ICSPR: 325 Martyrs and 3,000 Injuries — The Result of Targeting Starving Civilians Waiting at U.S.-Israeli Aid Distribution Points

Date: June 16, 2025

Original Language: Arabic

Press Release

ICSPR: 325 Martyrs and 3,000 Injuries — The Result of Targeting Starving Civilians Waiting at U.S.-Israeli Aid Distribution Points

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Human Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the latest recurring crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces in coordination with U.S. security companies. These crimes involve the deliberate targeting of civilians waiting for aid at the four U.S. aid distribution centers in central and southern Gaza. These attacks have led to the martyrdom of 51 civilians on the morning of today and the early hours of Sunday, June 15. This brings the total death toll from attacks at U.S. aid distribution centers to 325 martyrs and more than 3,000 injuries.

These attacks occur under a deadly and humiliating aid distribution system, alongside the enforcement of a policy of collective starvation and a total blockade on over 2.3 million Palestinians. This has severely hindered the entry of humanitarian aid, causing acute food shortages and leaving the population in the midst of a devastating famine. Families are now unable to access food, putting the lives of thousands of children, patients, and the elderly at risk.

According to ICSPR’s monitoring, these crimes are not isolated or random but part of a deliberate, systematic, and ongoing policy pursued by Israeli occupation authorities for over 100 days. This includes closing all border crossings, preventing humanitarian aid from entering, and controlling aid quantities. A limited number of aid trucks have been allowed into scattered parts of Gaza, effectively forcing civilians to go to the U.S.-Israeli distribution centers.

Furthermore, even the limited aid convoys permitted to enter have not been sufficient and have often become targets themselves—either through direct Israeli military attacks or looting by armed groups operating under the protection of the occupation. These actions have deepened chaos and famine, as part of a parallel process of genocide that includes mass killings, forced displacement, targeting civilians, and destroying civilian infrastructure.

ICSPR has documented repeated incidents of mass killings of starving civilians. Each time civilians gather in long lines in front of the U.S.-Israeli aid centers, Israeli occupation drones—specifically quadcopters—open intense and direct fire on the crowds. These attacks have left hundreds dead and injured. Such crimes have become a grim routine, taking place in full view of the international community, which has yet to take serious or effective steps to stop the famine or ensure the safe and continuous flow of humanitarian aid.

The Israeli occupation aims to sow chaos, dismantle Gaza’s social structure, dominate the population, and use aid and starvation as tools in its strategy to render Gaza uninhabitable. The Strip faces destruction, massacres, thirst, disease outbreaks, chaos, hunger, the militarization of aid, and the suppression of international humanitarian organizations—actions that are in flagrant violation of all international laws and norms.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Human Rights (ICSPR) holds the Israeli occupation fully legally and criminally responsible for these crimes, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. ICSPR also condemns the continued closure of all crossings, and the prevention of entry for food, medicine, and water, as well as the obstruction of humanitarian organizations—particularly UNRWA.

These acts constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and are clear violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, particularly Articles (55) and (59), which obligate the occupying power to ensure the supply of food and relief to the civilian population in occupied territories and prohibit the use of siege and starvation as weapons.

Accordingly, ICSPR states the following:

• ICSPR calls on the international community, the United Nations, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, and the International Criminal Court to act urgently to halt the genocide being committed against civilians in the Gaza Strip and to ensure the opening of humanitarian corridors for the flow of aid.
• ICSPR demands immediate international pressure on the Israeli occupation to halt the current U.S.-backed aid distribution mechanism, and to guarantee the freedom of international humanitarian organizations to operate and deliver aid in dignity through UN agencies and competent international bodies.
• ICSPR calls for urgent international protection for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the imposition of sanctions and boycotts on the Israeli occupation state, and the prosecution of its leaders and partners before international courts.

End of Statement

International Commission to Support Palestinian Human Rights (ICSPR)