We look at the struggle of people in Gaza to avoid starvation when even aid carries the risk of death.
Starvation or bullets. That’s the grim choice facing many in Gaza today. Since late May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has led aid distribution, operating just four centres, compared with the UN’s former network of more than 400. At least 900 Palestinians have been killed in attacks at these GHF sites. Critics say GHF is nothing but a front for genocide, offering a deadly illusion of help. As Gaza’s people scrape for food, they face an impossible question: Risk the “death trap” for a few sacks of flour, or watch loved ones starve?
Presenter: Stefanie Dekker
Guests: Tamara Al Rifai – UNRWA director of external relations and communications Eman Hillis – Fact-checker and writer Afeef Nessouli – Journalist
A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order that blocks Los Angeles police officers from using rubber projectiles and other so-called less-lethal munitions against reporters covering protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
In a ruling made public Friday, U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera said a coalition of press rights organization successfully argued that a court injunction was necessary to protect journalists and others exercising their 1st Amendment rights.
The Los Angeles Press Club and investigative reporting network Status Coup filed suit last month to “force the LAPD to respect the constitutional and statutory rights of journalists engaged in reporting on these protests and inevitable protests to come.” The lawsuit challenged the “continuing abuse” by police of members of the media covering the demonstrations.
Vera’s order bars the department from using less-lethal munitions and other crowd-control tools such chemical irritants and flash-bang grenades “against journalists who are not posing a threat of imminent harm to an officer or another person.”
“On some occasions, LAPD officers purportedly targeted individuals who were clearly identifiable as members of the press,” Vera wrote.
The judge cited a June 8 incident at a demonstration downtown where an Australian reporter named Lauren Tomasi was wrapping up a report on live TV, dozens of feet away from a line of officers.
“No protesters are visible near her,” Vera wrote. “Despite this, an LAPD officer appears to aim at Tomasi, hitting her leg with a rubber bullet.”
The judge ruled that the LAPD cannot prohibit a journalist from entering or remaining in protest areas that have been closed off to the public while “gathering, receiving, or processing information.”
The order also forbids intentionally “assaulting, interfering with, or obstructing any journalist who is gathering, receiving, or processing information for communication to the public.”
Free press advocates who brought the suit praised the judge’s decision.
“The press weren’t accidentally hurt at the immigration protests; they were deliberately hurt,” said attorney Carol Sobel. “It’s astonishing to me that we are at the same point with LAPD over and over again.”
City lawyers could challenge the order before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has said he’s “very concerned” by instances of journalists being targeted by police munitions and vowed each incident would be investigated. He said he did not believe officers were aiming at reporters with less-lethal weapons.
“It is a target-specific munition,” he told reporters at a press briefing. “That’s not to say that it always hits the intended target, particularly in a dynamic situation.”
Vera’s order says that if the LAPD detains or arrests a person who identifies themselves as a journalist, that person may contact a supervisor and challenge their detention. The order also required the LAPD to report back to the court with details of officers being informed of the new rules. The judge set a preliminary injunction hearing for July 24, in which both sides will argue the merits of the case.
The lawsuit accuses the LAPD of flouting state laws passed in the wake of the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, when journalists were detained and injured by the LAPD while covering the unrest.
Apart from journalists, scores of protesters allege LAPD projectiles left them with severe bruises, lacerations and serious injuries.
Under the restrictions ordered by the judge Friday, police can target individuals with 40-millimeter rounds “only when the officer reasonably believes that a suspect is violently resisting arrest or poses an immediate threat of violence or physical harm.” Officers are also barred from targeting people in the head, torso and groin areas.
Times staff Writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.
Khan Younis, Gaza – Yazan Musleh, 13, lies in a hospital bed set up in a tent on the grounds of Nasser Hospital, his t-shirt pulled up to reveal a large white bandage on his thin torso.
Beside him, his father, Ihab, sits fretfully, still shaken by the bloodied dawn he and his sons lived through on Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people gathered to receive aid from the Israeli-conceived, and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Ihab, 40, had taken Yazan and his 15-year-old brother, Yazid, from their shelter in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, to the Rafah distribution point that the GHF operates.
They set out before dawn, walking for about an hour and a half to get to the al-Alam Roundabout roundabout in Rafah, near the distribution point.
Worried about the size of the gathering, hungry crowd, Ihab told his sons to wait for him on an elevation near the GHF gates.
“When I looked behind the hill, I saw several tanks not far away,” he says. “A feeling of dread came over me. What if they opened fire or something happened? I prayed for God’s protection.”
“I was terrified. I immediately looked towards my sons on the hill, and saw Yazan get shot and collapse,” he recalls.
Yazid, also sitting by his brother’s bedside, describes the moments of terror.
“We were standing on the hill as our father told us, and suddenly, the tanks opened fire.” He says. “My brother was hit in the stomach immediately.”
“I saw his intestines spilling out – it was horrifying. Then people helped rush him to the hospital in a donkey cart.”
Down by the gates, Ihab was struggling to reach his sons, trying to fight against the crowd while avoiding the shots still ringing out.
“Shooting was coming from every direction – from tanks, quadcopters.
“I saw people helping my son, eventually dragging him away.”
When Ihab managed to get away from the crowd, he ran as best as his malnourished body could manage, towards Nasser Hospital, in hopes that Yazan had been taken there. It felt like more than an hour, he says.
At Nasser Hospital, he learned that Yazan had been taken into surgery.
“I finally breathed. I thanked God he was still alive. I had completely lost hope,” he says.
Ihab, left, and Iman Musleh hover near their son, Yazan’s, hospital bed in the makeshift tent ward [Abdullah al-Attar/Al Jazeera]
The bullet that hit Yazan had torn through his intestines and spleen, and the doctors say he needs long and intensive treatment.
Sitting by him is his mother, Iman, who asks despairingly why anyone would shoot at people trying to get food. She and Ihab have five children, the youngest is a seven-month-old girl.
“I went to get food for my children. Hunger is killing us,” says Ihab.
“These aid distributions are known to be degrading and humiliating – but we’re desperate. I’m desperate because my children are starving, and even then, we are shot at?”
He had tried to get aid once before, he says, but both times he came away empty-handed.
“The first time, there was a deadly stampede. We barely escaped. This time, my son was wounded and again… nothing,” he says.
But he knows he cannot stop trying.
“I’ll risk it for my family. Either I come back alive or I die. I’m desperate. Hunger is killing us.”
The group distributing aid
The GHF, marketed as a neutral humanitarian mechanism, was launched in early 2025 and uses private US military contractors to “secure the distribution points”.
The GHF’s head, Jake Wood, resigned his post two days before distribution began, citing concerns that the foundation would not be impartial or act in accordance with humanitarian principles.
Five days later, on May 30, the Boston Consulting Group, which had been part of the planning and implementation of the foundation, withdrew its team and terminated its association with GHF.
International aid organisations have been unanimous in criticising the GHF and its methods.
‘We went looking for food for our hungry children’
Lying nearby in the tent ward is Mohammed al-Homs, 40, a father of five.
He had also headed out early on Sunday to try to get some food for his family, but moments after arriving at the al-Alam Roundabout roundabout, “I was shot twice – once in the leg and once in the mouth, shattering my front teeth,” he says.
“I collapsed, there were so many injured and dead around me. Everyone was screaming and running. Gunfire was coming from tanks, drones everywhere. It felt like the end of the world.”
He lay bleeding on the ground for what felt like an hour, as medical teams were not able to reach the injured.
Mohammed al-Homs, father of five, was shot in the mouth and leg [Abdullah al-Attar/Al Jazeera]
Then, word spread that the gates had opened for distribution, and those who could move started heading towards the centre.
It was only then that people could start moving the wounded to a nearby medical point.
“This was my first time trying to get aid, and it will be my last,” Mohammed says.
“I didn’t expect to survive. We went looking for food for our hungry children and were met with drones and tanks.”
‘I never imagined I’d face death for a box of food’
Also in the tent is someone who had succeeded in getting an aid package on the first day of distribution, on May 27, and decided to try again on Sunday: 36-year-old Khaled al-Lahham.
Al-Lahham is taking care of 10 family members: his parents, one aunt, and seven siblings, all of whom are displaced in the tents of al-Mawasi.
He had managed to catch a ride with five friends that morning, driving as close as they could to the al-Alam Roundabout roundabout.
Khaled al-Lahham went to the distribution point to try to secure food for the 10 family members he supports [Abdullah al-Attar/Al Jazeera]
As the distribution time approached, the six friends started getting out of the car.
“Suddenly, there was loud gunfire all around and people screaming. I felt a sharp pain in my leg – a bullet had passed clean through my thigh,” says Khaled, who did not make it fully out of the car.
“I was screaming and bleeding while people around me ran and screamed. The shooting was frenzied,” he adds. “There were tanks, quadcopters – fire came from every direction.”
Injured, Khaled could not get out of the car and huddled there until one of his friends managed to return and drive him to the hospital.
“I never imagined I’d face death for a box of food,” Khaled says.
“If they don’t want to distribute the aid, why do they lie to people and kill them like this?
“This is all deliberate. Humiliate us, degrade us, then kill us – for food?”
