Tens of thousands flee Gaza City after Israel warns of major offensive
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
EU ‘cannot linger at the margins’ of Gaza conflict, says former top diplomat
Josep Borrell said the EU had a ‘duty’ to intervene and must come up with its own plan to end the war instead of relying on the US. ‘Europe can no longer afford to linger at the margins,’ he said in the article that was co-authored with Kalypso Nicolaïdis. Borrell and Nicolaidïs argue that the disunity in the EU has reduced what should be a powerful mediating voice in the Middle East into a bit player. Last week Borrell’s successor, Kaja Kallas, said it was “very clear” that Israel had breached its human rights commitments in Gaza but said the ‘concrete question’ was what action the member states could agree on. The intervention comes as EU member states continue to struggle to unite on action.
In a strongly worded article, Josep Borrell said the EU had a “duty” to intervene and must come up with its own concerted plan to end the war instead of relying on the US.
“Europe can no longer afford to linger at the margins,” he said in the article that was co-authored with Kalypso Nicolaïdis, an occasional adviser to the EU and professorial chair in international affairs at the Florence school of transnational governance at the European University Institute. “The EU needs a concerted plan.
“Not only is Europe’s own security at stake, but more important, European history imposes a duty on Europeans to intervene in response to Israel’s violations of international law,” they say, adding: “Europeans cannot stay the hapless fools in this tragic story, dishing out cash with their eyes closed.”
Their intervention in Foreign Affairs magazine comes as EU member states continue to struggle to unite on action. Last week Borrell’s successor, Kaja Kallas, said it was “very clear” that Israel had breached its human rights commitments in Gaza but said the “concrete question” was what action the member states could agree on.
Her remarks were made after a review of the EU-Israel association agreement, a trade and cooperation pact, was triggered last month by 17 member states in protest at Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
View image in fullscreen Josep Borrell, who served as the EU’s top diplomat until 2024, said Europeans ‘cannot stay the hapless fools in this tragic story’. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
Last month Borrell launched a blistering attack on Israel accusing it of “carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war”.
The authors say there are ways and lessons from the past to guide EU member states who want to take action without having to get buy-in from countries reluctant to do so, for historical reasons, including Germany, Hungary and Austria.
They suggest a number of actions, from using the EU’s financial leverage, to suspending Israel’s presence in EU programmes such as the Erasmus+ student exchange.
They also suggest EU member states could explore using article 20 of the EU’s treaty to “allow for at least nine member states to come together to utilise certain foreign policy tools not related to defence”.
“Because such an action has never been taken before, those states would have to explore what [it] … would concretely allow them to do,” the article said.
Borrell and Nicolaidïs argue that the disunity in the EU has reduced what should be a powerful mediating voice in the Middle East into a bit player.
“Some EU leaders cautiously backed the international criminal court’s investigations, while others, such as Austria and Germany, have declined to implement its arrest warrants against Israeli officials,” they say. “And because EU member states, beginning with Germany and Hungary, could not agree on whether to revisit the union’s trade policy with Israel, the EU continues to be Israel’s largest trading partner.
“As a result, the EU, as a bloc, has been largely relegated to the sidelines, divided internally and overshadowed in ceasefire diplomacy by the United States and regional actors such as Egypt and Qatar. Shouldn’t the EU also have acted as a mediator?”
Dozens more people killed or injured seeking aid in Gaza
Dozens more Palestinians were killed or injured in Gaza as they sought desperately needed aid on Thursday. Reports that Israeli forces close to one distribution point had opened fire, the third such incident in as many days. More than a hundred people have been reported killed since Monday while either trying to reach aid points or waiting to stop and offload the limited number of UN and commercial trucks entering the devastated territory. There have been about 20 such incidents in the last four weeks. Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since Israel’s imposition of a tight blockade on all supplies throughout March and April. UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of 20-month war, have rejected the new system, saying it is impractical and there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas. Hamas denies this and says it has provided more than 30m meals ‘safely and without incident’ since it began operating without incident last month. Israel says 5,194 people had been killed since major operations resumed on March 18.
More than a hundred people have been reported killed since Monday while either trying to reach aid points or waiting to stop and offload the limited number of UN and commercial trucks entering the devastated territory. There have been about 20 such incidents in the last four weeks.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 15 people and wounded 60 between the town of Nuseirat and in the centre of Gaza early on Thursday morning after thousands had gathered in the hope of receiving rations.
Such reports are difficult to confirm independently but interviews conducted by the Guardian with witnesses appeared to corroborate many of the details.
Abdullah Ahmed, 31, said he had been about a kilometre from an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israeli-backed private organisation, when there were a series of explosions and shootings at around 2am local time.
“I heard that the GHF site would open in the morning and set out early from my home [in the nearby town of al-Bureij] to get food,” he said. “Because there are always many people, we try to be the first to increase our chances of getting aid.
“When I was heading to the aid distribution point, there was heavy but intermittent gunfire from tanks, artillery and quadcopters.“As we got closer to the site, gunfire resumed and shells were launched. A shell fell just a few metres away from me and shrapnel hit me in my chest, neck and leg.”
View image in fullscreen A Palestinian woman in Beit Lahia waits for UN aid trucks to enter northern Gaza on Wednesday. Photograph: Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters
Abdel Fattah Younis, 20, from Nuseirat, said the shooting or shelling occurred when crowds had surged towards the GHF site in the belief that it had opened to distribute aid.
“We moved toward it and we became fully exposed … Suddenly, intense gunfire was directed at us … I was shot once in the chest and another bullet lodged in my lower back,” he said.
Dr Nasser Abu Samra, the head of the emergency reception department at al-Awda hospital, said it received nine dead and 120 injured from the incident.
The Israeli army told Agence France-Presse that troops fired “warning shots” at “suspects” approaching them in the Netzarim area, but that it was “not aware of any injured individuals”.
The reported incident came on a particularly bloody day in Gaza, with about 60 people reported killed in a wave of airstrikes.
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since Israel’s imposition of a tight blockade on all supplies throughout March and April, leaving many of the territory’s inhabitants facing a “critical risk of famine”.
Since the blockade was partially lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.
Aid officials said an average of 23 UN trucks a day had entered Gaza through the main checkpoint of Kerem Shalom in recent days, but most have been “self-distributed” by hungry Palestinians who stopped them, or looted by organised gangs.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday it has 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”.
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.
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.
GHF said in an email on Wednesday that it had provided more than 30m meals “safely and without incident” since it began operating last month.
Israel launched its campaign intended to destroy Hamas after the group’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage. Hamas still holds 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday that 5,194 people had been killed since Israel resumed major operations in the territory on 18 March, ending a two-month truce.
The death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached 55,600, according to the health ministry.
IDF opens inquiry into possible war crimes after deaths near Gaza aid sites
The Israeli military has launched an investigation into possible war crimes following growing evidence that troops have deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians. The soldiers said they had concerns about using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat. Witnesses said many of the casualties were ordinary civilians who had gathered to receive sacks of flour from a warehouse near the Baraka crossroads in the northern part of Deir al-Balah. In a joint statement issued late on Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Israel Katz, the defence minister, accused Haaretz of “malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world” The IDF rejected the accusations, saying that no forces had been ordered “to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers”“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the IDF said. There was no immediate comment on the attack from the Israeli military on Friday. The situation in the hospital was catastrophic.
Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks after being subjected to air attacks, shootings and bombardments by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while waiting for food to be distributed or while making their way to distribution sites.
On Friday the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers as saying they had been told to fire at crowds near food distribution sites to keep them away from Israeli military positions. The soldiers said they had concerns about using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.
Haaretz also quoted unnamed sources as saying that the army unit established to review incidents that may involve breaches of international law had been tasked with examining soldiers’ actions near distribution locations over the past month.
In a statement reported by Israeli media, the IDF rejected the accusations, saying that no forces had been ordered “to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers”.
“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the IDF said.
In a joint statement issued late on Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Israel Katz, the defence minister, accused Haaretz of “malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world”.
View image in fullscreen Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre on Thursday. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with famine.
Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy. Hundreds of trucks have been looted by armed gangs and by crowds of desperate Palestinians.
On Thursday, 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting Palestinian police distributing flour in a market in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, medical officials said.
The strike appears to have targeted members of a security force set up by the Hamas-led interior ministry to target looters and merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices.
The unit, known as Sahm, or Arrow, confiscates stolen aid which it then distributes. Witnesses said many of the casualties were ordinary civilians who had gathered to receive sacks of flour from a warehouse near the Baraka crossroads in the northern part of Deir al-Balah.
The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment on the attack from the Israeli military.
Razeq Abu Mandil, a paramedic from the al-Maghazi refugee camp, said: “Among the injured were men, women, and children. In my ambulance, there was a woman and her daughter – both wounded.
“When we arrived, there were people torn to pieces – severely wounded and dead … We started transporting the injured and the dead to the hospital, then returned again to load the ambulances. I repeated this three or four times. The situation in the hospital was catastrophic.”
Ahmed Abu Zubeida, 36, from nearby al-Bureij, was among the wounded.
“I was far from the point of impact but some shrapnel injured my leg. I looked around and saw people lying on the ground – torn bodies, wounded individuals, blood and its smell filling the air, cries and screams,” he said.
The strike came shortly after Israel closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to the parts of the territory where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.
View image in fullscreen A mourner during the funeral of Palestinians who, according to the Gaza health ministry, were killed in the strike in Deir al-Balah on Thursday. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters
For most of the war, aid in Gaza was distributed mainly by the UN and other international humanitarian organisations, but Israel said Hamas diverted and sold supplies to finance its military and other operations.
The UN and other aid groups deny the charge and say their monitoring of their distribution networks is robust.
Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which started distributing food boxes in Gaza last month from four hubs.
To reach the GHF sites, which open intermittently and unpredictably and often at night, Palestinians must cross rubble-strewn roads and Israeli military zones where witnesses say troops often fire on them with mortars, tanks and machine guns.
A senior aid official in Gaza said many of the shootings occurred in darkness when civilians gathered near Israeli troops to wait for distribution sites to open or to receive aid looted from trucks.
“The soldiers fire to keep them away, or because they don’t know who is there, or because they don’t care, or all three,” the official said.
Medical records from independent NGOs working in Gaza, seen by the Guardian, confirm hundreds of lethal injuries from bullets and some from shelling.
The IDF insists its internal processes are robust but critics say few investigations are thoroughly pursued and only a tiny fraction result in any sanction.
Israel has continued to allow a smaller number of aid trucks into Gaza for distribution by the UN and other organisations, with about 70 entering the territory each day on Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday, Israel shut entry points used to access directly the north of the territory, where the need for aid is greatest.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said on Friday that the US-backed aid operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe”, giving a blunt assessment: “It is killing people.”
“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.
The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage.
The overall death toll in Gaza in the 20-month conflict has reached 56,331 fatalities, mostly civilians, according to local health authorities.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
18 killed in Israeli strike targeting Gaza police distributing flour, officials say
Israel has targeted members of a security force set up by the Hamas-led interior ministry. Witnesses said many of the casualties were ordinary civilians who had gathered to receive sacks of flour from a warehouse near the Baraka crossroads in Deir al-Balah. The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby al-Aqsa Martic hospital, where casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reported strike on Thursday afternoon. It is the latest in a series of air attacks, shootings and bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that has killed hundreds of desperate civilians seeking aid in the devastated Palestinian territory. The Israeli military says it has fired at a threat to its security, but witnesses say it has continued to allow its threat to be fired into a smaller number of areas. It has targeted the first months of the year, which was the early months of this year, and the first month of next year. It appears to have targeted the second month of 2013.
The reported strike, on Thursday afternoon, is the latest in a series of air attacks, shootings and bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that has killed hundreds of desperate civilians seeking aid in the devastated Palestinian territory.
It appears to have targeted members of a security force set up by the Hamas-led interior ministry to target looters and merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices.
The unit, known as Sahm, or Arrow, confiscates stolen aid which it then distributes. Witnesses said many of the casualties were ordinary civilians who had gathered to receive sacks of flour from a warehouse near the Baraka crossroads in the northern part of Deir al-Balah.
The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Razeq Abu Mandil, a paramedic from al-Maghazi refugee camp, said: “Among the injured were men, women, and children. In my ambulance, there was a woman and her daughter – both wounded.
“When we arrived, there were people torn to pieces – severely wounded and dead … We started transporting the injured and the dead to the hospital, then returned again to load the ambulances. I repeated this three or four times. The situation in the hospital was catastrophic.”
Ahmed Abu Zubeida, from nearby Al-Bureij, was among the wounded.
“I was far from the point of impact but some shrapnel injured my leg. I looked around and saw people lying on the ground – torn bodies, wounded individuals, blood and its smell filling the air, cries and screams,” the 36-year-old said.
“I went alone to Deir al-Balah to buy supplies for my family. Prices in my neighbourhood are very high, and people told me prices were cheaper near al-Baraka roundabout – that’s why I went.”
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”.
Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy. Hundreds of trucks have been looted by armed gangs and by crowds of desperate Palestinians.
The strike in Deir al-Balah on Thursday night came shortly after Israel closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to the parts of the territory where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.
For most of the war, aid in Gaza was distributed mainly by the UN and other international humanitarian organisations, but Israel said Hamas diverted and sold supplies to finance its military and other operations.
View image in fullscreen A mourner during the funeral of Palestinians who, according to the Gaza health ministry, were killed in the strike in Deir al-Balah on Thursday. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters
The UN and other aid groups deny the charge and say their monitoring of their distribution networks is robust.
Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which started distributing food boxes in Gaza last month, attracting crowds of tens of thousands to its four hubs.
To reach the GHF sites, which open intermittently and unpredictably and often at night, Palestinians must cross rubble-strewn roads and Israeli military zones where witnesses say troops often fire on them with mortars, tanks and machine guns.
Health officials say hundreds of people have been killed and wounded seeking aid in recent weeks and medical records from independent NGOs working in Gaza, seen by the Guardian, confirm hundreds of lethal injuries from bullets and some from shelling.
The Israeli military says it has only fired “warning shots” at individuals it believes are a threat to its forces. Israel has continued to allow a smaller number of aid trucks into Gaza for UN distribution, with about 70 entering the territory each day on Monday and Tuesday.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday it had been able to deliver its first medical shipment since 2 March, with nine trucks bringing blood, plasma and other supplies to Nasser hospital, the biggest hospital still functioning in southern Gaza.
Humanitarian officials in the territory say the amount of aid is “grossly inadequate”.
The IDF has targeted the Hamas-run police in Gaza since the early months of the conflict, which was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage.
During the 12 days Israel was fighting Iran, more than 800 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, either shot as they desperately sought food in increasingly chaotic circumstances or in successive waves of Israeli strikes and shelling.
The overall death toll in Gaza in the 20-month conflict has reached 56,259, mostly civilians.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister and an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive, on Thursday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation in Gaza as a genocide.
Israel vehemently denies the allegation of war crimes and genocide, which it says are based on anti-Israel bias and antisemitism.
Gaza slides into lethal chaos as desperate Palestinians fight to survive
Every day, somewhere in the devastated territory, these gatherings had a similarly lethal conclusion when Israeli forces open fire. 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 admit that some have been hurt by their fire but have not admitted any deaths in shootings. A kilo of sugar now costs more than war and a 25kg bag of flour is up to $500. Fuel for cooking is almost unobtainable for many and there is no meat. The UN has tried to bring in aid but it has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, growing airstrikes and criminal gangs. Many of the deaths in recent weeks have occurred when rumours spread of the possible arrival of aid trucks into Gaza by the World Food Programme (WFP), which was recently given permission by Israel to use northern entry points to Gaza. But none of these deliveries have reached their destinations and sometimes criminal gangs have stopped them.
The 31-year-old vegetable seller had heard that the nearby food 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 centre, 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 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.
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.
The GHF on Sunday said its model was working: “The Gaza health ministry, operated by Hamas, has been putting out false information on a daily basis which unfortunately media outlets have not verified before publishing.”
But 10 witnesses interviewed by the Guardian last week all broadly corroborated reports of repeated lethal incidents involving high numbers of casualties, as do the records of medical aid groups working in Gaza.
View image in fullscreen Palestinians with supplies from the GHF site at al-Bureij in the Gaza Strip on 8 June. Photograph: APA Images/Shutterstock
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.
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 food 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 supplies at the GHF’s distribution sites. These included 14 people who were declared dead upon arrival or shortly after.
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 obtain food 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 food provided by GHF was reaching Hamas, which has been seriously weakened but remains a significant 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” and that it was looking into safety measures such as fences and road signs.
In a statement on Sunday, the GHF said it had distributed 38m meals in Gaza “without injury or any fatalities at or near their site” though said there had been “unfortunate cases where some [seeking aid] have attempted dangerous shortcuts through active war zones or gotten lost.
“Ultimately the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population. There is not yet enough capacity or food to feed everyone in need in Gaza. If the UN and other humanitarian organizations would join us we could scale aid across Gaza,” the GHF said.
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.