GAZA, PALESTINE - JUNE 2, 2025: Grieving Palestinians held funerals on Monday, June 2, for loved ones killed by Israel while seeking humanitarian aid at a distribution site in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, nearly 50 people were killed and more than 200 others wounded on Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on civilians gathered in al-Mawasi, west of Rafah. Eyewitnesses reported that large crowds had assembled early in the morning at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American organization backed by Israel. As people approached the site, Israeli military vehicles opened fire, and drones dropped explosives, resulting in mass casualties, they added. On May 27, Israel launched a controversial aid distribution mechanism, backed by the US administration, through an American group known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), bypassing UN and international relief agencies. The mechanism, operating in southern Gaza’s “buffer zones,” has repeatedly failed, with Israeli forces firing on crowds, turning aid sites into “death traps,” according to the Gaza Media Office and the Health Ministry. According to Gaza’s government media office, at least 49 Palestinians have been killed and over 305 others injured by Israeli fire near aid distribution points in Gaza since the start of Israel’s aid distribution mechanism on May 27. The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a devastating offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's population. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.