Over the past three days, there have been a series of deadly incidents on the route to an aid distribution site in Gaza run by a controversial group backed by the US and Israel.

The three incidents took place on roads approaching one of the new sites in the extreme south-west of Gaza, which is under full Israeli military control. The facility is being operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The first incident took place early on Sunday morning when 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency. Another three people were killed by gunfire on Monday morning, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Meanwhile, a further 27 people were killed by Israeli fire near the site on Tuesday morning, according to health officials.

Israel has denounced what it called “false reports” that its troops fired on civilians at or near the sites. It said that some soldiers fired warning shots on Sunday 1km away, and that they also opened fire after identifying “several suspects” on Monday and Tuesday.

Very few videos have emerged from Gaza that show the incidents themselves, but BBC Verify has examined available footage and attempted to map how they unfolded.

More than 30 Palestinians were killed and nearly 170 injured on Sunday in south Gaza near a food distribution site, the health ministry said, as witnesses reported Israeli soldiers fired on people trying to collect aid and Israel denied it.

The U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said food was handed out without incident on Sunday at the distribution point in Rafah and there were no deaths or injuries.

GHF released undated video to support its statement that showed dozens of people gathering around piles of boxes. Reporters could not independently verify the video or what took place.

Israeli activists protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s food distribution measures and the forced displacement of Palestinians. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP/dpa Keystone

A dispute over food aid for the suffering population in the Gaza Strip is hampering efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas.

Keystone-SDA SDA

Hamas insists that the UN and the Palestinian Crescent should again control the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, the “Wall Street Journal” quoted Arab mediators as saying. The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is currently responsible for distributing aid on behalf of Israel, must be excluded.

According to the report, the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire currently being negotiated in the Qatari capital Doha provides for UN aid organizations to participate in the distribution of food aid, but not to exercise control. US special envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to the Middle East this week to revive efforts for a ceasefire and establish an aid corridor into Gaza, according to US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.

USA hopes for ceasefire deal

The Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported for the US news website “Axios”, citing two informed sources, that Witkoff initially wanted to meet with senior Qatari and Israeli representatives in Rome on Thursday. Meanwhile, Hamas and Israeli negotiators held indirect negotiations in Doha on the last remaining points of contention. Control over food aid had become the main point of contention, wrote the Wall Street Journal

Witkoff hopes to conclude a deal on a ceasefire and the release of hostages by the end of this week in Doha, the Times of Israel quoted an informed source as saying. Hamas is threatening to break off negotiations if its conditions are not met, wrote the Wall Street Journal

Since the collapse of a ceasefire in March, very little aid has reached Gaza. Israel and the UN accuse each other of obstructing the distribution of aid. According to reports from UN organizations, almost all the inhabitants of the sealed-off coastal strip are now starving. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, 15 people have died of hunger over the past day, most of them children. This cannot be independently verified.

Israel denies famine

The Times of Israel quoted a senior Israeli security official as saying that the military had not detected a famine in Gaza. However, measures must be taken to stabilize the humanitarian situation. According to the newspaper, the official admitted that the amount of aid reaching the people in the sealed-off coastal strip had recently decreased significantly. However, he accused UN organizations of failing to collect and distribute food and other aid supplies that had arrived.

According to the responsible Israeli authority Cogat, around 950 trucks with relief supplies are waiting at the Kerem Shalom and Zikim border crossings to be picked up by United Nations organizations. A spokeswoman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) explained that there are around 600 trucks with food, medicine, diapers and other hygiene products waiting in Egypt and Jordan. However, Israel would not grant them permission to enter the Gaza Strip.

EU chief diplomat: Israel should stop killings

Israel accuses UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas. The Israeli government has therefore stopped all cooperation with the aid organization. Instead, Israel introduced a new distribution system some time ago with the help of the GHF in order to bypass the UN aid organizations and other initiatives. Since then, there have been repeated reports of fatal incidents near the controversial foundation’s distribution points. UNRWA head Phillipe Lazarrini calls the centers “sadistic death traps”.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas also sharply criticized Israel’s actions. The “killing of civilians” seeking help at the GHF distribution centers was “unjustifiable”, she wrote on X. In talks with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, she emphasized that the Israeli army must stop killing people at aid distribution points. Should promises not be kept, “all options remain on the table”.

Israel’s foreign minister: Hamas is conducting a campaign of lies

Saar confirmed a conversation with Kallas. “I told her that Hamas is conducting a campaign of lies,” he wrote on X. “It is Hamas that shoots and tortures civilians when they try to pick up the aid.” The international community must not fall into the terrorists’ trap, he added.

Meanwhile, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) defended his position on the question of why Germany has not joined an appeal by 28 countries – including 20 EU states – for an end to the war in Gaza. Merz referred to a declaration already adopted by the European Council. This was “practically identical in content (…) to what is now expressed in the letter”, said Merz in Berlin. He once again described the situation in Gaza as “no longer acceptable”. He wanted to call on the Israeli government “now with great urgency to stop the massive military interventions, to facilitate a ceasefire and above all to allow humanitarian aid for the population there”, said Merz.

Guterres “appalled” by Israeli attacks on UN buildings

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was also shocked by reports of attacks on United Nations buildings in the course of a new ground offensive by the Israeli army in the city of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip and called for protection from violence.

“I am appalled by the attacks on UN facilities, including facilities of the UN Office for Project Services and the World Health Organization (WHO), including the main WHO warehouse,” Guterres told the UN Security Council in New York.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday that Israel’s military had stormed its facility in Deir al-Balah and arrested staff. Staff accommodation was also attacked. Male WHO employees and male relatives were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated and searched at gunpoint.

The Israeli army reported that shots had been fired at its own soldiers in the area. They responded by firing in the direction from which the shots had come. However, the army did not say explicitly whether the shots were fired from WHO facilities.

Details limited on ceasefire plans as UN warns of starvation in Gaza

Image source, Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images

We’re still learning more about discussions on a new ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, but the sticking points are familiar ones, our Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell writes.

Details about the US-backed plan are scarce – we only know that it is now being reviewed by Hamas. Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet says the neither side wants to be blamed for the failure of this latest push for peace.

In the background, the aid shortage continues in Gaza, with the UN issuing fresh warnings that Palestinians are facing forced starvation.

To catch up on the detail, you can read the summary we put together. We’re pausing our live coverage for now, but for more, you can read our full story.