Oxycodone laced flour is not ‘humanitarian aid’ it is bioterrorism

Flooding Gaza with Oxycodone hidden in flour packages and distributed under a false pretence of ‘humanitarian’ intervention feels just about right in terms of the levels of depravity we have come to expect from the ‘most moral army’ in the world.

At a base level, the controversy surrounding the establishment of US-Israeli Aid Centres to distribute aid continues to grow. To date, approximately 549 Palestinian civilians are known to have been killed at these distribution sites when waiting for aid, a number that grows by the hour. Over 4,000 have been injured since they became operational in May 2025. Alongside the mass extermination of those waiting in line for the most meagre of handouts, some 39 Palestinians have been disappeared from the centres, an issue that appears to have gone unnoticed globally.

Testimonies from the Israeli Occupation Forces themselves have revealed that military personnel have received orders to deliberately fire on Palestinians waiting in line, whilst Médecins Sans Frontières have described the food distribution scheme ‘as slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid’. 

As reported in the Middle East Eye, the recent revelation that the US-Israeli backed ‘aid’ distribution centres are inserting narcotics into humanitarian flour packages, whilst deeply alarming, will come as little surprise to many. If killing a starved population as they attempt to receive food is the mindset of those responsible for its distribution, the inclusion of Oxycodone within the aid provided is entirely logical.

Over the past two decades, the Israeli government has been accused of ‘flooding’ Gaza with opiates, most notably the highly addictive Tramadol, in an effort to generate acquiescence and harbour addiction. The issue was brought into sharp focus in a 2010 documentary that highlighted Tramadol addiction in Gaza in the aftermath of the Israeli ‘Operation Cast Lead’.  Then head of the Anti-Drug Task Force, Jamil Al Dahshan noted that the drugs were mostly supplied by Israel, and brought into Gaza indirectly via Egypt.

READ: Over 170 NGOs call for end to Israeli-controlled ‘deadly’ aid distribution in Gaza

Similar accusations were made in 2017 by Ahmed Kidera, Head of a local police Anti-Drug Unit in Gaza, who argued that the Israeli authorities ‘turn a blind eye’ to narcotics when they enter Gaza hidden inside commercial goods.

Providing Oxycodone laced flour of unknown concentration to a starving civilian population can only be viewed as a form of bioterrorism. This is the deliberate release of a highly addictive pain medication, in unknown quantities, hidden in flour packages to be consumed by a starving and desperate population. The side effect profile of opiates includes nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, constipation, dizziness and sedation, with the young, elderly and those who are pregnant particularly vulnerable. Studies further suggest an association between Oxycodone exposure in pregnancy and an increased risk of altered foetal growth and preterm delivery, whilst respiratory depression is more likely in the elderly or those with underlying respiratory disease.

Calling the alleged act a ‘heinous crime’ the Gazan Media Office highlighted that the inclusion of Oxycodone was an attempt to undermine, not only the public health in Gaza, but also the very fabric of Palestinian society. Similarly, Palestinian doctor Khalil Mazen Abu Nada, posting on Facebook referred to the presence of oxycodone as a ‘means to obliterate our societal awareness’.

Even in smaller quantities, those who have been exposed can feel emotionally blunted or display numbness, a fact that the Israeli authorities will be banking on in an attempt to break the spirit of a Palestinian population who steadfastly refuse to leave their land. The inclusion of Oxycodone in flour packages is thus straight from the settler colonial playbook, with aid once again being manipulated as a weapon, in this case one that disorientates, blunts and has the potential to subvert an already weak and besieged population.

OPINION: Food aid or firing squads: How the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation became Gaza Assassination Trap 

The collective societal ‘numbness’ that can be garnered through systematic collapse of individuals’ physical, mental and communal strength, is a desperate attempt by a failing occupying army to stifle the Palestinian resistance, one that they have been unable to defeat militarily over the last 21 months. Such tactics are as old as the State of Israel itself, having previously turned to bioterrorism in an attempt to complete their ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948, poisoning the wells of the Palestinian population with typhoid.

The seeding of opiates in Gaza by the Israeli occupation is not a new allegation. The Israeli government has been accused several times over the last 2 decades of ‘flooding’ Gaza with drugs, specifically Tramadol in an attempt to both pacify the population and harbour addiction in the region. In 2010, Al  Jazeera released a documentary highlighting the issue of Tramadol dependency in Gaza, in the aftermath of ‘Operation Cast Lead’. Crucially, the program revealed how Tramadol was moved into Gaza through the tunnel systems, the drugs being mostly supplied by Israel, indirectly via Egypt.

Moreover, this is not the only way that the Israeli authorities have weaponised medication, most notably pain relief, over the course of the past 21 months. Essential medication and painkillers continue to be prohibited from entering the Strip, meaning that for many who have had to undergo limb amputation, they have had to experience the horror of surgery without anaesthetic.

Therefore, the hiding of Oxycodone in bags of flour labelled as ‘humanitarian aid’ is both deeply disturbing and perfectly logical when set alongside the decades long Israeli attempts to eradicate the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Further evidence, if ever it was needed, of the US and Israeli government attempts to maximise the suffering of the civilian population of Gaza whilst simultaneously gaslighting the rest of the world into thinking their ‘aid distribution’ is a sign of altruism. Foreign governments must surely see that we are long past the time for guarded words of condemnation. Urgent intervention is needed, beginning first with the full reinstallation of UNRWA and a complete end to the blockade on Gaza.

BLOG: Humanitarian aid and colonial violence

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