Ramallah, August 19, 2025—Defense for Children International - Palestine collected testimonies from two children who have been seriously injured by the Israeli military while trying to obtain food from aid distribution areas, as part of Israel's ongoing genocidal campaign against Palestinians.
Mohammad: “I have … to obtain food for my eight siblings and myself”
“While I was in the waiting area by Wadi Gaza Bridge, we were monitored by an Israeli quadcopter. We waited there for half an hour for the aid delivery gate to open. As soon as the gate opened, we rushed towards the gate when five Israeli tanks appeared and opened fire directly at us, resulting in numerous martyrs and injuries," 15-year-old Mohammad Al-Hwaiti, Deir al-Balah city, told DCIP.
“I am an orphan, having lost both my parents. I have to go to the American aid point in Netzarim to obtain food for my eight siblings and myself,” said Mohammad.
Israeli forces targeted a group of starving Palestinians on July 27, 2025, while they made their way to the U.S.-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid station at the Netzarim Corridor in Central Gaza to collect food and supplies. This tragic incident led to the loss of 18 lives, including two children and left ten others injured, also including two children, among them Mohammad.
“I was struck in the head by an expanding bullet. For an hour, I remained under fire from the Israeli army, bleeding profusely. The aid gate finally opened at 11:30 a.m. After that, I crawled and stumbled, barely conscious, until I reached the Nuseirat intersection,” Mohammad added.
“I was taken to a local clinic and then transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, along with injured and killed children, including my friend Mohammad al-Shafi, who was critically injured. People took him for treatment, and he is currently receiving care. I still experience intense pain on the left side of my head, where the shrapnel struck.”
The Gaza Strip is experiencing famine conditions, with 1.95 million people, 93 percent of the population, classified in Crisis or worse, according to the latest report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. This includes 925,000 people in IPC Phases 4 (Emergency) and 5 (Catastrophe).
Mahmoud: “All I want is to eat.”
"We hadn't had bread for nearly a month, so I decided to go to the Zikim area, where everyone was saying that flour trucks would soon arrive. I left home with my cousin around 3 p.m. to wait for the aid and collect some,” 15-year-old Mahmoud Abu Shaiban told DCIP when an Israeli soldier shot him directly while he was attempting to get aid from the Zikim border area on July 27, 2025.
“This wasn't my first trip there. I had previously gone and managed to get a bag of flour, but I was struck on the head and needed six stitches. Despite that, I survived and got the bag.”
Mahmoud and his cousin walked from their home on Al-Ayoun Street until they reached the growing crowd. The trucks hadn’t arrived yet, so they spent the night in the Zikim area with hundreds of others, including children, the elderly, and women.
"Around 6 a.m., the trucks finally arrived. I decided to move forward to be among the first to receive flour that would be easier to manage once the crowd began to surge. Some people were already taking cover behind sand barriers or hiding among the dunes. That pushed me to keep going until I found shelter near the closest truck."
“Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and tanks were positioned just ahead of me. As I got closer to a certain point, one of the soldiers shot me directly in the abdomen. I fell into a hole, and no one was able to assist me until someone threw me a rope and pulled me out. I crawled on my stomach for about half an hour, bleeding and my cousin helped me.”
Mahmoud was taken first to Hamad Hospital, then to Sheikh Radwan Clinic. When the doctors assessed his condition as serious, he was transferred to the Baptist Hospital. When he reached the hospital, his blood level was three, and the doctors had to give me around four units of blood.
“I am feeling hungry and in pain. I haven't had bread in over a month. My wound isn't healing because I lack food. I require painkillers, but they only provide me with a dose in the morning and another at night due to a shortage,” he said.
“All I want is to eat. The doctor advised me to consume grapes and melons to improve my blood circulation and strength, but I can't even afford bread, let alone grapes."
"I saw countless children, some my age, others younger and older. Those who were injured or killed lay on the ground, abandoned, with no one to help or provide them first aid. Fortunately, I was with my cousin. If not for him, I would have bled out and died. There were many wounded and martyrs on the ground, alone, without their families, and most of them were unidentifiable," Mahmoud described the horrific incident he went through.
When asked if he would return to the aid distribution site to secure flour, Mahmoud said, “That thought doesn't cross my mind at all. I would have died. God will not forsake us.”
At least 235 malnutrition-related deaths had been recorded since October 2023, including 106 children. This includes 170 deaths that occurred after July 1, 2025, among them 45 children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, as of August 13, 2025.
Medical and humanitarian data reveal extremely dire indicators, with 40,000 infants under the age of one suffering from malnutrition and facing life-threatening risks, according to the Governmental Media Office in Gaza. An additional 250,000 children under five are experiencing severe, life-threatening malnutrition, while 1.2 million children under 18 are living in conditions of acute food insecurity.
The U.S.-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has become central to this deadly dynamic. Rather than providing humanitarian relief, GHF distribution hubs are controlled by Israeli forces and guarded by American private military contractors. These sites have become killing grounds. Since May 27, 2025, at least 1,373 Palestinians, including children, have been killed while trying to access food near GHF aid points. For Palestinian children like Mohammad and Mahmoud, the very act of seeking food means risking injury or death.
DCIP, in collaboration with Doctors Against Genocide, published a report highlighting how Israeli authorities have deliberately weaponized starvation as a method of genocide, leading to the preventable deaths and suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza with long-lasting impacts for generations to come. The report, titled “Starving a Generation: Israel’s Famine Campaign Targeting Palestinian Children in Gaza,” documents 33 cases of child starvation collected by DCIP’s field researchers in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023, and May 21, 2025.
