Israel accused Hamas gunmen on Thursday of killing five Palestinians employed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in an ambush on the group’s bus, saying the Islamist movement was trying to choke off desperately needed food aid.
The bus was heading to a GHF distribution centre near Khan Younis late on Wednesday when it came under fire, the foundation said. Israel’s liaison office for Palestinian affairs, COGAT, said “Hamas murdered five humanitarian workers … with others being kidnapped,” and urged the international community to condemn the attack.
Hamas offered no comment. Social-media accounts in Gaza claimed the bus carried men linked to Yasser Abu Shabab, head of a powerful clan that has challenged Hamas and reportedly receives Israeli backing.
Despite the assault, GHF said it reopened its gates briefly on Thursday to hand out food parcels before suspending operations for the day. Since launching at the end of May, the foundation says it has served more than 16 million meals, using a model the United Nations criticises as neither neutral nor impartial.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 160 people near such aid sites amid stampedes and sporadic gunfire. “This dystopian ‘Hunger Games’ cannot become the new reality,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, arguing that established U.N. agencies should lead the relief effort.
Israel, which has called for UNRWA to be dismantled over alleged Hamas ties, is simultaneously permitting flour trucks for Gaza’s few functioning bakeries and, overnight, allowed 56 World Food Programme lorries into the enclave’s ravaged north for the first time in months.
Elsewhere, Gaza’s health authority reported at least 30 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire on Thursday. The Israeli military said it had eliminated three militants who launched an anti-tank missile and detained several Hamas operatives in Syria accused of plotting cross-border attacks.
The Gaza war, now in its 21st month, erupted after Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 2023 raids into Israel. Diplomatic bids to halt the fighting have so far foundered.