On the morning of June 1, 2025, the very site promised as a lifeline for Gaza’s starving civilians became a graveyard. In Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, over 220 Palestinians were either killed or injured when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands awaiting humanitarian aid, an event chillingly reminiscent of previous massacres in besieged enclaves. Eyewitnesses describe the attack as deliberate, calculated, and disguised under the veneer of "humanitarian coordination." According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the attack unfolded at dawn after Israeli forces, with cooperation from a US-backed organization, instructed civilians to gather near inspection gates to receive aid. Quadcopter drones issued warnings, only to later unleash bullets on the crowd. Moments later, tank shelling and tear gas plunged the area into chaos and death. The official toll—31 dead and over 200 injured—is likely an undercount as many remain missing and local hospitals lie in ruins under continued siege. This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest episode in a pattern where hunger is weaponized and aid becomes bait. Witnesses spoke of limited aid supplies, chaotic distribution with no safety or organization, and recurring episodes of military violence during these distributions. Desperate crowds, including women and children, are forced to return each day in the hope of survival, knowing they might be met with bullets instead of bread. The cynical orchestration of such events raises grave questions about the role of so-called humanitarian actors complicit in these deadly distributions. When an aid center becomes the site of a massacre—when people are corralled, starved, misled, and slaughtered—can we still call this “aid”? Or is it a form of psychological and physical warfare masquerading as relief? Weaponizing Humanitarianism: What happened in Rafah exposes a far more disturbing paradigm: the weaponization of humanitarian aid. Instructing civilians to gather in predictable, overcrowded spaces under military surveillance, only to unleash violence, is not a miscalculation. It's a tactic. The involvement of a US-backed organization in enforcing this system introduces profound moral and legal culpability. Tear gas fired into a starving crowd? Only eight pallets of food for tens of thousands? Airdropped aid used to manufacture photo ops while hospitals are bombed? These are not acts of compassion—they are acts of calculated cruelty. And yet, global headlines continue to shy away from using the word that would be instantly applied had the roles been reversed: terrorism. The Terrorism Double Standard: When civilians are deliberately targeted, when fear is weaponized, and when violence is used to influence or punish a civilian population—it fits every definition of terrorism under international law. Yet, states and powerful militaries often escape this label. It is reserved almost exclusively for non-state actors, and overwhelmingly for Muslims. The word terrorist has become politically constructed and racially coded. It’s a term strategically used to criminalize resistance, delegitimize suffering, and shield powerful perpetrators from accountability. A Palestinian child with a rock can be branded a terrorist. But a state deploying drones, tanks, and white phosphorus on refugee camps is defended as “exercising its right to self-defense.” This selective morality is not accidental. It is a feature of the international order that continues to dehumanize Palestinians and delegitimize their suffering. The World Must Wake Up: What happened in Rafah is not a misstep or a tragedy—it is a war crime. It demands more than UN statements and cautious diplomatic language. The international community must call things by their names and hold all perpetrators accountable, regardless of their flags. If humanitarian aid becomes a pretext for massacre, and if starvation becomes a tool of control, we are not dealing with a conflict—we are witnessing the systematic dismantling of a people. Silence now is complicity.