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Haaretz claims orders
An article in Haaretz said IDF soldiers received orders to deliberately shoot unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza, describing it as "It's a field of massacre."
“'It's a field of slaughter': IDF soldiers were ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid”
The BFM report tied the claim to a wider pattern of fatalities at the margins of aid distribution, saying Gaza's Civil Defense reported 62 people killed on the day the article was published, including ten near a distribution center.
BFM also said the day before, 65 people had been killed, including seven waiting for humanitarian aid, and it described an Israeli humanitarian blockade imposed in early March that led to severe shortages of food and medicines.
BFM further reported that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its distributions in late May and that it relies on armed contractors to ensure the security of its centers.
In response to Haaretz, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement rejecting the accusations, with Netanyahu writing that "These are malicious lies designed to smear the IDF."
UN and medical groups
BFM reported that UN Secretary‑General Antonio Guterres said, "People are killed simply by trying to feed their families and themselves," adding that going to fetch food should never be a death sentence.
BFM said Israel denounced the UN position as aligning with Hamas and asserted that the Israeli army "never targets civilians."
The same BFM account said Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for the dismantling of the GHF and described it as "a sham of a food distribution that produces mass killings in a chain."
BFM quoted MSF Gaza emergency coordinator Aitor Zabalgogeaskoa describing four distribution sites as being surrounded by observation posts, earthen berms, and barbed wire, with a fenced entrance providing only a single access point.
BFM said MSF medical teams reported a sharp rise in gunshot injuries as distributions continued, and it linked the pattern to people being shot if they arrived too early, too late, or if crowds jumped over berms and barbed wire.
Accountability and legal fallout
Beyond the aid-distribution dispute, L'Humanité reported that Israel's Attorney General Itay Offir announced on Thursday, March 12, the dropping of charges against five soldiers accused of beating, electrocuting, and stabbing a Palestinian prisoner.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday categorically rejected a report in the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz, according to which Israeli soldiers would have received orders to shoot unarmed civilians waiting to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza”
L'Humanité said Offir's decision was justified because prosecutors judged that essential evidence was lacking, citing the victim's return to Gaza and procedural difficulty transferring investigative documents that infringed on defendants' right to a fair trial.
Sari Bashi of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel criticized the outcome, saying, "The Israeli military's attorney general has just given a blank check to his soldiers to rape, as long as the victim is Palestinian."
L'Humanité also reported that Suhad Bishara of Adalah denounced the decision, saying, "those who torture Palestinians face no risk of accountability."
L'Humanité further stated that Netanyahu welcomed the dropping of charges, saying, "The accusation of ritual murder... which has defamed Israel around the world in an unprecedented way, is now over."
