Those who armed with help and kill under his coverage must face justice | Israeli-Palestine conflict

On June 6, I decided for the first time to go to one of the distribution sites managed by what is known as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). On the long walk of 12 km on foot, I was accompanied by a few friends.

I went with a weak hope of getting food for my family. What we met had no trace of humanity. The scene we saw being played at the distribution center looked like a battlefield.

Israeli military vehicles stood alongside the GHF trucks, with a massive barrier in front of them. The occupation soldiers were stationed in high positions, their weapons pointed directly to the rally of Palestinian civilians.

At one point, two trucks arrived and threw help on the ground in a degrading way. Anyone who tried to approach was encountered by shots of Israeli soldiers. Finally, an Israeli soldier announced a speaker: “Now you can get the help” and the crowd has rushed to the boxes.

The men pushed and pushed, the children cried and the women trembled with fear and exhaustion. Just a small minority managed to put your hands on an aid. Some have tried to steal those who had done so. The vast majority – including me – came home empty -handed.

It was as if we sold our dignity for the remains. I saw it as a deliberate humiliation, a reshaping of the consciousness of our educated society and its transformation into a broken community.

I have gone twice on the GHF website.

During the third trip, I was accompanied by Nader, a 23 -year -old who had met during the trip. Nader lived near me and regularly goes to the GHF website.

Before the genocide, he worked as a guard in an orphanage east of Khan Younis. He did more than keep the shelter; He took care of the children, helped them in their daily life and gave them a feeling of security. Once his life is destroyed, he took responsibility for supporting his family and the children of his relatives.

I would see him come back from help of help covered with dust from head to toe, completely exhausted, but greeting me with a slight smile even when he managed to get anything.

On July 19, Nader and my 16 year old cousin Khaled prepared to go to the GHF site. I decided not to go there, after losing all hope in this place, fully convinced that it was a trap where the Gazans were killed daily under the banner of “humanitarian work”.

They said they would try to get there early to get food. Nader has never returned. Khaled returned injured with bursts of leg shells.

Israeli forces had opened fire and launched several shells on hungry civilians. Most martyrs were at the front of the line. Nader was touched by three bullets – in the chest, the abdomen and the leg – as well as bursts of shells of a shell that landed near him.

The murder of Nader was devastating for his family; He was their only supplier. They could not find any word to express their sorrow, only tears that fell on his lifeless body, while they were crying.

The death of Nader was recorded in the dark statistics of the Palestinians killed on aid distribution sites, which today amounts to 1,500 for the world, there were only a certain number; For me, he was a good man who had not injured anyone but always helped others; He was deprived of everything by the occupation, his house, his work, his dreams of traveling and working in design and video editing. His family is now dedicated to hunger.

Since GHF began operating in Gaza over two months ago, almost all major humanitarian organizations condemned it and its method of distributing aid.

On August 7, Doctors Without Borders published a report entitled: It is not an aid. This is organized murder. He provided medical evidence that civilians were deliberately targeted and described GHF sites as “death traps”.

A week earlier, Human Rights Watch has published a report indicating that what is happening is a war crime, noting that the systematic shooting of Palestinian civilians without justification is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. He confirmed that the distribution of the aid has turned into “regular blood baths”.

What makes GHF’s crimes even more horrible is that his leadership denies what is happening and embraces the story of the occupation. Its president, Johnny Moore, said that there was no famine in Gaza, ignoring the medical reports documenting the death of hunger children. He accused Hamas of having stolen aid and rejected reports on humanitarian situation as “the disinformation of Hamas”.

He even said that Hamas had deliberately injured Palestinian civilians to blame the Israeli army or GHF. However, the reality on the ground, witness by me in the first hand, is that the only people with weapons present on the GHF sites are their mercenary guards and their occupation soldiers. The Palestinians who come there are hungry civilians, their bones beyond extreme hunger.

GHF’s continuous operations have implications beyond the Gaza strip. Offer legitimacy to this organization instead of condemning and dismantling the risks of transforming humanitarian aid centers into killers everywhere.

I don’t want my friend’s death to be in vain. All those responsible for his murder, and all those who authorized the aid to be distributed by GHF, have funded it, or have given it false humanitarian coverage, must be held responsible. What we need is not only to stop these practices, but to continue all those who have transformed aid into a trap, used hunger as a weapon and contributed to the murder of innocent people.

Silence on these crimes is complicity, and silence today means that they will happen again tomorrow.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.