Since May 2025, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been the only Israel-approved aid distributor operating inside the besieged Gaza Strip, a region already battered by months of conflict and deprivation. But as the international community looked to the GHF for relief and hope, a series of harrowing eyewitness accounts and mounting casualty figures have cast a long shadow over the organization’s operations, raising disturbing questions about the true cost of aid delivery in a war zone.
According to a series of reports by CBS News and corroborated by other outlets, at least 2,036 Palestinians have been killed and more than 15,064 wounded while trying to collect food or queuing for assistance at GHF sites or along the routes leading to them since May. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that more than 1,800 Palestinians have died in their attempts to secure food, with at least 1,000 of these deaths occurring in the immediate vicinity of GHF distribution points. These staggering figures have prompted international outcry and calls for accountability, but the most chilling insights have come from those who witnessed the violence firsthand.
One such witness is a truck driver identified as “Mike,” whose real name is being withheld for his safety. Hired by a U.S. logistics company, Mike believed he would be driving aid trucks in Israel, only to discover he’d be working with the GHF inside Gaza. Over several weeks, averaging five days a week at the brightly lit aid sites, Mike secretly recorded video footage capturing the relentless sound of gunfire during aid distributions. Metadata from his cellphone and his verified work schedule confirm his presence at the sites during the reported incidents.
What Mike saw—and heard—shocked him to his core. He told CBS News, “It took me two or three days to realize that they were actually shooting at people, they weren’t shooting at combatants.” When pressed on whether the shots might have been warnings, he replied, “No, it’s indiscriminate.” Mike reported that both Israeli Defense Forces and American security contractors, hired through U.S. subcontractors to secure GHF sites, routinely opened fire on Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid. “There was not a single occasion I observed when there was no shooting,” he said, describing an atmosphere of perpetual gunfire and chaos.
The desperation of Gaza’s civilians was palpable. Mike recalled witnessing crowds gathering before dawn, hours ahead of the official opening times, in hopes of being among the first to secure food. “I’ve never seen a crowd of people behave with such intensity and such desperation,” he told CBS News. The scenes were so overwhelming that, at times, Mike was ordered to clean up human and animal remains near the distribution points—a task he described as deeply traumatizing. “I struggle to talk about it,” he admitted. “I even feel a bit clammy, and I can feel my chest beating harder. I just shut down really.”
The violence and trauma extended beyond the immediate chaos of gunfire. Palestinian NGO Addameer reported in early August that at least 54 Palestinians had disappeared after heading to GHF centers, with bodies often unrecovered due to what the group described as Israeli obstruction. “Bodies are piling up near aid sites, and in many cases, the [Israeli army] has bulldozed them without allowing proper recovery or identification,” Addameer stated. They also documented arrests of aid seekers, including children, further fueling concerns about the safety and dignity of those seeking help.
Mike’s testimony shed light on the culture among some American security guards at the GHF sites. He recounted feeling uncomfortable as these guards “would often boast about how many people they’ve killed, if they’ve managed to shoot animals... Or how many birds they’d shot because they were bragging about how good their aim was.” Such behavior, he said, only compounded the sense of impunity and disregard for human life that permeated the aid distribution process.
Despite the mounting evidence—including Mike’s secret recordings, corroborating metadata, and consistent accounts from other former U.S. security contractors—the GHF has categorically denied the allegations. In a statement to CBS News, the organization called the claims “categorically false” and “utterly baseless,” insisting their contractors do not fire on civilians and that “no one has been killed by gunfire at a GHF site, not even within sight of a foundation site.” They further stated they have “never encountered any situation involving unclaimed bodies” at or near their locations, and criticized CBS News for refusing to provide more detailed information about Mike.
The Israeli Defense Forces have also denied deliberately firing on Palestinian civilians, though they acknowledged to CBS News that they are investigating recent reports of harm being done to civilians approaching GHF sites. “Any deviation from the law will result in further action,” the IDF stated, but stopped short of admitting to any wrongdoing.
International organizations and human rights activists have not been convinced by these denials. The GHF-run distribution sites have been described as “death traps,” with several independent reports and video evidence suggesting that both Israeli troops and U.S. contractors have fired live rounds at starving Palestinians. The controversy has only deepened as reports and footage of human and animal remains near GHF relief centers have circulated widely in recent weeks.
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza drags on, the fate of those seeking aid at GHF sites remains precarious. For Mike, the decision to speak out was not taken lightly. Having returned home, he told CBS News that he could not remain silent. “It just wouldn’t sit right with me if I didn’t say something. These atrocities don’t have to happen.”
For many observers, Mike’s testimony and the grim statistics emerging from Gaza raise urgent questions about the conduct of aid operations in conflict zones and the responsibilities of those entrusted with the lives of the vulnerable. As investigations continue and the world watches, the hope is that greater transparency and accountability will follow, sparing Gaza’s civilians from further suffering at the hands of those meant to help them.
