Observations On The Methodology Of The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Massacres THIS DOCUMENT REFERS ONLY TO EVENTS BEFORE THE OCTOBER 2025 CEASEFIRE.
Summary The incidents of civilian casualties at and on the way to or from Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites have multiple causes.
A significant amount of the gunfire observed appears to be suppressive fire from man-portable or vehicle mounted machine guns intended to force aid seekers to remain in a particular area.
Deliberate targeting of aid seekers with rifles by individual soldiers has been observed.
Deliberate targeting of aid seekers with gun-armed drones has been reported.
Foreign private contractors have been observed targeting aid seekers deliberately using rifles.
Kinetic targeting of individuals not with the main group of aid seekers is commonly reported and may be standard operating procedure.
Violence between aid seekers has been reported.
Tank shelling has been reported and is likely to have occurred but no footage of detonations or injuries consistent with tank shelling have been verifiably observed so no conclusions can presently be drawn about its frequency or purpose. This does not discredit any account of their use, it is simply a consequence of the lack of information.
Introduction This document will use multiple sources including footage from the ground and first hand accounts gathered from social media and direct conversation with survivors to attempt to develop a preliminary understanding of the nature of the violence taking place at GHF aid sites. Due to the dynamic nature of the situation it is not currently possible to completely understand the methodology behind these events but it is the aim of this document to provide an evidence based hypothesis using what information is available.
First hand accounts have been anonymized for the safety of both the authors and survivors out of an abundance of caution. Because of this, the reader will be unable to verify some of these first hand sources so to aid the reader in interpreting the information anything that has only been reported by an anonymous source will be explicitly identified as such. Some interpretations of the footage will be subjective and this will also be mentioned when relevant. This document is not authoritative and does not claim to be. It is the sincere hope of the authors that it provides some clarity.
Suppressive fires as a method of controlling civilian movements
screenshot from https://x.com/UNOCHA/status/1950661472482382194
Footage that includes gunfire rarely shows direct automatic fire into crowds of aid seekers. Gunfire shown in footage can generally be characterized as fully automatic fire from fully automatic rifle calibre weapons systems at a distance of approximately between 300 and 1000 metres. Distances are approximated based on the time elapsed between the sound of the projectile breaking the sound barrier and the sound of the report from the gun firing which travels at the speed of sound. Because of this it is subjective and can be disregarded if the reader does not agree with the analysis. First hand accounts describe gunfire as coming from vehicles, naval assets, drones and infantry.
Bullets, rather than directly striking aid seekers either impact the ground near crowds of aid seekers or fly overhead. It would be easier for the individuals operating the weapons systems to simply fire into the crowds, so it can be inferred that this pattern is not random. It is possible that there is survivorship bias involved and direct fire into crowds does occur but is simply not captured on video, however this would result in a pattern of casualties that has not been observed in the available information.
Direct fire into crowds using fully automatic weapons systems would result in significantly more casualties than the already high numbers as well as a different pattern of injuries than what has been observed. Multiple thousands of individuals arrive at aid sites daily and if direct fire into crowds was standard operating procedure the casualty numbers would be astronomically higher than what has been observed.
A report titled “This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.” by Medicines Sans Frontieres states that injuries sustained at GHF sites are not consistent with accidental or indiscriminate fire, but are instead consistent with deliberate killings. This is corroborated by footage sources showing injuries from single gunshot wounds sustained by aid seekers as well as accounts and footage from former security contractors. First hand accounts (both those seen in the aforementioned report and those gathered by the authors) generally mention injuries sustained as having taken place during the period of heavy gunfire however, which may have implications for the nature of the direct targeting but does not necessarily indicate that the automatic fire and the targeted fire are the same. Individual aid seekers cannot reasonably be expected to distinguish between the sound of an infantryman’s rifle and a vehicle mounted machine gun.
More “conventional” riot control measures such as pepper spray, “stun grenades” (the meaning of this term is not entirely clear) and smoke have been reported to be in use by AP news, further indicating that resources are being expended towards controlling aid seekers through kinetic means. The available footage seems to indicate that less lethal tools like smoke are used when aid seekers are close to the aid site, but this cannot be considered a reliable conclusion, nor is it indicative of anything beyond the effective range of less lethal measures.
Given the above information, it is the opinion of this document that the bulk of the gunfire at least in the early phases of the aid seeker’s approach is suppressive fire designed to fix aid seekers in place. This hypothesis explains the trajectory of the gunfire seen in footage, as well as the discrepancy between the volume of fire and the number of casualties. Although suppressive fire does not technically aim to kill the target but rather to deny an area, it is still an application of lethal force and constitutes an attack on civilians.
This importantly does not deny the fact that individual aid seekers are hit by bullets from the suppressive fires. 7.62mm projectiles have been recovered from the bodies of aid seekers, and vehicle mounted machine guns as well as squad automatic weapons in Israeli use primarily fire the 7.62x51mm cartridge. Suppressive gunfire is still gunfire and it is very possible that anywhere between some and most of the casualties are caused by aid seekers “accidentally” being struck by suppressive gunfire.
Deliberate killings by Israeli forces and foreign security personnel A large proportion of fatal violence carried out by occupation forces at GHF sites appears to target individuals. It is not possible to determine whether this is the majority without more complete information, however it is possible to categorize certain incidents as deliberate. The use of unmanned systems such as drones can be assumed to be instances of deliberate killings. Instances of direct fire by infantry using rifles can be assumed to be deliberate killings. Instances where a single individual in a crowd is hit without that crowd also being suppressed can be assumed to be deliberate killings. This list does not cover all the possibilities, however it does cover what can reasonably be concluded by foreign observers with the current information.
According to multiple anonymous first hand accounts as well as the aforementioned MSF report, aid seekers who arrive early or leave too slowly at the GHF sites or who leave the main crowd of aid seekers (i.e. taking cover in a structure, trying to run away) are almost guaranteed to be either targeted with small arms or struck by unmanned systems. It is possible that the tank shelling that is mentioned in so many accounts is also related to the engagement of buildings where aid seekers are hiding, but this is conjecture.
First hand accounts frequently mention individuals being shot with single rounds, which is likely to be a result of deliberate killings by security personnel or possibly gun-armed drones. It is unclear how common this phenomenon actually is due to the bias inherent in any account, but it is worth acknowledging that it is commonly reported. Footage reviewed for this document reflects this, with one particularly notable clip showing a number of dead and dying individuals who appeared to have been shot mostly with single rounds on their way to the aid distribution site. The actual shooting was not recorded so it is impossible to determine the exact nature of the shooting(s).
Footage does exist of an American contractor allegedly shooting at least one Palestinian aid seeker. (https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1940712428171366692)
The gunfire was not caught on video but the audio indicates that the gunfire was semi-automatic rather than fully automatic. The gunshots were spaced farther apart than the cyclic rate of any weapons system in Israeli use. Regardless of the specific detail of how many times the trigger was pulled, the gunfire was still faster than the shooter could be reasonably expected to acquire targets, aim and make the decision to shoot so it can be assumed to be indiscriminate to at least a certain degree. It remains notable however that it was NOT automatic fire from a machine gun, but rather semi-automatic fire from an infantry rifle. The purpose of a normal rifle is not to suppress a target, that is the purpose of a (usually but not always higher calibre) squad automatic weapon, vehicle mounted machine gun or similar weapons system. This mostly rules out any argument that this was supposed to be suppression.
Earlier on in the same clip, an American contractor is heard saying “I got an IDF tank posted on the north-west corner now. I brought ‘em in and talked to them [unintelligible] …do a show of force”. The video cuts at this point and cuts back in as the same contractor says “I told them to hold there. I don’t want this to be too aggressive”. This explicit mention of the presence of tanks as a “show of force” is unique, and may shed some light on the reports of tank shelling. It is unclear why a “show of force” is necessary to control a crowd of desperate civilians.
Soldiers on foot at the aid sites appear to generally be positioned on or around dirt berms, which can be used as shooting and observation platforms. This gives the soldier a clear line of sight probably for some distance.
screenshot from https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1940712428171366692
It is almost certain that the vast majority of deliberate shootings come from individuals placed in these positions. Their official task is to maintain the security of the aid sites, so they may also play a part in the identification and targeting of individuals deemed suspicious for things like arriving too early/late, hiding, or running away.
Violence between aid seekers:
Violence between aid seekers is commonly reported by various sources, and footage does exist that appears to show instances of conflict between aid seekers. A complete analysis of the social and physical factors leading to this is significantly beyond the scope of this document so this section will exclusively focus on presenting a list of facts.
1. One piece of footage exists of bodies being cleared off of aid trucks after the aid had been collected.
2. Almost all footage of the actual collection of aid is extremely chaotic in nature.
3. The amount of aid provided is not consistent with the amount of aid seekers.
4. Physical altercations over aid have been reported by first hand sources, both anonymous sources and those available in the open source.
5. Violence between aid seekers is reported significantly less than any other kind of violence that occurs at aid sites.
6. One anonymous source stated that knives were used during one altercation at Zikim, however this is otherwise hard to confirm.
7. Violence between aid seekers does not appear to have been common before the establishment of the GHF.
SOURCES: https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1940712428171366692 https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-israel-gaza-contractors-aid-distribution-fe27f3ea83e06a09d66424eed7a5d56f https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/gazan-aid-seekers-sniped-in-the-head-at-ghf-distribution-center-witnesses-say/ https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/olga-cherevko-compares-ocha-vs-ghf-aid-distribution https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/casualties-from-ghf-gunfire-recovered-near-sds2-site-in-rafah https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/ghf-trucker-filmed-us-israeli-personnel-shooting-at-aid-seekers-had-to-clean-dead-bodies https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/teen-palestinian-witnessed-massacres-at-ghf-site-shot-and-blinded https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/idf-soldiers-footage-of-thousands-of-walking-dead-heading-to-a-ghf-site https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/aid-seekrs-being-shot-while-trying-to-reach-the-ghfs-netzarim-site https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/perilous-run-under-a-hail-of-israeli-gunfire-to-reach-the-netzarim-ghf-site https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/aid-trucks-enter-loaded-with-flour-and-leave-loaded-with-corpses https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/10-palestinians-killed-while-heading-to-the-ghf-netzarim-site https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/the-daily-deadly-quest-for-flour-in-gaza https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/un-convoy-documents-desperate-aid-seekers-being-shot-at https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/58-killed-by-israel-while-awaiting-entry-of-aid-through-zikim-northern-gaza https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/aid-truck-entering-through-zikim-being-looted-out-of-desperation https://tiktokgenocide.com/uploads/aid-seekers-take-cover-from-unending-gunfire-from-israeli-troops https://www.msf.org/not-aid-orchestrated-killing
