JERUSALEM/CAIRO - The head of a US-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amidst war, as an Israeli airstrike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside.
Reflecting growing international pressure on Israel, close ally Germany said its recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas - the Palestinian militant group which ignited the war with its cross-border Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel has faced a mounting Western outcry this month as its military launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment during 19 months of conflict and where the population of 2 million is
at risk of famine.
After nearly three months of blockade, Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed.
Jake Wood, executive director of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for the past two months, said he resigned as it could not adhere "to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence".
Wood's exit on Sunday underscores the confusion surrounding the foundation, which has been boycotted by the United Nations and the aid groups supplying aid to Gaza before Israel imposed a total blockade on the enclave in March.
The groups say the new system will undermine the principle that aid should be overseen by a neutral party. Israel, which floated a similar plan earlier this year, says it will not be involved in distributing aid but it had endorsed the plan and would provide security for it.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which would use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
"We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead," it said in a statement.
The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company's aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.
The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials.
But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.
Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would "replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime".
Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population, a charge rejected by Hamas, which says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters.
CONTINUED AIRSTRIKES
While the aid system is worked out, Israel has continued to carry out strikes across densely populated Gaza, killing at least 45 people on Monday, local health authorities said.
In Gaza City, medics said, 30 Palestinians, including displaced women and children who were seeking shelter in a Gaza City school, were killed in an airstrike. Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burned bodies being pulled from the rubble.
Israel's military confirmed that it had targeted the school. It said that the building was being used as a centre by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants to plan and organise attacks.
Farah Nussair, a survivor of the attack, said "just the tired ones" who needed food and water were in the school.
She added, a child in her lap: "We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north. We came to schools .... There is no security or safety, neither at schools, nor hospitals - not anywhere."
Israel's military said numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. It did not provide evidence that the school was being used by militants.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking to broadcaster WDR, said he planned to hold a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him "to not overdo it," though for "historical reasons", Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners.
"Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism," Merz said.
Another strike on a house in Jabalia, adjacent to Gaza City, killed at least 15 other people, medics said.
Israel stepped up military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages.
The campaign, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said will end with Israel in complete control of Gaza, has squeezed the population into an ever-narrowing zone in coastal areas and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas-led Islamist militants stormed Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its residents from their homes.
The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, according to its health authorities.
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