Andrew Roth in Washington
The Guardian
Fri, June 20, 2025
Elizabeth Warren at the US Capitol on 11 February 2025.Photograph: Allison Robbert/AFP/Getty Images
Elizabeth Warren has confronted the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, over reports that the state department is considering redirecting $500m from USAID to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
In a letter addressed to Rubio and USAID’s acting administrator, Kenneth Jackson, the Massachusetts senator argued that the GHF, a self-proclaimed aid organisation that is backed by the Israeli and US governments, “marks an alarming departure from the professional humanitarian organizations that have worked on the ground, in Gaza and elsewhere, for decades”.
Related: Israel-backed Gaza delivery group names US evangelical leader as chair
“The questions surrounding GHF – its funding sources and connection to the Trump Administration, its use of private contractors, its ability to serve and be seen as a neutral entity, its abandonment by its founders, and its basic competence in providing aid – must be answered before the State Department commits any funding to the organization,” Warren wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided exclusively to the Guardian.
The letter from Warren requested answers by 2 July on whether USAID is considering awarding any funds to the GHF, the terms of a possible agreement and the GHF’s connections to the Boston Consulting Group, which reportedly helped set up the group’s operations. BCG canceled its cooperation with the GHF after the organisation was embroiled in controversy following a series of shootings by Israeli forces at its food distribution sites.
Reuters first reported that funds directed to USAID, which is being rolled into the state department, could be rerouted to the GHF in an important boost to a troubled organisation that opened food distribution centres in Gaza last month. The GHF has struggled to partner with major aid organisations, even as Israeli and US officials have put pressure on NGOs to route their humanitarian aid through the GHF or face having no access to Gaza at all.
Major aid organisations have boycotted the GHF, which was forced to temporarily close some of its food distribution centres shortly after its launch last month due to security concerns. Israeli forces have opened fired into crowds near the food distribution sites several times in mass casualty events that Israeli officials have said took place in self-defence. Hundreds of Gazans have been killed.
Jake Wood, the former executive director of the GHF, resigned last month shortly before operations began. He said that he could not guarantee the organisation’s “independence” from political influence. Critics have argued that the GHF is a tool for the Israeli and US governments to politicise humanitarian aid and to distribute it in ways that will depopulate sectors of Gaza in apparent violation of international law.
The Guardian has approached the state department for comment.
Medical sources report 23 killed at Gaza aid distribution point
Fri, June 20, 2025
Elizabeth Warren at the US Capitol on 11 February 2025.Photograph: Allison Robbert/AFP/Getty Images
Elizabeth Warren has confronted the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, over reports that the state department is considering redirecting $500m from USAID to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
In a letter addressed to Rubio and USAID’s acting administrator, Kenneth Jackson, the Massachusetts senator argued that the GHF, a self-proclaimed aid organisation that is backed by the Israeli and US governments, “marks an alarming departure from the professional humanitarian organizations that have worked on the ground, in Gaza and elsewhere, for decades”.
Related: Israel-backed Gaza delivery group names US evangelical leader as chair
“The questions surrounding GHF – its funding sources and connection to the Trump Administration, its use of private contractors, its ability to serve and be seen as a neutral entity, its abandonment by its founders, and its basic competence in providing aid – must be answered before the State Department commits any funding to the organization,” Warren wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided exclusively to the Guardian.
The letter from Warren requested answers by 2 July on whether USAID is considering awarding any funds to the GHF, the terms of a possible agreement and the GHF’s connections to the Boston Consulting Group, which reportedly helped set up the group’s operations. BCG canceled its cooperation with the GHF after the organisation was embroiled in controversy following a series of shootings by Israeli forces at its food distribution sites.
Reuters first reported that funds directed to USAID, which is being rolled into the state department, could be rerouted to the GHF in an important boost to a troubled organisation that opened food distribution centres in Gaza last month. The GHF has struggled to partner with major aid organisations, even as Israeli and US officials have put pressure on NGOs to route their humanitarian aid through the GHF or face having no access to Gaza at all.
Major aid organisations have boycotted the GHF, which was forced to temporarily close some of its food distribution centres shortly after its launch last month due to security concerns. Israeli forces have opened fired into crowds near the food distribution sites several times in mass casualty events that Israeli officials have said took place in self-defence. Hundreds of Gazans have been killed.
Jake Wood, the former executive director of the GHF, resigned last month shortly before operations began. He said that he could not guarantee the organisation’s “independence” from political influence. Critics have argued that the GHF is a tool for the Israeli and US governments to politicise humanitarian aid and to distribute it in ways that will depopulate sectors of Gaza in apparent violation of international law.
The Guardian has approached the state department for comment.
Medical sources report 23 killed at Gaza aid distribution point
DPA
Fri, June 20, 2025
Palestinians mourn their loved ones killed in Israeli attacks, as bodies are taken from the morgue of Al-Shifa Hospital for burial following funeral prayers. Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
The Israeli military has reportedly killed dozens of Palestinians near humanitarian aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip.
According to medical sources in the coastal area on Friday, 23 people were killed in central Gaza while waiting for aid supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
There were initially no Palestinian reports on exactly how the people were killed.
In addition, according to medical sources, at least 11 people were killed by Israeli shelling near a GHF distribution point in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. They too had been waiting for food.
When asked about the incident in the centre of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said that a group had gathered near Israeli soldiers during the night.
"According to an initial investigation, the troops sensed a threat and fired warning shots. Despite repeated warnings and warning shots, several suspects continued to advance towards the troops," a statement said. An aircraft then attacked and killed the suspects.
The incident is currently being investigated, the Israeli army said. It said it was not aware of the second incident.
The information provided by both sides cannot currently be independently verified.
The GHF, which is supported by Israel and the United States, began its mission in the Gaza Strip last month after an almost three-month Israeli blockade of aid deliveries.
The distribution is intended to be an alternative to the efforts of the UN and international aid organizations. Israel and the US say they want to use the foundation to prevent Hamas from appropriating humanitarian aid supplies
However, the distribution mechanism and the foundation are controversial. There have been repeated reports of deaths caused by Israeli shelling in the area around the GHF centres.
According to medical sources, a total of 70 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since Friday morning. This information could not be independently verified.
Palestinians mourn their loved ones killed in Israeli attacks, as bodies are taken from the morgue of Al-Shifa Hospital for burial following funeral prayers. Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpaMore
US-backed Gaza aid group says people 'desperately need more aid'
Adam PLOWRIGHT
AFP
Sat, June 21, 2025
People carry supplies from a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre in the central Gaza Strip (Eyad BABA)Eyad BABA/AFP/AFP
A privately run aid organisation brought in to distribute food rations in war-hit Gaza last month with US and Israeli backing said Saturday that people in the Palestinian territory "desperately need more aid".
The admission by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that it has been unable to meet demand came after severe criticism from other aid groups and near-daily deadly shootings near distribution points.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that Israeli troops had killed at least 17 people, including eight who were seeking food in the territory which is suffering from famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, according to aid groups.
In a statement on Saturday, GHF interim executive director John Acree said that the organisation was "delivering aid at scale, securely and effectively... But we cannot meet the full scale of need while large parts of Gaza remain closed."
He said the GHF was "working with the government of Israel to honour its commitment and open additional sites in northern Gaza".
"The people of Gaza desperately need more aid and we are ready to partner with other humanitarian groups to expand our reach to those who need help the most," Acree said.
GHF's operations have been slammed as a "failure" by the United Nations, while other aid groups have raised concerns about the group's opaque structure and neutrality in the conflict that has been raging since October 2023.
According to figures issued Saturday by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire since GHF began distributing meal boxes in late May.
GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points, contradicting statements from witnesses and Gaza rescue services.
It has said deaths have occurred near UN food convoys.
On Monday, the head of aid group Doctors Without Borders, Christopher Lockyear, said that the "imposed system of aid delivery" in Gaza was "not only a failure, but it is dehumanising and dangerous".
Israel's military has continued its operations in Gaza, even as attention has shifted to its ongoing war with Iran since June 13.
- Restrictions -
Israel's ban on foreign media entering the Gaza Strip and difficulties for local journalists to travel in the territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities.
The Israeli army told AFP Saturday it was "looking into" the deaths which the civil defence agency reported near GHF distribution centres.
In the past, the military has said that its troops have fired on crowds approaching them in a threatening fashion and only after warning shots.
Witnesses have told AFP about injuries caused by drones and tank rounds.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that three people were killed by gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip, with another five killed in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving rations from a GHF centre.
Earlier this week, the UN's World Health Organization warned that Gaza's health system was at a "breaking point", pleading for fuel to be allowed into the territory to keep its remaining hospitals running.
The Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.
az-crb/adp/ds/ami
Aid seekers in Gaza continue to be targeted as Israeli attacks kill 26
People carry supplies from a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre in the central Gaza Strip (Eyad BABA)Eyad BABA/AFP/AFP
A privately run aid organisation brought in to distribute food rations in war-hit Gaza last month with US and Israeli backing said Saturday that people in the Palestinian territory "desperately need more aid".
The admission by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that it has been unable to meet demand came after severe criticism from other aid groups and near-daily deadly shootings near distribution points.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday that Israeli troops had killed at least 17 people, including eight who were seeking food in the territory which is suffering from famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, according to aid groups.
In a statement on Saturday, GHF interim executive director John Acree said that the organisation was "delivering aid at scale, securely and effectively... But we cannot meet the full scale of need while large parts of Gaza remain closed."
He said the GHF was "working with the government of Israel to honour its commitment and open additional sites in northern Gaza".
"The people of Gaza desperately need more aid and we are ready to partner with other humanitarian groups to expand our reach to those who need help the most," Acree said.
GHF's operations have been slammed as a "failure" by the United Nations, while other aid groups have raised concerns about the group's opaque structure and neutrality in the conflict that has been raging since October 2023.
According to figures issued Saturday by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire since GHF began distributing meal boxes in late May.
GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points, contradicting statements from witnesses and Gaza rescue services.
It has said deaths have occurred near UN food convoys.
On Monday, the head of aid group Doctors Without Borders, Christopher Lockyear, said that the "imposed system of aid delivery" in Gaza was "not only a failure, but it is dehumanising and dangerous".
Israel's military has continued its operations in Gaza, even as attention has shifted to its ongoing war with Iran since June 13.
- Restrictions -
Israel's ban on foreign media entering the Gaza Strip and difficulties for local journalists to travel in the territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities.
The Israeli army told AFP Saturday it was "looking into" the deaths which the civil defence agency reported near GHF distribution centres.
In the past, the military has said that its troops have fired on crowds approaching them in a threatening fashion and only after warning shots.
Witnesses have told AFP about injuries caused by drones and tank rounds.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that three people were killed by gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip, with another five killed in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving rations from a GHF centre.
Earlier this week, the UN's World Health Organization warned that Gaza's health system was at a "breaking point", pleading for fuel to be allowed into the territory to keep its remaining hospitals running.
The Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 55,908 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.
az-crb/adp/ds/ami
Aid seekers in Gaza continue to be targeted as Israeli attacks kill 26
Al Jazeera
Sat, June 21, 2025
Palestinian children react as they receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Gaza City [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]
At least 26 people, including more aid seekers, have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The attacks come as desperate Palestinians under Israeli blockade continue to wait at food distribution points amid an ongoing hunger crisis.
Among those killed during Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave on Saturday, 11 were aid recipients at distribution centres run by the United States-and-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the United Nations has condemned for its “weaponisation” of aid.
Meanwhile, Wafa news agency reported that at least three people were killed and several others wounded by an Israeli drone strike that targeted displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.
The report said that the attack targeted a tent sheltering displaced members of the Shurrab family. The tent was located in an area the Israeli military had previously designated as a “safe zone”.
In the last 48 hours, at least 202 people have been killed, including four recovered bodies after Israeli attacks, and 1,037 wounded by Israeli attacks across Gaza, the Health Ministry reported.
Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 55,908 people have been killed, and 131,138 have been wounded in Israeli attacks.
In recent days, Israeli attacks on aid distribution sites in Gaza have ramped up as thousands of Palestinians gather daily in the hope of receiving food rations following a two-month Israeli blockade of aid deliveries.
On Saturday, three people were killed at a GHF site in Khan Younis after Israeli forces opened fire. Several people were also wounded and taken to medical facilities.
Omar al-Hobi, a displaced Palestinian in Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera from a hospital that walking to those sites means you “enter the point of death”.
“I call it the point of death. The tank is in front of us, the machinegun is in front of us, and the quadcopter is above us, and there are soldiers on the ground with snipers. Anyone who moves before the time is shot, and the moment the tank retreats, we start running,” al-Hobi said.
Israel claims its attacks at the aid sites have been to control crowds, but witnesses and humanitarian groups have said that many of the shootings took place unprovoked, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
The Red Cross said on Thursday, the “vast majority” of patients who arrived at its field hospital in the enclave since the GHF aid system began at the end of last month had reported that they were wounded while trying to access aid or around distribution points.
Meanwhile, Wafa, citing the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in the Gaza Strip, reports that there has been a disruption in internet and landline services affecting the governorates of Gaza, which include Gaza City, and north Gaza.
Jason Burke and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza
Sun, June 22, 2025
The Guardian
Palestinians walk with aid supplies supplied by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in al-Bureij in the Gaza Strip on 8 June 2025.Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
Just after midnight on Thursday morning, Abdullah Ahmed left his sleeping wife and children in their small and crowded home in the battered al-Bureij camp in central Gaza and headed north. The 31-year-old vegetable seller had heard that the nearby aid distribution site recently opened by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive Israeli- and US-backed private organisation that began operations in the territory last month, would be handing out food at 2am.
To get there early and maximise his chance of grabbing a box of flour, oil, beans and other basics, Ahmed and some friends set out across the dangerous rubble-strewn roads.
Just reaching the vicinity of the aid hub, one of four run by the GHF, was dangerous. “All the time we could hear the sound of shells and stray bullets flying over us. We kept taking cover behind the ruins of houses. Whoever doesn’t take cover is exposed to death,” he said.
All last week, every night and most mornings, there were similar scenes across Gaza, as tens of thousands of hungry, desperate people converged on the GHF sites or waited at points where aid trucks loaded with UN flour were expected.
Every day, somewhere in the devastated territory, these gatherings had a similarly lethal conclusion when Israeli forces open fire.
Related: Israeli forces kill 11 Palestinians awaiting food trucks, say Gaza officials
The exact toll over the last 12 days is unclear. Medical authorities in Gaza say about 450 have died and thousands more have been injured. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admit that some have been hurt by their fire but have not admitted any deaths in shootings, which they say are directed at “suspects” who have posed a threat to their forces and only ever follow warning shots.
But 10 witnesses interviewed by the Guardian last week all broadly corroborated reports from civil defence agencies in Gaza and other official bodies of repeated lethal incidents involving high numbers of casualties.
When Ahmed came close to the GHF site north of al-Bureij, he heard “heavy but intermittent gunfire from tanks, artillery and quadcopters”. “As we got closer to the site, gunfire resumed and a shell fell just a few metres away from me, and then shrapnel scattered, some of which hit me in my chest, neck and leg,” Ahmed said.
“I fell to the ground … I was trying to stop the blood flow from my neck using pieces of my clothes. My friends carried me a long distance until we reached the entrance of al-Bureij city, and there we found a car to take us to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.”
The witnesses, many interviewed in hospital after being wounded, described similar scenarios. The records of medical aid groups working in Gaza also support the reports.
Between 27 May and 19 June, the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah received 1,874 “weapon-wounded patients” and recorded 18 “mass casualty incidents”, in which the vast majority of the patients reported to medical staff that they had been wounded while trying to access aid at or near GHF sites.
According to Médecins Sans Frontières, most of the 285 casualties treated at its primary health clinic in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah on 11 and 12 June had been seeking aid at the GHF’s distribution sites. These included 14 people who were declared dead upon arrival or shortly after.
Related: EU cites ‘indications’ Israel is breaching human rights obligations over conduct in Gaza
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since Israel imposed a tight blockade on all supplies throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”. A kilo of sugar now costs 60 times more than before the war and a 25kg bag of flour is up to $500. Fuel for cooking is scarce, fresh vegetables almost unobtainable for many and there is no fresh meat.
Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but it has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.
Many of the deaths in recent weeks have occurred when rumours spread of the possible arrival of aid trucks sent into Gaza by the World Food Programme (WFP), which was recently given permission by Israel to use northern entry points to Gaza, allowing more direct access to the areas where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.
But none of these deliveries have reached their destinations, all being stopped and offloaded, sometimes by criminal gangs but for the most part by desperate ordinary Palestinians, aid officials said.
The WFP said on Wednesday it had been able to dispatch just 9,000 tonnes of food aid into Gaza over the last four weeks, “a tiny fraction of what a population of 2.1 million hungry people needs”.
Palestinians walk with aid supplies supplied by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in al-Bureij in the Gaza Strip on 8 June 2025.Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
Just after midnight on Thursday morning, Abdullah Ahmed left his sleeping wife and children in their small and crowded home in the battered al-Bureij camp in central Gaza and headed north. The 31-year-old vegetable seller had heard that the nearby aid distribution site recently opened by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive Israeli- and US-backed private organisation that began operations in the territory last month, would be handing out food at 2am.
To get there early and maximise his chance of grabbing a box of flour, oil, beans and other basics, Ahmed and some friends set out across the dangerous rubble-strewn roads.
Just reaching the vicinity of the aid hub, one of four run by the GHF, was dangerous. “All the time we could hear the sound of shells and stray bullets flying over us. We kept taking cover behind the ruins of houses. Whoever doesn’t take cover is exposed to death,” he said.
All last week, every night and most mornings, there were similar scenes across Gaza, as tens of thousands of hungry, desperate people converged on the GHF sites or waited at points where aid trucks loaded with UN flour were expected.
Every day, somewhere in the devastated territory, these gatherings had a similarly lethal conclusion when Israeli forces open fire.
Related: Israeli forces kill 11 Palestinians awaiting food trucks, say Gaza officials
The exact toll over the last 12 days is unclear. Medical authorities in Gaza say about 450 have died and thousands more have been injured. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admit that some have been hurt by their fire but have not admitted any deaths in shootings, which they say are directed at “suspects” who have posed a threat to their forces and only ever follow warning shots.
But 10 witnesses interviewed by the Guardian last week all broadly corroborated reports from civil defence agencies in Gaza and other official bodies of repeated lethal incidents involving high numbers of casualties.
When Ahmed came close to the GHF site north of al-Bureij, he heard “heavy but intermittent gunfire from tanks, artillery and quadcopters”. “As we got closer to the site, gunfire resumed and a shell fell just a few metres away from me, and then shrapnel scattered, some of which hit me in my chest, neck and leg,” Ahmed said.
“I fell to the ground … I was trying to stop the blood flow from my neck using pieces of my clothes. My friends carried me a long distance until we reached the entrance of al-Bureij city, and there we found a car to take us to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.”
The witnesses, many interviewed in hospital after being wounded, described similar scenarios. The records of medical aid groups working in Gaza also support the reports.
Between 27 May and 19 June, the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah received 1,874 “weapon-wounded patients” and recorded 18 “mass casualty incidents”, in which the vast majority of the patients reported to medical staff that they had been wounded while trying to access aid at or near GHF sites.
According to Médecins Sans Frontières, most of the 285 casualties treated at its primary health clinic in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and the Red Cross field hospital in Rafah on 11 and 12 June had been seeking aid at the GHF’s distribution sites. These included 14 people who were declared dead upon arrival or shortly after.
Related: EU cites ‘indications’ Israel is breaching human rights obligations over conduct in Gaza
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since Israel imposed a tight blockade on all supplies throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”. A kilo of sugar now costs 60 times more than before the war and a 25kg bag of flour is up to $500. Fuel for cooking is scarce, fresh vegetables almost unobtainable for many and there is no fresh meat.
Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but it has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.
Many of the deaths in recent weeks have occurred when rumours spread of the possible arrival of aid trucks sent into Gaza by the World Food Programme (WFP), which was recently given permission by Israel to use northern entry points to Gaza, allowing more direct access to the areas where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.
But none of these deliveries have reached their destinations, all being stopped and offloaded, sometimes by criminal gangs but for the most part by desperate ordinary Palestinians, aid officials said.
The WFP said on Wednesday it had been able to dispatch just 9,000 tonnes of food aid into Gaza over the last four weeks, “a tiny fraction of what a population of 2.1 million hungry people needs”.
Even those who get aid are at risk. Once supplies at the hubs run out, some of those who came too late rob those leaving.
Witnesses described adults beating and robbing children to take their food outside one of the three GHF hubs in Rafah. Thieves stabbed an older man in the arm when he tried to hold on to a sack of food, weeping that his children had no food, one said.
Israel hopes the GHF will replace the previous comprehensive system of aid distribution run by the UN, which Israeli officials claim allowed Hamas to steal and sell supplies.
A spokesperson said the IDF “will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip while making every effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of 20-month-long war, have rejected the new system, saying it is impractical, inadequate and unethical. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas.
Aid workers in Gaza said some of the aid provided by GHF was reaching Hamas, which has been seriously weakened but remains a major actor in the increasingly fractured and chaotic territory.
“They send people in to get it direct from the hubs, which is pretty simple because GHF are not vetting anyone,” said one senior UN official working in Gaza.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops fired to prevent crowds from moving past a certain point before the centres opened or because people left the road designated by the military.
The IDF said its “operational conduct … is accompanied by systematic learning processes”. It said it was looking into safety measures such as fences and road signs.
The GHF says no shootings have taken place in or near its hubs. A spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity under GHF rules, said incidents took place before sites opened, involving aid-seekers who moved “during prohibited times … or trying to take a short cut”. The GHF says it is trying to improve safety, in part by changing opening times to daylight hours.
In a statement on Wednesday, the GHF said it had distributed 30m meals in Gaza “safely and without incident”.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, of which 53 remain in Gaza, fewer than half of whom are believed to be still alive.
The death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached 55,600, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.
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