Please read this Middle East Eye article, and this video for information.
The Gaza government media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills reportedly discovered in flour bags distributed by the GHF.
"We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags," it said in a statement, warning of the "possibility that some of these narcotic substances where deliberately ground or dissolved by the flour itself".
Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients. The drug is highly addictive and can have life threatening affects, including breathing complications or hallucinations.
The media offices statement comes after several social media posts shared images of pills purportedly discovered in flour bags in Gaza.
Palestinian pharmacist Omar Hamad described the discovery of the pills as "the most despicable form of genocide".
Khalil Mazen Abu Nada, a Palestinian doctor in Gaza, posted about the drug on Facebook, describing it as a "means to obliterate our societal awareness".
The Gaza government media office said it held Israel "fully accountable for this heinous crime of spreading addiction and destroying the Palestinian social fabric from within".
When someone is dosing you with opioids without your knowledge, it increases the urge or craving for the thing you believe you are consuming. The possible affects of withdrawal on top of the urge to go out seeking more, in this case risking their lives to get more deadly. Medical professionals are now warning that even minimal exposure could trigger addiction, especially in a starving population. And withdrawal can lead to seizures or even death.
This growing fear that drugs were also ground up and put into the flour makes them harder to detect, and even more dangerous. Non medical use can lead to dependency, respiratory depression, or even fatal overdose. A significant risk here not knowing the amounts being added to the flour, or for how long this has been happening.
For a population as hungry and traumatized, the sudden introduction of a drug could lead to an even greater public crisis.
The cruelest irony is that the local hospitals are desperately short on medications like these, so civilian victims, including children are writhing in pain as while the few who make it to the aid distribution centers are being made addicted.
These pills would also appear as sweets to small children.
The office also decried the Israeli military's "exploitation of the blockade to smuggle these substances as 'aid and assistance'", describing the Israeli and American-operated aid centers as "death traps".
Israel could be doing this to also claim there is a drug ring in Gaza, or will claim that this is a form of giving medical assistance as well as aid. This is only speculation, but terrifying nonetheless.
We must keep calling for the complete dismantle of this evil GHF organisation. Recently, aid convoys organised by local, Palestinian tribal leaders in the North successfully repelled Israeli backed looters, and handed them to the World Food Programme which distributed without incident. Local efforts are proven to be more affective and humane.
Following this, the Israeli Ben Givr and Smotrich intensified their calls to cut off all aid into Gaza, even that managed by the GHF. In response to this, Netanyahu announced a full complete halt into food entering North Gaza. The ultra nationalist members threaten the government and continue to call for aid to stop. The consequences have been devastating. The North of Gaza now faces starvation with no alternative. One resident told Al Jazeera; "I'm in northern Gaza, I would rather starve than take GHF aid. No amount of hunger would push me to seek aid wrapped in blood and humiliation".
The GHF must be dismantled and a totally neutral corridor of food, water and medicine needs to be opened. Every commander that issued an order to fire on desperate civilians, every official who allowed oxycodone to enter into the food supply, and every politician who didn't do everything they possibly could to stop this needs to face legal action and be put behind bars.