Israel says Hamas 'weaponising suffering in Gaza' as aid workers killed

Israel charged Thursday that Hamas was "weaponising suffering in Gaza" after a US and Israeli-backed charity accused the Palestinian militant group of killing five of its aid workers in the territory.

The distribution of food and basic supplies in the blockaded and war-ravaged Gaza Strip has become increasingly fraught and perilous, exacerbating the territory's deep hunger crisis.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said a bus carrying its staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Yunis was "brutally attacked by Hamas" around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) Wednesday, killing at least five Palestinian aid workers.

"Hamas is weaponising suffering in Gaza -- denying food, targeting lifesavers and forsaking its own people," Israel's foreign ministry said on X.

The GHF said: "There are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage."

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.

The agency said another 16 people were killed while waiting for aid on Thursday, adding that they were among 22 people across the territory who were killed by Israeli fire.

The Israeli army said it was looking into the latest deaths.

Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is unable to independently verify the casualty tolls provided by the civil defence agency or the deaths reported by the GHF.

'Died while waiting'

An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operating on May 26 after Israel cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine.

During its first week of operations, the GHF said it distributed more than seven million meals' worth of food, but its operations were widely criticised even before the deadly shootings near its sites.

The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.

"The so-called new way of handling assistance in Gaza is most degrading, humiliating & puts lives in danger," the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X on Thursday.

Gaza medics have said hospitals are being inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food.

At Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, the emergency department said it had received dozens of people who had been killed or wounded while waiting for aid in recent days, including 200 in a single day.

"Many Gazans went to the Nabulsi and Netzarim areas to receive aid and were shot at and shelled with tanks," said Mutaz Harara, head of Al-Shifa's emergency department.

But with few medical supplies and no operating theatres, "many patients died while waiting for their turn", he said.

The war has caused major damage to infrastructure across Gaza, including water mains, telecommunication cables, power lines and roads.

The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory's last fibre optic cable which it blamed on Israel.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the outage was affecting its emergency response by impeding communication with first responders.

Convoys through Egypt?

Meanwhile, two activist convoys travelling through north Africa were attempting to reach the Gaza border to highlight the blockaded territory's plight.

Organisers of a planned march said Egyptian authorities had detained more than 200 activists in Cairo ahead of the planned event.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had said he expected Egyptian authorities "to prevent the arrival of jihadist protesters at the Egypt-Israel border".

Egypt said while it backs efforts to put "pressure on Israel" to lift its Gaza blockade, any foreign delegations seeking to visit the border area must obtain prior approval.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Israel said late on Wednesday that its forces had retrieved the bodies of two hostages from southern Gaza.

Prior to the latest announcement, out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 were still held in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military has said are dead.

Hamas's assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority of them civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.