Dozens of international charities and humanitarian groups called Tuesday for disbanding a controversial Israeli- and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza because of recurring chaos and violence against Palestinians seeking food at its sites.
The call by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International was made as at least 10 Palestinians were killed Tuesday while seeking desperately needed food, witnesses and health official said. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 people Tuesday in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital.
In other developments, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned that his country would respond forcefully to the firing of a missile the military said originated from Yemen. Sirens sounded across parts of Israel, alerting residents to the attack and the launch of two projectiles from Gaza. All were intercepted by Israeli defense systems.
The missile launch marked the first attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militants since the end of the brief, but intense war initiated by Israel with Iran. Katz said Yemen could face the same fate as Tehran.
Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, vowed on the social media platform X, that Yemen will not “stop its support for Gaza ... unless the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted.”
The renewal of tensions came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to meet with US President Donald Trump and other administration officials next week in Washington. Trump has signaled that he is ready for Israel and Hamas to wind down the war in Gaza, which is likely to be a focus of their talks.
Speaking to a meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday, Netanyahu did not elaborate on plans for the visit, except to say he will discuss a trade deal.
Iran is also expected to be a main topic of discussion. After brokering a ceasefire between those two countries, Trump has indicated that he’s turning his attention to ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
That war has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children. The war was sparked by the October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 others taken hostage. Some 50 hostages remain, many of them thought to be dead.
The bodies of 116 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Tuesday afternoon.
Charities and NGOs call for end to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations called Tuesday for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the US and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.
“Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the group said in a joint news release.
The call by the charities and NGOs was the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive US- and Israeli-backed initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of Trump.
The GHF started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that pushed Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people to the brink of famine.
In a statement Tuesday, the organization said it has delivered more than 52 million meals over five weeks.
“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” the statement said. “We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need.”
Last month, the organization said there has been no violence in or around its distribution centers and that its personnel have not opened fire. It has called for the Israeli military to investigate allegations from Gaza’s Health Ministry that more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near the aid-distribution program over the past month.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Foundation is linchpin of new aid system
The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that wrested distribution away from aid groups led by the UN. The new arrangement limits food distribution to a small number of hubs guarded by armed contractors. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions. Palestinians often must travel long distances to the hubs.
Israel demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The United Nations and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. They reject the new mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and will not be effective.
The Israeli military said it recently took steps to improve organization in the area.
Israel says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the fighters of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas.
At least 10 Palestinians killed seeking aid At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Gaza Tuesday while seeking aid, hospitals said.
Seven of the deaths occurred in Khan Younis. Three other people were killed by gunfire Tuesday while waiting to receive aid near the Netzarim corridor, which separates northern and southern Gaza.
Dozens more were wounded, according to the Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, which received the casualties.
The casualties were among thousands of starved Palestinians who gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route, a road that cuts through central Gaza from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Israeli military late Tuesday warned residents to evacuate an additional area of Khan Younis, pushing them into an increasingly confined zone along the coast.
Also Tuesday, an 11-year-old girl was killed when an Israeli strike hit her family's tent west of Khan Younis, according to the Kuwait field hospital that received her body.
The UN Palestinian aid agency said the Israeli military also struck one of its schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City on Monday. The strike left no casualties but caused significant damage, UNRWA said.
Elsewhere, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the territory, including a 15-year-old, in separate events.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the shooting of the teen, saying it appeared to happen when people threw rocks toward soldiers. In the second death, military officials said a “suspicious individual” was seen trying to cross into Israel from the southern West Bank, prompting soldiers to open fire.
