New aid system in Gaza has started operations, US-backed group says

A new aid system in Gaza has opened its first distribution hubs in the territory, according to a US-backed group that is taking over handling of supplies.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is backed by Israel and the United States but has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups, which say that Israel is trying to use food as a weapon.

They say a new distribution system will not be effective.

The foundation began operations on Monday despite the resignation of its executive director.

Gaza faces a growing humanitarian crisis after Israel’s nearly three-month blockade of supplies to pressure Hamas.

The group said lorryloads of food, it did not say how many, had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.

“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.

Israel has pushed for an alternative aid plan because it says it must stop Hamas from seizing aid.

The UN has denied that the militant group has diverted large amounts of aid.

The move came after Israeli strikes killed at least 52 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including 36 in a school-turned-shelter that was struck as people slept, setting their belongings ablaze, according to local health officials.

The military said it targeted militants operating from the school.

The strike on the school in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood also wounded dozens of people, said Fahmy Awad, head of the health ministry’s emergency service.

He said a father and his five children were among the dead. The Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the overall toll.

Mr Awad said the school was hit three times while people slept. Footage online showed rescuers struggling to extinguish fires and recovering charred remains.

Israel’s military said it targeted a command centre inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants used to gather intelligence for attacks.

Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas.

A separate strike on a home in Jabaliya in northern Gaza killed 16 members of a family, including five women and two children, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies.

Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas.

It has vowed to seize full control of Gaza and keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and until the militant group returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

Israel began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza last week after blocking all food, medicine, fuel or other goods from entering for two and a half months.

Aid groups have warned of famine and say the aid that has entered is nowhere near enough to meeting mounting needs.

Israel says it plans to facilitate what it describes as the voluntary migration of Gaza’s more than two million population, a plan rejected by Palestinians and much of the international community.

Hamas warned Palestinians on Monday not to co-operate with the new aid system, saying it is aimed at furthering those objectives.

Israel’s military campaign has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced some 90% of its population. Many have fled multiple times.

In a separate development, ultranationalist Israelis gathered in Jerusalem for an annual procession marking Israel’s 1967 conquest of the city’s eastern sector. Some protesters chanted “Death to Arabs” and harassed Palestinian residents.

A small group, including a member of parliament, broke into the east Jerusalem compound of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned.

The UNRWA compound has been mostly empty since January, when staff were asked to stay away for security reasons.