The Israeli military’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir said the military’s focus was returning to Gaza to bring back Israel’s hostages and to “dismantle Hamas’s rule.”

Meanwhile the UN Human Rights Office said over 400 people have been killed, by gunshots or shells fired by the Israeli military, trying to reach distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since late May,

And Donald Trump called for Israel to “not drop those bombs” on Iran, and said he is “unhappy” with both Israel and Iran after both countries had violated the ceasefire agreement that he brokered.

Trump said “Israel needs to calm down” with its response to an Iranian missile launch earlier this morning, adding that both countries “do not know what the f*** they’re doing.”

The blog, with news on the Israel-Iran war and the wider crisis in the Middle East on Tuesday, June 24, has now been closed. We’ve moved here.

Palestinians mourn by the body of a man killed in Israeli fire at a food aid distribution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on the Salaheddin road, at Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2025. Eyad Baba/ AFP

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed another 46 people waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday as rights groups and UN agencies slammed the US-backed food distribution system.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded by Israeli fire near an aid point in central Gaza early Tuesday, and that another 25 were killed in a separate incident in south Gaza.

“Every day we face this scenario: martyrs, injuries, in unbearable numbers,” paramedic Ziad Farhat told AFP at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.

“Hospitals cannot accommodate the number of casualties arriving,” he said.

The latest deaths came as Israel’s opposition leader and the families of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to widen a ceasefire with Iran to include the Palestinian territory.

Pressure also grew on the US- and Israeli-backed privately run aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May to replace United Nations agencies.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) called the system an “abomination” while a spokesman for the UN human rights office, Thameen Al-Kheetan, condemned the “weaponization of food” in Gaza.

According to figures issued on Tuesday by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 516 people have been killed and nearly 3,800 wounded by Israeli fire while seeking rations since late May.

The territory of more than two million people is suffering from famine-like conditions after Israel blocked all supplies from early March to the end of May and continues to impose restrictions, according to human rights groups.

The Israeli military said the reports of deaths near the Netzarim corridor were “under review.”

‘Tank shells’

Gaza civil defense spokesman Bassal reported a first deadly shooting “with bullets and tank shells” near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza where thousands of Palestinians gather each night for rations from a nearby GHF distribution point.

The Israeli military later said that a crowd had been identified in an area “adjacent” to its troops.

France condemned what it called deadly “Israeli fire” against civilians in a statement from the foreign ministry apparently referring to the Netzarim corridor incident.

Witness Ribhi Al-Qassas told AFP that troops had “opened fire randomly” at a crowd he estimated at 50,000 people.

The second incident took place in south Gaza about two kilometers from another GHF centre in Rafah governorate, Bassal said.

“Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells,” he told AFP.

Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and witnesses in the Palestinian territory.

“The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime,” Al-Kheetan said in Geneva.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

In a statement on Saturday, GHF said it was “delivering aid at scale, securely and effectively,” but it acknowledged it “cannot meet the full scale of need while large parts of Gaza remain closed.”

GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points.

On Monday, more than a dozen human rights organizations called on the organization to cease its operations, warning of possible complicity in war crimes.

Ceasefire calls

After Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday after a 12-day war, Netayahu faced renewed calls to agree a ceasefire with Hamas after more than 20 months of war in Gaza.

“And now Gaza. It’s time to finish it there too. Bring back the hostages, end the war,” opposition leader Yair Lapid of the center-right Yesh Atid party wrote on X.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel’s war against Iran was “contributing to the successes in Gaza, but it will still take a bit more time.”

The October 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,077 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable. — Agence France-Presse

The chief of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called figures by the United Nations on people killed at aid hubs “disinformation”.

The UN said at least 410 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on 19 May, while the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 549 people have been killed.

Johnnie Moore, executive director of GHF, told Sky News there is a “disinformation campaign” that is “meant to shut down our efforts” in the Gaza Strip, fuelled by “some figures” coming out every day.

Mr Moore, an evangelical preacher who served as a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said his aid group has delivered more than 44 million meals to Gazans since it began operations in May.

Image: Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Khan Younis. Pic: AP

The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the UN and other aid groups, which have refused to cooperate with the GHF.

The aid agencies claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system using the GHF will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.

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They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.

The GHF is distributing food packages, which they say can feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days, in four locations, with the majority in the far south of Gaza.

GHF chief was ‘really political, really punchy’ in Sky News interview Tom Cheshire Data and forensics correspondent @chesh It was really political, really punchy, and I think the heart of the matter here is that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is too political. The principle of aid, when applied traditionally, is that it has to be applied neutrally and that is what used to happen. Trucks would go into Gaza, and the UN would distribute that food. Israel, for a long time, said that’s not working and they blame Hamas for that. At a briefing by the Israeli prime minister’s office yesterday, they were saying that Hamas was still looting those aid vehicles, and it was coming out with a plan to stop that. It didn’t provide evidence for that. When we asked for evidence, they said we shouldn’t swallow Hamas disinformation. That’s a word that’s been used. That’s very, very political. This is a different model of doing things. And that is the concern: that rather than just handing it over to a neutral body, this is too close to Israel, it’s too close to the US, and is backed financially by the US. What does that actually imply? Well, if you’re choosing where those sites are, it means people are going to move down there if you’re not putting them in certain places. The number of distribution sites has dwindled. It’s attenuated. And so, actually, if there are only a few and if there are any in the south of Gaza, that encourages people to move there, that might fit a political goal as well as a humanitarian one.

Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the aid hubs and have to move through Israeli military zones, where witnesses say the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.

Both figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say hundreds of people have been killed or wounded.

In response to Mr Moore’s comments, Rachael Cummings, Save the Children’s team leader in Gaza, told Sky News that people “are being forced into the decision to go to retrieve food from the American- and Israeli-backed, militarised, food distribution point”.

A Gazan man said about the GHF aid sites: “This is a trap, because the plan is to displace us, not to distribute food and drink. If they wanted to organise it, they would have done so. They deliberately made it chaotic.”

Read more: Doctors on the frontline – British surgeons on life in Gaza

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 27:55 Doctors on the frontline

“We’re not contesting at all that there have been casualties in the Gaza Strip. I mean, there’s no ceasefire. This is an active conflict,” Mr Moore said.

“I think people may not understand as clearly what it means to operate a humanitarian operation on this scale, in an environment this complex, in a piece of land as small as the Gaza Strip, and may not appreciate that almost anything that happens in the Gaza Strip is going to take place in proximity to something.”

Mr Moore said the GHF was not denying that there had been “those incidents”, but said the GHF was able to talk to the IDF, which would conduct an investigation, while Hamas was “intentionally harming people for he purpose of defaming what we’re doing”.

He said the GHF, “an independent organisation operating with the blessing of the US government”, was “achieving its aims”.

“We’re not here to replace the UN, we’re here to do the same thing: to feed Gazans,” he said.

Image: Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre in Khan Younis. Pic: AP

It comes after the US State Department announced on Thursday that it had approved $30m in funding for the GHF as it called on other countries to also support the controversial group delivering aid in Gaza.

Some US officials opposed giving any US funds to the foundation over concerns about violence near aid distribution sites, the GHF’s inexperience and the involvement of the for-profit US logistics and private military firms, sources told Reuters news agency.

Read more:

Analysis: Israel’s block on international journalists in Gaza should not be allowed to stand

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 2:22 Gazans risk ‘death traps’ for aid

A spokesperson from the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs told Sky News that they are “open to any practical solutions that address the crisis on the ground” and are “happy” to talk to the GHF, a statement welcomed by Mr Moore.

The spokeswoman added that the aid distribution in Gaza was not “currently a dignified process and that the format doesn’t follow humanitarian principles”.

She said that people have to walk for miles, and that there is no scalability, with aid not reaching everyone in need.

Charity Oxfam said in reaction to Mr Moore’s interview that claims of enough aid getting into Gaza “fly in the face of everything we, and other trusted humanitarian agencies, are seeing on the ground”.

Halima Begum, Oxfam’s CEO, said: “It’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous and denies the horrifying reality we are witnessing daily. Gaza is on the brink of famine, and people are being killed as they queue for food.

“We need an immediate ceasefire. Hostages must be released, and humanitarian assistance must be allowed in, delivered by experienced organisations like the UN and Oxfam, to prevent mass starvation.”

Tuesday’s joint statement from some of the world’s biggest charities says the foundation is violating all norms of humanitarian work, including by forcing two million people into overcrowded and militarized zones where they face daily gunfire.

Since the GHF started operating in Gaza, there have been almost daily reports of Israeli forces killing people seeking aid at these sites, from medics, eyewitnesses and the Hamas-run health ministry.

The GHF aid distribution system replaced 400 aid distribution points that were operating during the temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire with just four military-controlled distribution sites, three in the far south-west of Gaza and one in central Gaza.

“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the statement says.

“Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites.”

The GHF aid system has been condemned by UN agencies. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “inherently unsafe”.

From the start the UN condemned the plan, saying it would “militarise” aid, bypass the existing distribution network and force Gazans to make long journeys through dangerous territory to get food.

The Israeli military has said it is examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching GHF aid distribution centres.

According to a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday, unnamed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians near aid distribution sites to drive them away or disperse them.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the report, calling the allegations “malicious falsehoods”.

The Israeli military also denied allegations of deliberately firing at Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid.

In a statement on Monday, the IDF said it was reorganising access to the sites and this would include new “fencing” and signposting, including directional and warning signs in order to improve the operational response.

But the 130-plus aid organisations said GHF “is not a humanitarian response” for the Gazans.

“Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations,” the groups said.

Calling the humanitarian aid distribution centers “death traps,” the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that 583 people had died since GHF first began operating in Gaza in late May following a three-month Israeli blockade on aid distribution.

Since then, there have been almost daily claims of the Israeli military deliberately firing at aid recipients, accusations that the IDF has denied. The United Nations condemned the GHF aid system, with Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday calling it “inherently unsafe.”

Refuting the claims in a statement to NBC News Tuesday, GHF said it was “providing millions of meals each day directly to the Palestinian people who deserve and need aid.”

“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” it added.

Israel, which has defended GHF by saying it provides direct assistance to Palestinians while bypassing Hamas interference, said in a statement Monday that it would “examine” the reports of civilians being hurt at the aid sites and add new fencing and sign posting to improve access.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused Hamas of firing at civilians at humanitarian sites and of falsely blaming the IDF to “disrupt aid efforts and keep the people of Gaza away from much needed aid,” according to a post on X.

A child treated after Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on Palestinians gathered to receive humanitarian aid in the southern city of Kahn Younis last month. Doaa Albaz / Anadolu via Getty Images

The move comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington early next week, a White House official confirmed to NBC News, as pressure to end the war in Gaza intensifies.

“I am expected to leave next week for meetings in the United States with President Trump,” Netanyahu said Tuesday. “These things come in the wake of the great victory we achieved in Operation ‘Rising lion,’” he added, referring to Israel’s recent military assault on Iran.

The Israeli leader added that along with Trump, he would also meet other senior U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. “We have a few things to close before then in order to reach the trade agreement in addition to other things,” he said.

Trump also said on Tuesday that he would discuss the situation in Gaza with Netanyahu during the upcoming visit.

The president in an earlier post on Truth Social on Saturday said that Netanyahu was “right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back.” On Sunday, he again urged both sides to make progress on the stalled ceasefire talks. “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!” Trump wrote in a separate post.

A two-month ceasefire collapsed in March after Israel renewed its military assault on Gaza and imposed a total aid blockade for 11 weeks. Hundreds of aid distribution points across Gaza previously run by the U.N. were later reduced to four sites operated by GHF, where deadly incidents have been reported nearly daily.

The Israeli military acknowledges involvement in many of these incidents, often saying that soldiers fire warning shots or at individuals who appear to pose a threat or are in unauthorized areas. GHF says the attacks happen outside its distribution sites.