Twenty Palestinians have gone missing without trace after heading to aid distribution points linked to a controversial US-funded initiative in Gaza. Their disappearance has raised urgent questions about the use of humanitarian aid as a tool of warfare.

Al-Dameer Human Rights Center in Gaza is leading the search, with its director, Alaa Al-Skaafi, confirming the lack of any response from Israeli authorities. “We don’t know if they were detained, injured or killed. No confirmation. Nothing,” he told Snd News.

Eyewitness accounts suggest that some of the missing were wounded before tanks entered the area, crushing the injured beneath rubble or forcing the rest to flee into uncertainty. Only two arrests have been confirmed so far, beyond that, silence.

Since late May, Israel has funnelled limited humanitarian supplies into Gaza through what it calls the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.” But Palestinians view these centres as baited traps. Those queuing for food have been shelled, shot at, or arrested. More than 550 people have been killed and 4,000 injured while attempting to access food, according to Palestinian legal groups.

Salah Abdel Ati of the “Hamasd” Commission described the aid points as “death zones.” He warned that Israel is using starvation not merely as collective punishment, but as a calculated weapon to uproot an entire population. The aim, he said, is to render Gaza unliveable and to force its people into exile.

With civilians caught between famine and fire, Palestinian rights groups are urging international agencies to re-establish UN-led aid mechanisms and to hold Israel accountable for what they describe as systematic war crimes.