The Gaza Authority’s media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills inside flour bags distributed through what it described as “American-Israeli” aid centres, operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
GHF is already facing widespread condemnation over allegations of war crimes.
“We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags,” the office stated, adding a warning about the “possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself.”
Oxycodone is a powerful opioid typically prescribed to cancer patients for severe, long-term pain. It carries a high risk of addiction and potentially life-threatening side effects, including respiratory failure and hallucinations, according to Middle East Eye.
The Gaza government’s statement followed a series of social media posts showing alleged images of the pills found in aid supplies.
Palestinian pharmacist Omar Hamad condemned the incident as “the most despicable form of genocide,” while Palestinian doctor Khalil Mazen Abu Nada took to Facebook to describe the drug as a “means to obliterate our societal awareness.”
Blaming Israel, the Gaza media office accused it of “spreading addiction and destroying the Palestinian social fabric from within.”
It also alleged that the Israeli military has “exploited the blockade to smuggle these substances as ‘aid and assistance’,” describing the aid centres as “death traps.”
GHF, already under scrutiny for its opaque operations, was further criticized this week by 15 human rights and legal organizations.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the groups demanded that GHF’s activities be suspended, accusing it of undermining international humanitarian efforts and promoting the “forced displacement” of Palestinians.
The organizations warned that such actions could constitute “crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.”
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 516 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces near GHF-operated aid distribution points over the past month.
On Friday, Haaretz reported that Israeli soldiers had admitted to shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians at those same sites.
On Sunday, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes and gunfire killed 23 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, including at least three children.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that his services "transported 23 martyrs, including several children and women" killed in various locations around the Gaza Strip.
Bassal said two children were killed in an air strike on their home in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood in the early morning, adding "the house was completely destroyed."
A family member, Abdel Rahman Azzam, 45, told AFP he was at home when he "heard a huge explosion at my relative's house."
"We evacuated more than 20 injured people, including two martyrs -- two children from the family. The screams of children and women were non-stop," Azzam said.
Elsewhere, Bassal said a drone strike on a tent housing displaced people near the southern city of Khan Yunis killed five people, including a child, while four more people were killed by Israeli gunfire in Rafah, also in the south.
