Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Gazans have accused Israel of engineering a humanitarian catastrophe with its new aid operations, saying supplies are being restricted to the south of the enclave in an effort to displace people from the north through starvation.
The allegations by officials and Palestinian civilians come after authorities in Gaza said dozens of people were killed in recent days by Israeli gunfire near aid distribution points. The aid centres are being run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by the US and Israel that started operating after Israel relaxed a blockade on the enclave.
Three Palestinians were killed early on Monday near an aid centre west of Rafah in the south, medical sources told The National.
The Israeli military did not issue any comment on the deaths reported on Monday but offered conflicting accounts of the shooting on Sunday. It initially said it did not fire at civilians "near or within" the food distribution site and that "reports to this effect are false". However, a military official said troops had fired warning shots to "prevent several suspects from approaching" the site, but that this was unrelated to the "false claims" against the army.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation into the shooting. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador in Israel, meanwhile, said reports of Israeli killings near the food bank were false as he claimed the GHF had distributed aid "without incident".
Mr Huckabee said "misleading, exaggerated" reports were contributing to violence against Jews in the US. "It is Hamas that continues to terrorise and intimidate those who seek food aid," he said.
The UN and global aid organisations have refused to work with the GHF, saying its operations are an affront to international humanitarian principles. Gazans say aid from the group is almost exclusively going to the south, leaving the north to starve.
"This is not a logistical failure, it is a deliberate strategy," Ismail Al Thawabta, director of Gaza's media office, told The National. “The occupation is starving people in northern Gaza, forcing them to flee south where hunger is also spreading and chaos is intensifying. This is part of a calculated plan to forcibly displace the population.”
International aid groups have repeatedly called for access to all areas of Gaza, but Mr Al Thawabta said they have been ignored. The little aid other organisations can get into Gaza is seized by desperate civilians or armed groups that residents say are enabled by Israeli forces, Mr Al Thawabta said.
Israel has claimed Hamas is seizing aid and described the GHF operations as a way of circumventing the militant group.
But many Gazans in the north now face an impossible choice: leave their homes for an uncertain future in the south, or stay and face a slow, grinding descent into famine.
The south of Gaza borders Egypt. While no border crossing is currently open, some Israeli politicians have spoken openly about relocating Palestinians out of the strip.
“The occupation is using hunger as a weapon. It’s trying to kill us or force us to flee,” said Mohammed Abu Simaan, 32, from the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of northern Gaza.
He refuses to leave despite the lack of supplies. “They’ve made their intentions clear, this is about displacement," he said. "But I won’t move. My family won’t move. Gaza is our home and no matter how long it takes, food will reach us eventually.”
He accused Israel of breaching international law by blocking aid from reaching northern Gaza and leaving residents to fend for themselves. “They want us to suffer until we break. But we are not leaving. Not again," he said.
Israel has faced mounting international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the UN has warned the entire population faces famine. The enclave's farmland has been destroyed, with barely any arable land remaining.
Israel imposed an aid blockade in March and only relaxed it in recent days. Supplies are now trickling in, but the UN has reported the looting of its lorries and warehouses. Humanitarian groups say the GHF operations force civilians to travel through dangerous areas to obtain food.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, said aid distribution “has become a death trap”. He described the GHF centres as a “humiliating system” that forced hungry Gazans to walk long distances to areas ravaged by Israeli bombardment.
Younis Abu Shaer, 40, who is staying in Gaza's Jabalia displacement camp, told The National he initially resisted moving south in search of food when the Israeli army ordered a mass displacement three weeks ago. But in the end, the pressure became unbearable.
“After two weeks, we had no flour, no vegetables, no cash, nothing," he explained. "I had no choice. I packed our things and went south just to find food.”
He arrived at a GHF distribution centre, but left empty-handed. A tip-off then led him to lorries carrying flour in the southern city of Khan Younis. “We waited over seven hours and, even then, we had to fight through crowds to get just one sack of flour,” he said. “I didn’t want to go south, but hunger is merciless. It leaves you no choice.”
