Charities call for end to Israeli-backed aid group as dozens more die in Gaza

Dozens of international charities and humanitarian groups have called for the disbanding of a controversial Israeli and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza because of recurring chaos and violence against Palestinians.

The call by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International was made as at least 10 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday while seeking food, witnesses and health officials said.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 people on Tuesday in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital.

In other developments, Israel’s defence 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 defence systems.

The missile launch marked the first attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the end of the brief but intense war initiated by Israel with Iran. Mr Katz said Yemen could face the same fate as Tehran.

Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, said on 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 US president Donald Trump and other administration officials next week in Washington.

Mr Trump has signalled 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, Mr 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 these two countries, Mr Trump has indicated that he is turning his attention to ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The 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 Health Ministry on Tuesday afternoon said the bodies of 116 people killed by Israeli strikes had been taken to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

The Hamas attack in October 2023 that sparked the war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage. Some 50 hostages remain, many of them thought to be dead.

More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty, called on Tuesday for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.

“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 Donald Trump.

GHF started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade which has pushed Gaza’s population of more than two million people to the brink of famine.

In a statement on Tuesday, the organisation 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. At the end of the day, the Palestinian people need to be fed.”

Last month, the organisation said there had been no violence in or around its distribution centres and that its personnel had not opened fire.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed around the chaotic and controversial aid distribution programme over the past month.

Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access the GHF hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.

The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that took distribution away from aid groups led by the UN.

The new mechanism limits food distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors, where people must go to pick it up. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions.

Israel had demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The United Nations and aid groups deny there was significant diversion, and say the new mechanism allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and will not be effective.

The Israeli military said it had recently taken steps to improve organisation in the area.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas.

At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Tuesday while seeking aid, hospitals said.

Seven of the deaths occurred in Khan Younis. Three other people were killed by gunfire on 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.

They were among thousands of starved Palestinians who gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route in central Gaza.

The Israeli military warned residents late on Tuesday to evacuate an additional area of Khan Younis, pushing them into an increasingly confined zone along the coast.

An 11-year-old girl was killed on Tuesday 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 also said Israel’s military struck one of its schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City on Monday. The strike caused no casualties but caused significant damage, UNRWA said.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the territory, including a 15-year-old, in two separate incidents.