Israel is facing explosive allegations that it is deliberately poisoning food aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip, in what Palestinian doctors are calling a form of biological warfare against a starving population. Laboratory tests cited by Dr. Muhammad Hammed, a Gaza-based physician, show aflatoxin B1—a cancer-causing mycotoxin—in beans and legumes distributed as aid, and oxycodone, a powerful narcotic, in flour bags.
X has deleted his tweet, but is is reproduced here:
Hammed insists the contamination is intentional, noting that Israel’s tight inspection regime ensures nothing enters Gaza without its approval. The charges come as hunger deaths mount, civilians are killed at militarized aid sites—sometimes by soldiers using silencers—and starvation emerges as a calculated weapon of war.
Weaponizing Humanitarian Relief
Dr. Hammed’s allegations have been amplified by Palestinian media and aid workers, who point to earlier incidents of Israel using booby-trapped food cans that exploded when opened—killing or maiming civilians. “There isn’t a line the Israelis haven’t crossed in Gaza,” said one aid coordinator. “From explosive cans to poisoned food, nothing is off limits.”
The claim of deliberate contamination comes amid mounting evidence that Gaza’s hunger crisis is not simply the result of wartime chaos but the product of deliberate state policy. Gaza’s Media Office reports that since late May, 1,655 Palestinians have been killed and 11,800 injured while attempting to obtain food. On August 5–6 alone, 87 people were killed trying to collect aid.
Silenced Gunfire at Aid Queues
The violence at distribution sites has taken a chilling turn. On August 1, Al Jazeera’s Anas Al-Sharif reported that Israeli soldiers used silencers on their weapons while shooting at civilians in Beit Lahia waiting for aid—an apparent attempt to inflict casualties without attracting immediate attention. Witnesses say several people fell before the crowd even realized they were under fire.
The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israeli-backed operation that has replaced UN-run centers in many areas, has been the site of repeated killings. Human rights groups say the GHF system has turned aid into a “death trap” policed by armed contractors and IDF snipers. UN experts have called for the GHF to be dismantled and for its executives to face accountability for gross human rights violations.
Airdrops: Mold, Sand, and Falling Deaths
With land crossings tightly restricted, foreign governments—including Canada, Germany, Belgium, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and Spain—have resorted to airdropping small parcels of food. But many Gazans say the practice is humiliating, ineffective, and dangerous.
On August 1, Palestinians filmed Spanish aid parcels covered in black mold. Days later, 31-year-old nurse Udai al-Qan—who had publicly denounced the airdrops as “a humiliation” and displayed a packet “filled with sand”—was killed when an aid box fell onto his tent shelter.
The Ministry of Interior says airdrops “cause more harm than good,” citing chaotic scrambles for packages, injuries from falling crates, and deaths from aid boxes landing on people. The “optimal way to provide relief,” it says, is to open the land crossings and allow sustained, large-scale deliveries.
Starvation by Design
Gaza requires 600 trucks of food and fuel daily to meet minimal needs, but over the past 10 days just 850 trucks entered—about 14% of that requirement. Meanwhile, 22,000 aid trucks remain stuck at Israeli-controlled crossings, many belonging to the UN and international NGOs. The Media Office accuses Israel of orchestrating “engineered chaos” by drip-feeding inadequate supplies while bombing food queues and allowing armed gangs to loot shipments.
The UN reports that 197 people—more than half of them children—have died from starvation since March. One of the most shocking cases this week was 17-year-old Ataf Abu Hatar, once a local sports champion, who died weighing just 55 pounds. His weight loss was so severe his body mass resembled that of a small child.
Hospitals Overwhelmed
Medical staff say they are overwhelmed by the hunger crisis layered atop mass-casualty bombing campaigns. Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian emergency physician working in Gaza, described losing an 18-month-old boy with a small arterial wound—treatable under normal circumstances—because there was no blood to give him. “We had to sit there watching a little boy who we knew was savable die in front of us,” Loubani said.
At Al-Shifa Hospital, occupancy rates have reached 300%, with anesthesia and blood supplies critically low. Doctors say many patients who could be saved are dying because surgeries cannot be performed in time.
Journalists as Victims of Hunger
The hunger crisis has also crippled Gaza’s press corps. Journalist and fact-checker Iman Hillis writes that months of surviving solely on lentils and salt have left her too weak to concentrate: “My fingers freeze and my brain refuses to connect one sentence to the next.” A task that once took her two hours now takes four days.
Resistance Fires Back
Amid this deepening humanitarian disaster, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees—the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades—fired a missile at an Israeli settlement 20 km inside occupied territory on August 9. While Israel did not confirm any damage, the brigades said the attack was a “strategic message” demonstrating their capability to strike far beyond Gaza’s borders.
The joint command of Palestinian resistance factions vowed “fierce resistance” to any new invasion, declaring that no power “on earth” could disarm them. They warned that any force aiding Israel’s occupation—whether foreign troops or local collaborators—would be treated as a legitimate target.
Growing Political Isolation for Israel
The allegations of aid poisoning and the mounting death toll at distribution sites are contributing to Israel’s political isolation. Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies, has announced a partial arms embargo, suspending exports linked to Gaza operations. Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it a “very significant move” given Germany’s historic support for Israel.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly confronted Netanyahu over images of starving children, telling him “you can’t fake starvation.” Netanyahu’s office dismissed the report as “fake news,” but similar accounts of tense exchanges with U.S. and European leaders have surfaced in recent months.
Biological Warfare Under International Law
If Dr. Hammed’s allegations are proven, the contamination of aid could constitute a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits the use of biological toxins to harm or kill. The deliberate introduction of narcotics or carcinogens into food intended for civilians would also be a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, amounting to a war crime.
International human rights lawyers say the allegations merit urgent, independent investigation. “Given Israel’s total control over what enters Gaza, the plausibility of these charges is high,” said one legal analyst. “The consequences—both legal and political—would be severe.”
A Calculated Strategy
The combined evidence—poisoned food, lethal aid queues, use of silencers, moldy or sand-filled parcels, and the strict throttling of supplies—points to a strategy where hunger is not collateral damage but a deliberate instrument of war. By controlling the flow of aid and the conditions under which it is accessed, Israel retains both military leverage and political messaging power.
As one Palestinian aid worker put it: “We are being starved in front of the whole world. Even the food they let in can be a weapon.”
