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The perilous journey for Palestinians to get food in Gaza : NPR

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Palestinians walk back, carrying parcels collected from a food aid distribution point set up by the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on the Salaheddin road, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2025.

Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images


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Editor’s note: Anas Baba is NPR’s producer in the Gaza Strip. His report is a rare account by a journalist inside a new food distribution site that the United States and Israel helped establish in the Palestinian territory. Some of the images in this story are graphic.

NEAR THE NETZARIM CORRIDOR, Gaza Strip —  What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that I took myself.

I faced Israeli military fire, private U.S. contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations, and masked thieves — to get food from a group supported by the U.S. and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.

People carry boxes of relief supplies

People carry boxes of relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as displaced Palestinians return from an aid distribution center in the central Gaza Strip on May 29, 2025.

Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images


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Every day since the group began offering food on May 26, thousands of hungry Palestinians seeking food at these sites have been wounded and hundreds have been killed by Israeli military fire, according to Gaza health officials and international medical teams in Gaza. Many others have returned empty-handed after crowds grabbed all the food.

This is the story of what I witnessed from inside what GHF calls a “Secure Distribution Site.”

The United Nations calls the food program a “death trap.”

Why I took the risk to get food from the distribution site

Palestinians carry away sacks of food collected in the middle of the night from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on June 24, 2025.

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I have lost a third of my body weight after nearly 21 months of war in Gaza.

Months of an Israeli ban on food entering Gaza, and the current strict controls on food distribution, have fueled widespread hunger. Gaza health officials have reported scores of children who died of malnutrition.

People are pale and weak. They walk on the street supporting themselves by grabbing onto walls and fences, or they walk together in groups to support each other. Women and children faint in the street.

People, some carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distribution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

People, some carrying aid parcels, walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distribution point set up by the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images


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In recent months, I have eaten one small meal a day, rationing my own stock. Three weeks ago, I ran out of the basics — flour, lentils, cooking oil.

Street vendors sell items with skyrocketing prices I can no longer afford. Two pounds of potatoes cost around $100. I began buying watermelon peels and spoiled potatoes to pickle them.

 So we had only one choice: going to get food from GHF. But since day one, we have witnessed one thing that made all of us terrified: that every single day people are getting killed when they go to pick up food from GHF sites.

But hunger is a little bit of an addiction. Once it’s controlling your own mind, you cannot think straight. Once you feel that your stomach, your brain, your body, are craving something, you will not be afraid of anything. You will do anything to get food.

That’s why on Monday evening, June 23, my cousin and I left Gaza City and walked south along the coast for hours to risk trying to get food at a GHF site in central Gaza.

Packing empty sacks and knives for the journey

a knife and bag

A Palestinian tucks an empty sack under his belt to collect food at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food site, and carries a knife to protect from looters near the site, as hunger spreads lawlessness throughout Gaza.

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We packed a small backpack with water, bandages and a first aid kit. Others tuck an empty sack under their pants’ belt on one hip, and on the other, a knife, to protect themselves from looters and bandits, as hunger spreads lawlessness throughout Gaza.

Around midnight, large crowds began to gather along a wide road leading to the food site, waiting for some kind of sign that it is open. To reach the food site from that road, you have to pass through a military area near the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli military zone that during most times is a no-go zone for Palestinians. Crossing through the military zone before the food site is open draws Israeli military fire.

GHF doesn’t have fixed opening hours. It opens and closes the site often within minutes. Those who get there first get to grab the most food before it quickly runs out. Many edge to the front of the crowd before the site opens, despite the risk of Israeli soldiers perceiving them as a threat.

At 1:30 a.m. on June 24, a car raced down the road with food tied to its roof. The passengers yelled: GHF is open!

Crowds began running down the road toward the site, as cars and motorcycles raced each other. I saw people get crushed underneath cars.

Fenced entrance to GHF food site

The fenced entrance to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution site in central Gaza, open in the middle of the night on June 24, 2025.

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The crowd dodged bullets

When we reached closer to the site, we were surprised to find an Israeli tank. It had not yet withdrawn. The crowd was wrong: the food site was not yet open.

Every single person started to retreat and run. The tank immediately opened fire. My cousin and I threw ourselves to the ground. I heard the gunshots and people screaming that were injured. Others cried out: “My brother died,” “my friend died.”

Palestinians gather at a food distribution center in central Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on June 24, 2025.

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By now it was 1:48 a.m. Gunfire continued. It was pitch black. And the crowds were still waiting.

At 2 a.m. the gunfire stopped. We took it as a sign that the site had opened. I ran with the crowds toward the food distribution site, stepping over bodies.

In a statement, the Israeli military said people had gathered adjacent to Israeli IDF troops. “Reports of injured individuals as a result of IDF fire in the area were received. The details are under review,” it said.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted anonymous soldiers who said they were ordered to deliberately open fire at unarmed crowds on their way to the food sites. Israeli leaders denied the allegations, which NPR has not been able to independently confirm.

A mother guards her food with a knife in each hand

The food site was finally open.

I watched hundreds of people tear down a fence surrounding the site, trampling over it to reach boxes of food sitting on wooden pallets. I grabbed my cellphone and started to document the scene.

Thousands of people — a human blender — were swirling around the food boxes, fighting each other to take as much food as possible.

A woman in her 40s, sweaty and with an angry face, held a knife in each hand, with her young son by her side. She was screaming at everyone: do not touch my son or the food.

Law and order had totally vanished. It was the law of the jungle.

Getting food in Gaza didn’t used to be a free-for-all

People queue to receive humanitarian aid, supplied by the World Food Program, in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 18, 2024.

People queue to receive humanitarian aid, supplied by the World Food Program, in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 18, 2024.

Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images


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For most of the war, hundreds of aid distribution centers across Gaza would provide flour and basics. U.N. agencies would send a text message when it was your turn to pick up food, you waited hours in line, and everyone received their share.

Israel and the U.S. accused Hamas of diverting that aid, so they set up the GHF, saying it would keep Hamas away. But at the GHF site, I saw people I am certain were Hamas members, based on their dress, taking food for their families.

As I was filming, people came to me and said: look at your forehead. There were three green laser dots on my head: private armed U.S. contractors who were guarding the site were pointing their weapons at my head. One spoke through a loudspeaker, in English: “No filming allowed.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation defended its activities

GHF food site

Palestinians gather at a food distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on June 24, 2025.

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In a detailed email, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation responded to this reporting.

It said it understood concerns that the unpredictable opening times of its food sites could expose Palestinians to Israeli gunfire while approaching the sites.

But GHF asserted that it was seeking to prevent crowd surges. The group said it had urged the Israeli military to do more to ensure safe access, and the military said it has opened new roads and created new signage.

GHF said it is impossible to screen for individuals affiliated with Hamas, but said it was preventing Hamas from controlling the flow of aid. It said it prohibits Palestinians from filming U.S. contractors at the site because they have faced online threats.

GHF went on to say that Hamas militants have killed and threatened Palestinians working with the group. Hamas militants have also killed and wounded Palestinians en route to get food at their sites, GHF said in the email to NPR.

GHF says two private U.S. contractors working at another one of its food distribution sites were injured Saturday when two people threw grenades at them.

A group of 170 human rights and aid organizations called for this food distribution system to end.

Masked thieves stole food

At the distribution site, I pushed people aside and grabbed whatever food I found tossed on the ground under torn cardboard boxes: cooking oil, biscuits, a bag of rice that had been torn open and was mixed with sand from the ground. I didn’t care. It’s food. I can wash it.

My cousin got trampled on the ground by the crowds. I helped pull him up. But the real deal is getting out of the site, protecting your bags of food while pushing past a wall of thousands of people streaming in.

Leaving the site, we were walking in the street when we were stopped by four masked thieves holding big knives. They told us we had two options: give them half of our loot, or we would be harmed.

I offered to give them one item, but not half of what we had. One started to swing his knife. My cousin and I looked at each other, and then threw two bags of food at the thieves and ran away.

We brought back food for our relatives. I was left with about a week and a half of food for myself — eating one meal a day.

Bodies shrouded in empty food bags

The hospital ran out of shrouds so they used the food bags.

At the Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, the bodies of Palestinians killed while seeking to access a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food site were covered by the same empty food sacks they had brought with them in the hopes of filling them with food, on June 24, 2025.

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At 4:30 that morning, I went to the hospital to a scene of screaming and blood.

Hospital officials said more than 200 people had been wounded and 26 killed outside the same food site I had visited that very day.

Others have been killed at GHF’s three other sites in Gaza — the only major food distribution sites in Gaza today for a population of around 2.1 million people.

Palestinians wounded by Israeli military fire as they walked toward a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution center are treated at the Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza on June 24, 2025.

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Starving families who sent their loved ones to collect some food for them were now at the hospital with their wounded loved ones seeking treatment.

 With two bullets in the thighs, and another bullet in his arm, one young man was screaming in pain.

A mother, with her son, grieves over the body of her husband, who was shot by the Israeli military as he approached a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution center, at the Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza on June 24, 2025.

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A mother was grieving over her son, the only provider for his family, who had succeeded in snatching food from the GHF site once before — but now had returned as a dead body.

The hospital had run out of white shrouds to cover the deceased. The dead bodies lying on the hospital floor were covered by the same empty sacks — once filled with flour given out as international aid — that they had taken with them, in the hopes of filling them up with food.

Despite the daily killing and horrors for Palestinians seeking food from those sites, many still gamble with their lives to collect some food to bring back to their families — who wait for them, hungry, hoping they will return.

NPR’s Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.



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Treasury secretary says countries without trade deals will see tariffs ‘boomerang’ to April rates by Aug. 1

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WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the U.S. will revert to steep country-by-country tariff rates at the beginning of August, weeks after the tariff rate pause is set to expire.

“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on Aug. 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,” Bessent said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”

President Donald Trump had originally set a 90-day deadline — set to expire Wednesday — for countries to renegotiate the eye-watering tariff levels he laid out in his April 2 “Liberation Day” speech. He paused those rates a week later, while setting a new 90-day deadline to renegotiate them.

That deadline was set to expire Wednesday.

CNN host Dana Bash responded to Bessent on Sunday, saying, “There’s basically a new deadline,” prompting Bessent to push back.

“It’s not a new deadline. We are saying this is when it’s happening,” Bessent said. “If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.”

On Friday, Trump, too, referred to an Aug. 1 deadline, raising questions about whether the July 9 deadline still stands. A White House spokesperson did not provide a comment when asked to clarify whether the April 2 tariff rates would resume July 9 or Aug. 1.

The president has recently given shifting descriptions of how firm the July 9 deadline is, saying at the end of June, “We can extend it, we can shorten it,” only to double down on it several days later, saying he was not thinking about extending it.

Shortly after midnight Friday, Trump referred to an Aug. 1 timeline, telling reporters that the April 2 tariff rates would resume at the start of August.

Asked whether the U.S. would be flexible with any countries about on the July 9 deadline, Trump said, “Not really.”

“They’ll start to pay on Aug. 1,” he added. “The money will start to come into the United States on Aug. 1, OK, in pretty much all cases.”

Trump said Friday that the administration would start sending letters to countries, adding, “I think by the 9th they’ll be fully covered.”

“They’ll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs, but they’re going to be starting to go out sometime tomorrow,” Trump said overnight on Friday. “We’ve done the final form, and it’s basically going to explain what the countries are going to be paying in tariffs.”

Trump said in a Truth Social post late Sunday evening that tariff letters would be delivered starting at noon on Monday.

Bessent also said Sunday that “many of these countries never even contacted us.”

Tariffs are paid by importers — which can pass on part or all of the costs to consumers — and not necessarily by entities in the goods’ country of origin.

The White House had initially projected confidence that dozens of countries would try to make deals. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in April that “we’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here.” Late last month, Trump said, “Everybody wants to make a deal,” and after he announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, he said countries were “calling us up, kissing my a–.”

“They are,” he said in April. “They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything.’”

The renewed uncertainty is likely to further upset markets, where stock futures went lower Friday after Trump mentioned the country letters. Stocks have returned to all-time highs in part due to the lull in tariff news.

So far, Trump has imposed higher import duties on autos and auto parts, steel and aluminum, and goods from China and Vietnam.



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Windows 11 has finally overtaken Windows 10 as the most used desktop OS

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Microsoft has finally crossed an important milestone for Windows 11, months ahead of Windows 10’s end of support cutoff date. Stat Counter, spotted by Windows Central, now lists Windows 11 as the most used desktop operating system nearly four years after its release, with 52 percent of the market, compared to 44.59 percent for Windows 10.

Windows 11 became the most popular OS for PC gaming in September, but overall adoption had still been lagging behind Windows 10 until now. Leaked data in October 2023 also revealed Windows 11 was used by more than 400 million devices at the time, a slower adoption pace than Windows 10 — which took just a year to reach 400 million devices compared to Windows 11’s two year period.

Part of the slow adoption is down to Windows 11’s hardware requirements. While Microsoft offered a free upgrade to Windows 10 users, millions of machines have been left behind due to stricter CPU and security requirements. Microsoft has been trying to convince the owners of these machines to upgrade their hardware in order to get Windows 11, sometimes with a full-screen prompt.

Windows 10 is due to reach end of support on October 14th, and Microsoft recently revealed it would give away a free year of extra security updates to consumers if they were willing to enable Windows Backup and sync their Documents folder to OneDrive. If you don’t want to do this, you’ll have to pay $30 for a year of updates, or redeem 1,000 Microsoft Reward points.



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Israel says it struck Houthi ports and seized cargo ship in Yemen

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Yang Tian & David Gritten

BBC News

Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images The Galaxy Leader Vessel is seen on the Red Sea coast off Hudaydah, on May 12, 2024. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

Israel says the Galaxy Leader, a ship previously hijacked by Houthi rebels, was among the targets

The Israeli military says it has carried out air strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in response to repeated missile and drone attacks on Israel.

The military said the targets were the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah, Ras Issa and al-Salif, a nearby power station, and the cargo ship Galaxy Leader. The ship, hijacked by the Houthis in November 2023, was being used to monitor international shipping, according to the military.

The Houthis’ military spokesman said the Iran-backed group’s air defences “successfully” confronted the Israeli attack. There were no reports of any casualties.

Following the strikes, two missiles were launched from Yemen towards Israel, according to the Israeli military.

Sirens were triggered in several areas of the occupied West Bank and southern Israel. The military said it was reviewing its attempt to intercept the missiles.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported that the strikes on Sunday night hit the ports as well as the Ras Kanatib power station, north of Hudaydah, but it provided no further details on damage or casualties.

The Israeli military said about 20 fighter jets carried out the operation “in response to the repeated attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, its civilians, and civilian infrastructure, including the launching of UAVs and surface-to-surface missiles toward Israeli territory”.

It alleged that the ports were used to transfer weapons from Iran and that Houthi forces had installed a radar system on the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader “to track vessels in the international maritime arena to facilitate further terrorist activities”.

The Israeli military said the Ras Kanatib power plant, which supplies electricity to the nearby cities of Ibb and Taizz, was used to power Houthi military operations.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that the Houthis “will continue to pay a heavy price for their actions”.

“The fate of Yemen is the same as the fate of Tehran. Anyone who tries to harm Israel will be harmed, and anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have their hand cut off,” he said in a post on X.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement on Monday that the group’s air defences “succeeded in confronting the Zionist aggression against our country and thwarting its plan to target a number of Yemeni cities”.

“In retaliation to this aggression, and in continuation of triumphing for the oppressed Palestinian people, the missile and UAV forces carried out a joint military operation using 11 missiles and drones,” he added, identifying the targets as Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, the ports of Ashdod and Eilat, and a power station in Ashkelon.

Sarea also declared that the Houthis were “fully prepared for a sustained and prolonged confrontation” with Israel.

Getty Images Yemen's port city of Hudaydah after it was struck by Israel on 6 May 2025.Getty Images

Yemen’s port city of Hudaydah after it was struck by Israel in May 2025

The Houthis have controlled much of north-western Yemen since 2014, when they ousted the internationally-recognised government from the capital, Sanaa, and sparked a devastating civil war.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have regularly launched missiles at Israel and attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

They have so far sunk two vessels, seized a third – the Galaxy Star – and killed four crew members. The 25-strong crew of Galaxy Leader were released in January 2025.

In May, the Houthis agreed a ceasefire deal with the US following seven weeks of intensified US strikes on Yemen in response to the attacks on international shipping.

However, the group said the agreement did not include an end to attacks on Israel, which has conducted multiple rounds of retaliatory strikes on Yemen.

In May, Israeli navy ships struck targets in Hudaydah, which is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis.

As well as claiming to have fired at Ben Gurion airport, the Houthis also said they targeted a Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Magic Seas in the Red Sea.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said the ship was 51 nautical miles (94km) first attacked with gunfire and self-propelled grenades fired from multiple small boats. Armed security teams on board returned fire, it added.

Maritime security firm Ambrey said the Magic Seas was later also targeted with four unmanned surface vehicles, or sea drones, and missiles. Two of the drones hit the port side of the vessel, damaging it cargo and causing a fire, it added.

The UKMTO said the crew were safe after being rescued by a passing merchant vessel.



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