Israel aims to ‘terrorise’ humanitarian relief groups in Gaza
Hamas accused Israel of targeting aid distribution sites to “terrorise” humanitarian organisations and stop them from helping the starving people of Gaza.
“We call on the international community and UN Security Council to denounce this heinous act, and to move towards putting an end to the occupation’s crimes and aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
At least 196 humanitarian workers have now been killed in Gaza since October, according to the United Nations. Israel has been widely accused of holding up aid earmarked for Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face famine.
Target on their back’: Aid workers halt efforts after deadly Israeli strikes
American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) is one humanitarian organisation among many that decided to halt its work in Gaza after the killing of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen.
“This is something that we were forced to do to ensure our safety,” Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s Palestine country director, told Al Jazeera. “Our staff have guided our work, and they, themselves, feel like there’s a target on their backs.”
Rasheed said the decision to suspend operations was difficult because the situation for Palestinians worsens each day. She said her organisation was distributing close to 150,000 hot meals a day.
“I think the more that we have time to process this, the more surprising and shocking it is that three convoy vehicles were hit by three different bombs – through the roof of their car, which indicates a targeted killing,” she said.
“We are waiting to have some assurance from Israel and from the international community that doing this life-saving work will not constitute putting a target on our staff’s back.”
Palestinians fear food aid fallout after Israeli convoy killings
The Israeli military has attacked a house in central Deir el-Balah city, killing at least four civilians. Since early this morning, we’ve been hearing loud explosions in the southern city of Khan Younis. We could clearly feel the reverberations from our reporting position in Rafah.
Palestinians here are shocked and concerned about the repercussions of Israel’s attack on aid workers. World Central Kitchen is one of the main food distributors in the territory, providing more than 40 million meals since October.
Despite growing international calls to increase aid deliveries, this attack essentially brought humanitarian work to a standstill – despite thousands of Gaza residents staring down starvation conditions.
