New Report: Israel Systematically Attacked Aid Workers

Fault Lines conducted more than 20 interviews with United Nations staff, aid workers, and former U.S. officials, who described the various ways in which Israel restricts aid from entering Gaza.

By Schuyler Mitchell, Drop Site

An investigation by the open-source research group Forensic Architecture, in partnership with Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines program, reveals new evidence that Israel has systematically and deliberately attacked aid workers and sites of humanitarian assistance in Gaza. The findings come as part of a harrowing 25-minute Fault Lines documentary, released today and titled “Starving Gaza.” You can watch the film here.

Fault Lines conducted more than 20 interviews with United Nations staff, aid workers, and former U.S. officials, who described the various ways in which Israel restricts aid from entering Gaza. Stacy Gilbert, an official who worked at the State Department for more than 20 years, resigned in May after the Biden administration released a report stating that Israel was not blocking humanitarian assistance. She spoke at length with the Fault Lines team, calling that determination “patently, demonstrably false.”

When aid does make it into Gaza, Israel also creates deadly obstacles for the civilians who need it. Data examined by Forensic Architecture and Fault Lines unearthed more than 40 attacks by Israel on people seeking aid, as well as attacks on key infrastructure for the distribution of food and medicine, including schools and bakeries.

“As we looked into more of these attacks, we started to see they were systematic in nature and not arbitrary,” Peter Polack, a researcher for Forensic Architecture, told Fault Lines.

Researchers geolocated and mapped videos of Palestinians in Gaza who had been targeted under similar circumstances. They found that the attacks were concentrated at locations where civilians would gather to receive aid. The consistency of these military attacks indicated they were intentional, according to researchers.