AMMAN, Jordan — An American paediatrician who recently volunteered in the Gaza Strip says injuries sustained by Palestinians at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution sites suggest a deliberate, patterned method of shooting by Israeli forces.
Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, who spent more than two weeks treating patients at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir el-Balah and al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said he witnessed repeated “mass casualty incidents” from shootings at food lines.
“The boys and young men came in with very specific injuries, almost like a daily pattern,” Yousaf said after returning to Amman. “On some days, we would see dozens shot in the legs or pelvic area. The next day, chest wounds. Another day, head and neck shots. It felt like whoever was firing had decided how they would maim or kill people that day.”
He described the shootings as age-indiscriminate, although most victims were males attempting to collect food for their families.
International medical groups have echoed concerns. Doctors Without Borders said last week that GHF-run food queues in famine-stricken Gaza had become sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanisation.” Human Rights Watch has called the shootings a breach of international law that could amount to war crimes.
On Tuesday alone, local medics reported at least 19 deaths and many more injuries at GHF sites. Since the foundation began operations in late May, official figures indicate at least 1,838 Palestinians have been killed and over 13,000 wounded while seeking aid.
Yousaf also noted a shift in violence when aid truck access temporarily increased. “When more food trucks were allowed in, people avoided the distribution sites, but then airstrikes intensified. We saw women, children, and the elderly among the casualties from bomb blasts,” he said.
He described Gaza as “a cage in which people are being marked for death” and accused Israel of blocking essential medical supplies, including baby formula and antibiotics, at border checkpoints.
“We knew that in any other environment we could have saved them,” Yousaf said. “But in Gaza’s conditions, we couldn’t give them the dignity and humanity they deserve.”
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