“I have four young children. I had no food, nothing at all — not even a
piece of bread, no flour, nothing. They said there was an aid point by the
sea. We said we’d go get something for the kids.
You find [at the GHF distribution site] what seems like two million
people gathered around five pallets of food. They tell you to enter, you
go in, you grab what you can — maybe a can of fava beans, a can of
hummus. Then a minute later, gunfire comes from every direction.
Shells, gunfire — you can’t even hold onto your can of hummus. You
don’t know where the gunfire is coming from.
People were running over each other. You can’t imagine how people
were all running. You don’t know who is with whom — everyone just
wants to flee. I didn’t even realise I had been shot. While I was running,
I collapsed to the ground. Everyone is screaming. You can’t even tell
what they’re screaming about.
Whoever tells you it’s aid — this is not aid. Are we supposed to go get
food for the kids and die?”
Ahmed, 1 June 2025
“I’ve worked in many war zones and violent conflicts with MSF, but I
have never seen anything like this. I was prepared to treat war-wounded
patients — injuries from explosions or shelling — but I was not prepared
for this. This has been one of the hardest experiences of my life:
watching people severely injured or killed simply for trying to get
food. None of us were prepared for that.
What strikes me most is how desperate people must be. They know the
risks. They know the killings are ongoing. And still they walk through an
active conflict zone just for one packet of spaghetti and three bottles of
oil. Can you imagine the level of desperation that drives someone to do
that?
The violence we are seeing — it’s serious. Really, really serious. People
are being shot like animals. They’re not armed. They’re not soldiers.
They’re civilians carrying plastic bags, hoping to bring home some
flour or pasta. My question is: how high is the price they have to pay
for one bag of food?”
MSF medical coordinator, July 2025
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