Ameen Khalifa survived his first brush with gunfire while on his way to pick up food at Gaza's new aid hub run by the US-Israeli backed operation in Rafah, but the 30-year-old Palestinian did not come back after his second visit.

On June 1, Ameen was one of thousands of Palestinians who headed before dawn to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site.

In a video posted on social media, he filmed himself and others lying on the ground, the sound of gunfire pounding around him.

“We die in order to get food,” Ameen Khalifa can be heard saying in the video.

On June 3 he returned to Rafah for more food, but Ameen was shot by Israeli soldiers, according to the reports his family received from others who were with him.

Shootings have erupted multiple times in the last week in the vicinity of new aid hubs where desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food, including on June 1 and June 3.

Witnesses have told the Associated Press that it is nearby Israeli troops that have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed according to Gaza hospital officials.

Israel has said soldiers fired warning shots or, in some cases, have shot towards “suspects' approaching the troops in the areas nearby the aid centers.

Ameen lived with his mother Fadwa Khalida, 53, and his disabled father.

The family were displaced from Rafah by Israeli military operations and had been living in the city of Deir al-Balah since May 2024. They say their house has been demolished in the operation.

Khalifa said the family tried to stop Ameen from going back to the aid site for the second time, warning him it was too dangerous, but Ameen insisted, saying he wanted to find flour.

The situation has worsened in Gaza following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that has pushed the strip’s population of more than 2 million people to the brink of famine.

The first time, Ameen had brought “biscuits, some Indomie (instant noodles), canned food, very simple things,” said Mohammad Khalifa, starting to weep.

“He was concerned about my children.”

On Friday, the GHF sent out a message on its Facebook that it had closed all aid distribution sites until further notice and urged people to stay away for their own safety.

It later clarified that the measure was only a temporary pause due to excessive crowding and that the agency had distributed all aid available Friday.

Israel's military said that going ahead, distribution sites would be operated from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and that outside those hours, the areas would be considered closed military zones that are strictly off limits.

The U.N. has refused to take part in the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles by allowing Israel to control who gets aid and by forcing Palestinians to travel to just three distribution hubs, two of which are in the southernmost city of Rafah.

Khalifa’s brother compared the new aid system to “hunting mice.”

“There is no arrangement, no order,” said Mohammad Khalifa. “There are no humanitarian conditions or anything that respects the human being.”

Khalifa’s mother described her son as kind, generous, and respectful.

“I do not want my son to be martyred. I want him in my arms," she said.

AP video by Mohammad Jahjouh, Mariam Dagga and Wafaa Shurafa