‘Just like Auschwitz’: Aerial footage of Gaza aid lines sparks outrage

Aerial footage showing thousands of Palestinians crowded into narrow, fenced lanes while awaiting humanitarian aid in Gaza surfaced on Tuesday, igniting a firestorm of controversy across social media platforms, with many users drawing disturbing parallels to scenes from Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

- Background -

An American, "Israeli"-backed organization called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) became the scene of chaos on Tuesday after thousands of Palestinians, many of them hungry and displaced, rushed the facility in search of food. GHF, a relatively unknown group, has recently taken over aid distribution outside the long-established UN system.

A photo from the aid distribution surfaced, depicting long queues of men, women, and children packed tightly into metal corridors with barbed fences under the hot sun, awaiting the distribution of food and basic supplies. The stark imagery—corridors of metal fencing, the lack of overhead cover, and the overwhelming density of human bodies—has triggered international condemnation and widespread outrage.

According to the UN, at least 47 people were injured in the stampede. A Palestinian medical source confirmed one fatality.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, said most of the injuries resulted from gunfire. “It was shooting from the IDF,” Sunghay stated, referring to the "Israeli" military.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) denied responsibility. Speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Colonel Olivier Rafowicz claimed that soldiers only “fired warning shots into the air, in the area outside” the GHF center. He insisted that “in no case” did the IOF fire at civilians.

The GHF has drawn scrutiny for its opaque operations and for bypassing coordination with major international aid organizations, including the UN. Critics argue this has led to disorganized and unsafe distribution efforts, compounding the suffering of civilians already facing severe food shortages.

- Online outrage -

On platforms such as X, Instagram, and TikTok, many users are juxtaposing the image with historical photographs from concentration camps during World War II, citing the visual similarities in confinement, desperation, and systemic dehumanization.

Others have posted side-by-side comparisons, prompting renewed debates about the language used to describe the suffering of Palestinians under siege. Some are calling this a form of modern apartheid, while others are accusing critics of weaponizing Holocaust imagery for political purposes.

PHOTO | "Never Again - Over Again"#FreeGaza pic.twitter.com/lMzypxnZTi

— Antifa_Ultras (@ultras_antifaa) May 27, 2025

You don't need to be a prophet.

Images like this - of starved Palestinians hammed into fenced cages by Israel - will be remembered for generations as hideous evidence of a terrible crime.

And history will remember not just those who cheered it on, but those who stayed silent. pic.twitter.com/GiRtRfv1Ds

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) May 27, 2025

After 86 days of ban on food and all supplies, this is the way the Israeli occupation wants Gazans to get aid! pic.twitter.com/ij8B9HJp3S

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) May 27, 2025

Israel literally put them in cattle pens to recieve a few biscuits after starving them for three months and bombing their tents after turning Gaza to rubble. Treating them like subhumans. This is the organisation bit of genocide. Like the ramp at Auschwitz. pic.twitter.com/dGeZ01t27b

— Matthew Bennett (@matthewbennett) May 27, 2025

An open air prison within an open air prison. This is what aid distribution looks like in the joint Israeli / US food scam. This is day one and day 600 of Israel’s genocide. pic.twitter.com/h70ddKtYpD

— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) May 27, 2025

Look how they are treating Palestinians.

They’ve caged them in like cattle as they fight to get to the front for a meal from an israeli checkpoint.

This is so inhumane so fucking vile to treat other humans like this!!! pic.twitter.com/cjbW7QtQGU

— JonnyUtd (@Fx1Jonny) May 27, 2025