggered widespread outrage and fear.

“This isn’t about food anymore,” said Hajjaj. “It’s about what kind of humanity the world thinks we deserve.”

As the blockade continues and international bodies debate aid mechanisms, the situation in Gaza is slipping beyond crisis into collapse. The line between humanitarian aid and collective punishment has blurred. For those trapped inside Gaza, every grain of rice now comes at the cost of dignity and danger.