The Gaza Civil Defence announced that 51 people were killed since early yesterday by Israeli army fire, with most casualties occurring near two aid distribution centres in the devastated central and southern parts of Gaza. Israeli forces ordered new evacuations, local medics and residents said, in further bloodshed shortly after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in their war.
The Israel-Iran deal announced by US President Donald Trump raised hopes among Palestinians of an end to more than 20 months of war in Gaza that has widely demolished the territory and displaced most residents, with malnutrition widespread.
“Enough! The whole universe has let us down. (Iran-backed Lebanese group) Hizbollah reached a deal without Gaza, and now Iran has done the same,” said Adel Farouk, 62, from Gaza City.
“We hope Gaza is next,” he told Reuters via a chat app, speaking before two explosions rang out in Tehran, with Trump accusing both sides of violating the deal, though voicing particular unhappiness with Israel, rebuking it with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst of frustration.
In Gaza, deadly violence continued with little respite.
Marwan Abu Naser, of the Al Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said it had received 19 dead and 146 injured from crowds who tried to reach a nearby aid distribution centre of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Abu Naser told Reuters the casualties resulted from gunfire.
Israel’s military said that a gathering overnight was identified adjacent to forces operating in Gaza’s central Netzarim Corridor, and it was reviewing reports of casualties.
Responding to a Reuters request for comment, the GHF said in an e-mail that there has been no incident near their aid site, which it added was located several kilometres south of the Netzarim Corridor.
UN aid trucks entering Gaza also use area roads and Palestinians have in the past few days reported killings of people by Israeli fire as they waited at roadsides to grab bags of flour from the trucks.
Israel has been channelling much of the aid it lets into Gaza through the GHF, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent the Hamas fighters it is fighting from diverting aid deliveries. Hamas denies doing so. Israel says fighters use built-up residential areas for operating cover. Hamas denies this too.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations’ Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, told reporters in Berlin yesterday that the new mechanism was an ‘abomination’ and ‘a death trap’.
Palestinians said they wished the Israel-Iran ceasefire announced by Trump had applied to Gaza.
Adding to their frustration, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over several areas in north Gaza ordering residents to leave their homes and head towards the south, in what appeared to herald renewed Israeli military strikes against Hamas.
“Coming back to combat areas represents a risk to your lives,” the army statement said.
Sources close to Hamas told Reuters there had been some new efforts to resume ceasefire talks with Israel. They said Hamas was open to discussing any offers that would ‘end the war and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza’. But these echoed longstanding Hamas conditions that Israel has always rejected.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
l The US is giving $30 million to the controversial humanitarian group delivering aid in war-torn Gaza despite concern among some US officials about the month-old operation and the killing of Palestinians near food distribution sites, according to four sources and a document seen by Reuters.
Washington has long backed the GHF diplomatically, but this is the first known US government financial contribution to the organisation, which uses private US military and logistics firms to transport aid into the Palestinian enclave for distribution at so-called secure sites.
A document reviewed by Reuters showed that the $30m US Agency for International Development grant to GHF was authorised on Friday under a ‘priority directive’ from the White House and State Department. The document showed an initial $7m disbursement had been made.
The US could approve additional monthly grants of $30m for the GHF, said two of the sources.
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