The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the shooting and wounding of 20 Palestinians seeking food at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center. CAIR also called on the Trump administration to end the program and return the task of humanitarian aid to UNRWA and other international organizations.
Israeli forces have shot and wounded at least 20 people seeking aid at the newest distribution point set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza. Recently, thousands of Palestinians stormed a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center in southern Gaza.
SEE: Israel shoots, wounds 20 Gaza aid seekers, kills 28 across Strip
In a statement, CAIR said:
“It is obvious that putting the task of distributing food and aid to the people of Gaza in the hands of the Israeli government and American mercenaries has been a terrible idea and a complete failure. Opening fire on starving people as they desperately seek food is a level of criminality that cannot be tolerated. We call on President Trump to end the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and return the task of distributing food and aid to international organizations like UNRWA and others qualified to do so.”
He noted that the UN’s child rights agency (UNICEF) said more than 50,000 Palestinian children have been reported killed or wounded in Gaza since Israel’s war began in October 2023. “One child, every 20 minutes,” the agency wrote in a post on X.
He noted that yesterday, CAIr sent a letter to every U.S. Senate office urging them to speak out against the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza. The letter was prompted by the now-iconic image of five-year-old Ward al-Sheikh, who was filmed crying out for her family as flames engulfed the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City—moments after an Israeli airstrike killed at least 36 displaced Palestinians sheltering there, including 18 children.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com