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News Analysis
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot Palestinians near an Israel-backed food site. On Sunday, they fired at people gathering near a U.N. convoy. Both incidents were symptoms of broader problems.
July 21, 2025, 7:45 a.m. ET
Over the weekend, two deadly incidents on consecutive days highlighted how the two main ways of distributing food to the hungry in Gaza — one backed by Israel, the other involving the United Nations — both come with profound risk for Palestinian civilians.
In an incident on Saturday, Israeli soldiers opened fire on civilians moving chaotically toward food distribution sites run by Israel-backed private contractors in Israeli-controlled areas. In another incident on Sunday, Israeli soldiers opened fire on civilians rushing to seize aid from a convoy of food trucks sent by the United Nations toward areas controlled by Hamas.
Supporters of the Israel-backed system used the episode on Sunday to highlight the failures of the U.N.-led system. Those favoring the U.N. system said the killings on Saturday illustrated the failures of Israel’s approach.
Israel says it is necessary to put food distribution sites in areas beyond Hamas’s control in order to make it harder for both fighters from the militant group and civilian looters to steal supplies. Critics of that approach say it forces hungry civilians to cross Israeli military lines, putting them at greater risk.
Three broader dynamics highlight the problems associated with both approaches.
In both incidents over the weekend, the Israeli military used live fire to contain unrest, instead of using nonlethal forms of crowd control.
Civilians are also ready to risk death by Israeli gunfire to avoid death by starvation in Gaza, where food is scarce following Israel’s 80-day blockade between March and May.
In addition, after 22 months of war, there is no functional governing system in most of Gaza, with Hamas no longer providing social services or law enforcement in most of the territory.
Israel has decapitated Hamas’s leadership, demolished many government buildings and controls the majority of the land. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has repeatedly decided against creating a system of transitional governance — whether through formal military occupation or the empowerment of Palestinian alternatives to Hamas.
“There’s a blame game and everyone is looking at the technical details and about how the aid is distributed,” said Shira Efron, an expert on aid systems in Gaza at Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based research group.
“But the bigger issue is the lawlessness and the breakdown of governance,” she added. “After 22 months of war, it’s anarchy in Gaza. And without addressing the core issue of what should happen next in Gaza, there won’t be a solution.”
Responding to such criticism, Mr. Netanyahu has said that Hamas must be completely defeated before detailed postwar plans can begin. But his critics, including many in Israel, say that it is harder to defeat Hamas without planning for its replacement.
Patrick Kingsley is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
