OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/CAIRO: A controversial humanitarian organisation backed by the United States and Israel did not distribute any food aid Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats that “made it impossible” to operate in the enclave, which the Palestinian denied.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which uses private US security and logistics firms to operate, said it was adapting operations to overcome the unspecified threats. It later said in a Facebook post that two sites would reopen on Sunday.
A Hamas official told Reuters he had no knowledge of such “alleged threats.”
The Gaza government media office said later on Saturday that GHF operation has “utterly failed on all levels” and that Hamas was ready to help secure aid deliveries by a separate long-running U.N-led humanitarian operation. Hamas also called on all Palestinians to protect humanitarian convoys.
A Hamas source said the group’s armed wing would deploy some snipers from Sunday near routes used by the U.N.-led aid operation to prevent armed gangs looting food shipments.
The UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel allowed limited UN-led operations to resume on May 19 after an 11-week blockade in the enclave of 2.3 million people, where experts have warned a famine looms. The UN has described the aid allowed into Gaza as “drop in the ocean.”
Israel and the US are urging the UN to work through the GHF, but the UN has refused, questioning its neutrality and accusing the distribution model of militarising aid and forcing displacement.
The GHF began operations in Gaza on May 26 and said on Friday so far it has distributed nearly 9 million meals.
While the GHF has said there have been no incidents at its so-called secure distribution sites, Palestinians seeking aid have described disorder and access routes to the sites have been beset by chaos and deadly violence.
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Dozens of Palestinians were killed near GHF sites between Sunday and Tuesday, Gaza health authorities said. Israel has said it is investigating the Monday and Tuesday incidents, but said it was not to blame for Sunday’s violence.
Hospital fuel low
The GHF did not give out aid on Wednesday as it pressed Israel to boost civilian safety beyond its sites, then on Friday it paused some aid distribution “due to excessive crowding.”
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to the UN and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
Israel makes the UN offload aid on the Palestinian side of the crossing, where it then has to be picked by the UN and aid groups in Gaza.
The UN has accused Israel of regularly denying access requests and complained that its aid convoys have been looted by unidentified armed men and hungry civilians.
Israel has in recent weeks expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered. Medics in Gaza said 55 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave on Saturday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that Gaza’s hospitals only had fuel for three more days and that Israel was denying access for international relief agencies to areas where fuel storages designated for hospitals are located.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli military or COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that coordinates humanitarian matters with the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had uncovered “an underground tunnel route, including a command and control center from which senior Hamas commanders” operated beneath the European Hospital compound in southern Gaza.
Israel’s military aggression has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday the Israeli military had retrieved the body of a Thai agricultural worker held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by the Mujahedeen Brigades group, and recovered from Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said.
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