At least five Palestinians working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial aid group backed by the United States and Israel, were killed late Wednesday when the bus they were traveling in came under attack, the organization said in a statement.
The GHF, which began distributing food aid barely two weeks ago from sites in the southern and central Gaza Strip, said the team of about two dozen staff were attacked about 10 p.m. local time while traveling to a distribution center west of Khan Younis. “Some of our team members may have been taken hostage,” the statement said.
It blamed the attack on Hamas, the militant group that ruled Gaza, but did not offer evidence. There was no immediate comment from Hamas or its military wing.
As many as eight may have been killed in the attack, according to a person familiar with operations at the distribution sites inside Gaza, who called the workers “heroes.” A number were left wounded, and others were apparently kidnapped by the attackers, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about the fast-unfolding events.
Palestinians working at the sites — local Arabic speakers who help organize the surge of Gazans picking up aid and physically hand over the boxes of food — are paid volunteers, many of whom have been living at the distribution sites for security reasons. Some opt to return to their families between shifts or after working a number of days at a time. The four sites are staffed 24 hours a day by US private security contractors, who also secure the roads used by truck convoys carrying daily consignments of aid into Gaza from the Israeli border.
Many humanitarian organizations have refused to participate in the GHF operations, which they charge violate their principles of neutrality and further Israeli war aims by limiting the places where food is available to Gazans and exposing them to increased danger.
Health authorities inside Gaza have said that dozens of civilians approaching the distribution sites have been shot and killed by Israeli troops at positions near the sites. The Israel Defense Forces has said it is investigating some of those shootings.
Israel, which partially lifted an 11-week blockade on aid entering the enclave to enable the GHF operation, has also allowed the UN World Food Program and other nonprofit agencies to resume a relatively small number of their own aid deliveries outside the bounds of the guarded compounds.
But many of those trucks have been attacked and looted by armed gangs and desperate, hungry people. Drivers, fearing the lack of security, have often refused to ferry the goods into Gaza. The deliveries also have been limited by what the United Nations has said is Israel’s refusal to approve transit routes through an expanding war zone as it steps up a renewed campaign against Hamas.
Hamas has not attacked the GHF distribution points or the US contractors directly, but it has issued public threats against them, anyone working for them, and Gazans receiving the aid.
“Tonight, the world must see this for what it is: an attack on humanity,” the foundation statement said. “We call on the international community to immediately condemn Hamas for this unprovoked attack and continued threat against our people simply trying to feed the Palestinian people.”