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Palestinians move boxes of humanitarian aid collected from a distribution centre in the Netzarim Corridor, central Gaza Strip, on May 29. (Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
By Lucas Lilieholm and Oren Liebermann, CNN
(CNN) — The distribution of aid from a controversial new US- and Israel-backed organization into Gaza was paused for 24 hours on Wednesday after Palestinians en route to a distribution site came under fire for three straight days, with fatal consequences.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said that its hubs would be closed due to logistical work to better handle the massive number of people arriving in the hope of collecting food, and so the Israeli military could make “preparations on the access routes to the centers.” Distribution at the sites is expected to resume Thursday.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) warned Palestinians, who endured an 11-week blockade on aid into the strip followed by a meager trickle of food and supplies in the past couple of weeks, to stay away from the GHF sites. “Movement tomorrow on the roads leading to the distribution centers is strictly prohibited, as these are considered combat zones,” the military’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for GHF said the organization was “actively engaged” in talks with the Israeli military to improve security beyond the perimeter of the humanitarian zone. GHF asked the IDF to introduce measures to guide foot traffic away from military positions, develop clearer guidance to allow the population to move safely to the aid sites, and to “enhance IDF force training and refine internal IDF procedures to support safety,” the spokesperson said.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency coordinating the passage of aid into Gaza, said 157 trucks with food and flour entered the enclave on Tuesday. These truckloads of humanitarian aid have supplied both GHF and the United Nations, which has continued to deliver aid after GHF began operating. But it remains a fraction of the 500-600 trucks that entered Gaza before the war, according to the UN.
GHF got off to a rocky start when its first executive director resigned the day before operations began last Monday, citing concerns over impartiality and urging Israel to allow more aid into the blockaded enclave.
US military veteran Jake Wood quit as GHF’s head after just a matter of weeks at the organization, publicly launched by the United States in early May. The foundation appointed evangelical Christian leader Rev. Johnnie Moore as its new director on Tuesday, who promised to expand the distribution effort in Gaza.
“GHF is demonstrating that it is possible to move vast quantities of food to people who need it most – safely, efficiently, and effectively,” Moore said in a statement Tuesday.
The organization has repeatedly said there has been no violence at their sites but acknowledged on Tuesday that there have been incidents along the approach routes to the centers. “This was an area well beyond our secure distribution site,” GHF said.
Dozens of Palestinians have died after coming under Israeli fire in recent days, Palestinian authorities say. On Tuesday, nearly 30 people were killed, and dozens wounded, according to the Palestinian health officials. The IDF said its forces opened fire multiple times after identifying “several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated access routes.”
A day earlier, three Palestinians were shot dead and dozens wounded as they were on their way to access aid, Palestinian and hospital authorities said. The Israeli military said that its forces fired warning shots approximately a kilometer (about 1,100 yards) from the GHF site.
On Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry, hospital officials and a half-dozen eyewitnesses said the Israeli military was responsible for gunfire that killed 31 people. At the time, the IDF said its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within” the aid site, but an Israeli military source acknowledged that Israeli forces fired toward individuals about a kilometer away, before the aid site opened.
Most established aid organizations and the UN have refused to work with GHF saying it fails to meet core humanitarian principles and citing concerns that its limited distribution points in the south of the strip would further the military goals of Israel to remove Gaza’s population from the north.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, was scathing in his assessment of the foundation during a UN Security Council meeting earlier this month.
“It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is a cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement,” Fletcher said.
But GHF has doubled down on its distribution mechanism. The organization said Tuesday: “We remain focused on one thing: getting food to the people who need it most. And right now, we are the only organization doing that at scale, with consistency and safety.”
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.
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