CAIRO: After a slow and chaotic start to the new U.S.-backed aid system in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have been arriving at distribution points, seeking desperately needed food despite scenes of disorder and fears of violence.
The two hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private group sponsored by the United
States and endorsed by Israel, have been running since
Tuesday, but the launch was marred by tumultuous scenes when thousands rushed the fences and forced private contractors providing security to retreat.
An Israeli military official told Reuters that the GHF was now operating four aid distribution sites, three in the Rafah area in the south and one in the Netzarim area in central Gaza.
GHF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether it was now distributing aid in Netzarim.
The new system has been heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as an inadequate and flawed response to the humanitarian crisis left by Israel’s 11-week blockade on aid entering Gaza.
Wessam Khader, a 25-year-old father of a three-year-old boy, said he had gone to a site near Rafah, despite widespread suspicions of the new system among Palestinians and warnings from militant group Hamas to stay away.
Jerusalem, May 29 (AP) Israel announced Thursday it will establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied
West Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation.
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have become increasingly desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli border closures, killed at least 13 people overnight, local health officials said.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip, but leading figures in the current government have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population of the territory to be resettled elsewhere through what they describe as voluntary emigration. The war in
Gaza began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.
Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies.