Qassem al-Aqra’

A 20-year-old from Deir al-Balah, al-Aqra’ described living with starvation and risking being shot to get his family food at GHF centers:

I live with my parents and the rest of my family in Deir al-Balah. There’s 11 of us at home. I’m the eldest son and my father doesn’t work. Throughout the war we haven’t had to move, thank God, and we still live in our house, but the conditions here are very difficult. Since the start of the war there have been almost no quiet days, and no safe nights. We only felt safe during the ceasefire. We live in terror of the bombings and the destruction they cause. They’re bombing everything here – markets, tents, homes. Every day, more people are killed.

On top of these terrible conditions is the blockade. The crossings have been closed for three months straight now. What little produce is still available at the market is insanely expensive, and the blockade has also led to a lack of cash. We can’t even buy 1 kilo [~2.2 lbs] of flour because it’s so expensive. We’re barely holding on. We don’t have electricity, and there’s barely any water or food. We’ve become skeletons. The hunger is killing us.

When the aid distribution centers opened in the Gaza Strip, I decided to go there to get food. Later, I realized it was a death trap, because they fire live shots and shells at people there. I’ve also heard the Israeli army tries to recruit collaborators there.

The distribution centers are in the areas of al-‘Alam, a-Shakush and a-Tineh – all in western Rafah, about 15 kilometers from the city of Deir al-Balah. I walk there, or sometimes take a taxi if I have a bit of money. At the centers, there are military cranes with cameras on them. When we get there, we have to wait at a distance determined by the army until the soldiers signal we can go ahead to the center itself. Even when we manage to get in, only some of the people manage to grab packages because there isn’t enough for everyone. There are also gangs of thugs who steal food packages from the people who manage to get them, and collaborators the army allows in before everyone else. They steal the sugar, oil, Nutella spread and tahini from the packages and sell them afterwards for insane prices. 

On 9 June 2025, I went to a distribution center for the first time, the one in al-‘Alam. I thought it would open at 12:00 P.M. I left home with my neighbor at 6:00 A.M. and we got there around 8:00 A.M., but then we found it had opened at 6:00 A.M. and we were too late. So we decided to go to the one in a-Shakush, which was supposed to open at 10:00 A.M. We got there at around 9:00 A.M.

When we arrived, there were thousands of people there. We stopped walking about three kilometers from the center and waited for the army to signal we could get closer. Suddenly, bullets were fired at us. We ran and tried to hide behind a palm tree, but a tank came towards us and fired at us, so we ran from there, too. They fired at us from a tank as well as from a drone. Some of the people waiting with us managed to escape, but others got stuck in a kind of ditch. People were killed and injured. I saw people walking on bodies. Ambulances are not allowed into the area, so people carried away the wounded people and the bodies on donkey carts. That day, about 14 people were killed there, and about 100 injured. 

When I saw that, I was very scared. It was one of the most horrific things I’ve ever seen. I went home, and for the next three days I didn’t return to the distribution centers.

But today, 19 June 2025, I had to go again because we had no food at home. I set out at 7:00 A.M. and got to the center on a-Tineh street at 9:00 A.M. They fired at people waiting for aid today, too. When they opened the gate at 10:00 A.M., I went in along with everybody else waiting in line, and we walked the 4 kilometers from there to the center very quickly. It was first come, first served, and I managed to get a package. A lot of other people didn’t get anything, because there were only a few food packages.

In total, I’ve been to the aid distribution centers five times. Today was the first time I managed to get food. When I got home with the package, everyone was so happy. The previous times, when I didn’t succeed, it broke my heart. The aid distribution centers are full of killing, thuggery, theft and looting. I risk my life going there to feed my family, but I’ve only succeeded once. 

* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 19 June 2025