A U.S.- and Israeli-backed group handing out aid in Gaza said on Friday all its distribution sites were closed until further notice, urging residents to stay away from these venues “for their safety” after a series of deadly shootings.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which last week started handing out meals to hungry Palestinians inside the war-shattered Gaza Strip, said that a reopening date would be announced later.
The GHF opened two sites in southern Gaza on Thursday after closing all of its centres the previous day in the wake of shootings in the vicinity of its operations. It has so far operated four distribution centres.
The organization bypasses traditional relief agencies and has been criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for alleged lack of neutrality, which it denies.
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.
The Israeli military said on Sunday and Monday that its soldiers had fired warning shots. On Tuesday, it said, forces also fired warning shots before firing toward Palestinians that it said were advancing toward troops. GHF has said that aid was safely handed out from its sites without any incident.
After the two-month ceasefire broke down in March, Israel blockaded aid supplies into Gaza for 11 weeks, prompting a famine warning from a global hunger monitor. Israel, which has only partially lifted the blockade since, vets all aid into Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing some of it, something the militant group denies.
Israel has re-intensified an offensive against Gaza’s dominant Hamas militant group since breaking a two-month-old ceasefire in March in a war triggered by the cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, led by Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by several countries including Canada.
The Israeli military has recovered the bodies of Canadian Israeli Judih Weinstein and her husband, Israeli American Gadi Haggai, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The bodies had been held in Gaza by Hamas since 2023.
The initial attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel, including several Canadian citizens.
Some 251 hostages were also taken, with around a couple dozen believed still alive, according to the Israeli government. While many of the remaining were freed in periodic prisoner exchanges, the bodies of other hostages have been repatriated, including Canadian citizen Judih Weinstein and her husband just this week.
Israel’s military campaign in response to those attacks has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
