Displaced Palestinians walk along a road to receive humanitarian aid packages from a U.S.-backed foundation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.-/AFP/Getty Images
A U.S.- and Israeli-backed organization distributing aid in Gaza reopened two sites on Thursday, a day after halting work in response to a series of deadly shootings close to its operations.
The U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said 26 truckloads of desperately needed food were handed out at two sites in southern Gaza’s Rafah area.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations including the United Nations ffor alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week and had been running three sites earlier this week.
GHF’s interim director John Acree said in a statement that the group was looking to open more sites, including in north Gaza, and “ensure safe and more efficient delivery of lifesaving aid.” The UN has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
“The failure to provide urgent therapeutic feeding and health services for children places thousands of lives at immediate risk, and could result in unnecessary and continued loss of life,” UN aid chief Tom Fletcher told the Security Council in a note, seen by Reuters.
Meanwhile, Israel announced it had recovered the bodies of two dual nationality Israeli-American hostages from Gaza. Gadi Hagi and his wife Judi Weinstein-Hagi were killed and taken to Gaza after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Fifty-six hostages remain in captivity, with fewer than half believed to be alive.
The Israeli military has intensified operations in Gaza since breaking a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in March, taking more territory with the government pushing to wipe out the Islamist militant group.
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At least 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Thursday, including four journalists in a hospital in the enclave’s north, local health authorities said. The military said that it had targeted an Islamic Jihad militant who was operating a command-and-control centre.
The Hamas-run government media office says that 225 journalists in Gaza have been killed since the war began.
The renewed military campaign has further isolated Israel amid mounting international pressure. On Wednesday, a U.S. veto blocked a UN Security Council draft resolution, backed by the 14 other members, demanding an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” and full, unrestricted aid access to Gaza.
Thousands of Palestinians stormed into sites where aid was being distributed by a foundation backed by the U.S. and Israel on May 27, with desperation for food overcoming concern about biometric and other checks Israel said it would employ.
Reuters
Under global pressure, Israel allowed limited UN-led aid deliveries to resume on May 19. A week later, the relatively unknown GHF launched a new aid distribution system that bypasses traditional relief agencies.
The GHF halted distributions on Wednesday and said it was pressing Israeli forces to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations after dozens of Palestinians were shot dead near the Rafah site over three consecutive days this week.
The Israeli military said on Sunday and Monday its soldiers had fired warning shots, while on Tuesday they also fired warning shots before firing towards Palestinians that it said were advancing towards troops. GHF has said that aid was safely handed out from its sites without any incident.
The American organization, which uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to transport aid to its distribution points inside Gaza from where it is collected, has said that it has so far distributed at least seven million meals.
The UN and international humanitarian groups refuse to work with the GHF because they say aid distribution is essentially controlled by Israel’s military and forces the displacement of Palestinians by limiting distribution points to a few venues in central and southern Gaza.
Footage released by the GHF this week showed hundreds of Palestinians crowding its site in Rafah, collecting aid from piles of stacked boxes without any clear system of distribution.
Muslims around the world will begin celebrating Eid al Adha from Thursday, a holiday typically marked by slaughtering livestock, but in Gaza food is scarce after nearly two years of war and Israeli siege.
Israeli opposition lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman accused the government on Thursday of arming Palestinian militias in Gaza.
The Taeima family is among more than two million Palestinians who are on the brink of famine after 19 months of war between Hamas and Israel. The high risk of famine has generated international outrage against Israel over its nearly three-month blockade and escalating military offensive in Gaza.
The Associated Press
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said later in a statement that Israel was acting “in various ways” on the recommendation of the security establishment.
Netanyahu’s office did not deny Lieberman’s accusation.
Israeli media reported that Israel had transferred weapons to Yasser Abu Shabab, a leader of a large clan in the Rafah area, now under full Israeli army control.
Abu Shabab previously said that he was building up a force to secure aid deliveries into some parts of Gaza.
Hamas security officials told Reuters Abu Shabab was wanted for “collaborating with the occupation against his people.” They said Hamas forces had killed at least two dozen of his men before January in what they said were clashes with looters of aid trucks.