US-backed aid group begins Gaza operations as airstrikes kill dozens

By Alexander Cornwell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -A U.S.-backed foundation tasked with supplying aid to Gaza said it began operations on Monday, delivering truckloads of food to designated distribution sites following uncertainty about whether any assistance had reached civilians.

The aid plan, which has been endorsed by Israel but rejected by the U.N., appeared to be unfolding amid fierce Israeli attacks on the enclave, including on a school building where dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside were killed.

Palestinians reported no sign of aid deliveries earlier on Monday, but the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation later confirmed that distribution to civilians had begun, a day after its chief unexpectedly stepped down.

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

With food critically short after a nearly three-month blockade, Washington says it is working to restore a ceasefire more than 19 months into the war, but progress is elusive.

A Palestinian official said Hamas had agreed to a U.S. proposal for a truce and the release of 10 Israeli hostages, but an Israeli official dismissed the proposal as unacceptable, denying it was Washington's suggestion.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff rejected reports that Hamas had agreed to his proposal, telling Reuters that what he has seen is "completely unacceptable."

Israel has faced a mounting international outcry this month, including from Western allies, as it launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment and where the population of 2 million is at risk of famine.

Close ally Germany said Israel's recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas, which ignited the war with its cross-border October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave for the first time since March. But the few hundred trucks carried a tiny fraction of the food needed.

The GHF's executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying the foundation could not adhere "to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence."

The Switzerland-registered foundation said on Monday it had appointed John Acree as interim executive director, describing him as a "senior humanitarian practitioner" with over two decades of field experience in disaster response and civil-military coordination.

The GHF has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company's aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching Gazans.

The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials.

But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.

Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would "replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime."

Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population, a charge rejected by Hamas, which says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters.

'NO SECURITY OR SAFETY'

Israeli strikes killed at least 45 people on Monday, local health authorities said.

In Gaza City, medics said 30 Palestinians, including displaced women and children who were seeking shelter in a school, were killed in an airstrike. Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burned bodies being pulled from the rubble.

Israel's military confirmed it had targeted the school. It said the building was being used as a centre by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants to plan and organise attacks.

Farah Nussair, who survived the attack, said "just the tired ones" who needed food and water were in the school.

She added, a child in her lap: "We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north. We came to schools ... There is no security or safety, neither at schools, nor hospitals - not anywhere."

Israel's military said it used precise weapons, surveillance and other steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. It did not provide evidence that the school was being used by militants.

Another strike on a house in Jabalia, adjacent to Gaza City, killed at least 15 other people, medics said.

Sweden said it would summon Israel's ambassador in Stockholm over the humanitarian aid situation in Gaza.

Israel stepped up military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages.

The campaign, which Netanyahu has said will end with Israel in complete control of Gaza, has squeezed the population into an ever-narrowing zone in coastal areas and around the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas-led Islamist militants stormed Israeli communities in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its residents from their homes.

The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, according to its health authorities.

(Reporting by Nidal Al Mughrabi and Mustafa Abu Ghaneyeh; Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen; James Mackenzie in Jerusalem; Ludwig Burger; Steve Holland in Washington; writing by Yomna Ehab, James Mackenzie, Tom Perry and Hatem Maher; editing by Tom Hogue, Lincoln Feast, Mark Heinrich, Philippa Fletcher and Rod Nickel)