Ahmed AlmallahiA new witness has come forward, providing further details on the mass killings of Palestinians who have been queuing for food aid at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites, where over 1,000 starving Palestinians have been shot dead while seeking aid.
The foundation, established with US and Israeli support to supersede the UN as the primary aid distributor in the besieged enclave, has faced increasing scrutiny since commencing its operations in May.
On Friday, US broadcaster CBS News aired the interview with a new whistleblower, identified only as "Mike," who was hired by an American subcontractor to drive aid trucks but ended up working inside Gaza at the GHF sites, where he secretly recorded videos of gunfire and said it was clear civilians were being targeted.
"It took me two or three days to realise that they were actually shooting at people," he told CBS News.
"They weren't shooting at combatants. It's indiscriminate."
He said both Israeli soldiers and American contractors fired from positions at the sites.
Mike described gruesome scenes, including being ordered to clean human remains near a food site after days of shootings.
"I was tasked with cleaning up the remains of animals and some humans… just put it in the back of a truck, which took everything away," he said.
He added that some American security contractors boasted about killings.
"They would often brag about how many people they've killed, or how many birds they'd shot… anything that was living," he said.
Death traps
CBS News verified his presence in Gaza with phone metadata and work records.
The witness said shootings occurred almost daily during his several weeks at GHF sites.
He added he has "never seen a crowd of people behave with such intensity and such desperation."
Asked why he was sharing his experience, he said, "It just wouldn't sit right with me if I didn't say something. These atrocities don't have to happen."
In response, the GHF rejected the allegations as "categorically false and utterly baseless."
The group said no civilians had been killed at or near its sites and criticised CBS News for refusing to share more details about the source.
The Israeli military denied deliberately targeting civilians but said it is investigating reports of harm.
The allegations echo those of another US whistleblower, retired Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Aguilar, who worked for a GHF subcontractor.
Aguilar described the aid points as "designed death traps," saying Israeli commanders directed deadly force against desperate civilians.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Aguilar recounted seeing a starving boy named Amir shot dead after collecting aid.
"He wasn't ISIS, he wasn’t a combatant. He was barefoot, starving, holding a small bag of rice, some lentils, a half bag of flour," Aguilar said.
Aguilar said that contractors were told explicitly: "Our client is the IDF."
He said every GHF distribution triggered mass casualties at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
"Every single time, there's an influx of wounded and dead. It’s grotesque," he said.
The Trump administration nevertheless approved $30 million for GHF in June, with the State Department calling its work “absolutely incredible.”
First Middle East famine
The new revelation comes as the United Nations has officially declared famine in Gaza, the first such declaration in the Middle East.
A UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released on Friday said more than half a million Palestinians are trapped in famine, marked by starvation, destitution and preventable deaths.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described it as "a man-made disaster, a moral indictment – and a failure of humanity itself," stressing that Israel, as the occupying power, has "unequivocal obligations under international law" to provide food and medicine.
UN agencies warned that famine conditions, already widespread in Gaza City, are expected to spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the coming weeks.
By the end of September, more than 640,000 people are projected to face "catastrophic" hunger, with over a million more in emergency conditions.
Malnutrition among children is accelerating at what UN agencies called "a catastrophic pace."
In July alone, more than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished – the highest monthly figure ever recorded.
Despite limited increases in food and aid shipments since July, UN officials say they remain vastly insufficient compared to need, with 98 percent of Gaza's cropland destroyed or inaccessible.
