A controversial new aid center in Gaza began its work on Tuesday, with chaos and confusion marring the first days of operation. The group running it was conceived by Israelis and the plan was backed by Israel, but the United Nations and many other humanitarian organizations are boycotting it, criticizing its lack of independence.
The criticism is another sign of Israel’s growing isolation. Britain, France, and Canada issued a rare public reprimand of Israel on May 20, demanding that it cease its widening military offensive in Gaza. That laid bare growing rifts between Israel and its traditional Western allies, and prompted a furious Israeli response. Much of the criticism has focused on Israel’s decision to block aid to Gaza for more than two months beginning in March, exacerbating already dire conditions in the enclave.
Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official, said nearly 50 people had been injured in the chaotic fray on Tuesday. He called the Israeli attempt to take control of humanitarian aid distribution for Palestinians in Gaza part of “an assault on their human dignity.” On Thursday, the group running the new aid operation said warning shots and smoke bombs were fired to disperse crowds at a distribution hub it had just opened in central Gaza.
Is any aid getting into Gaza?
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the new group running aid distribution, said on Thursday that about 17,200 food boxes had been distributed in the enclave so far, with each one feeding “5.5 people for 3.5 days,” totaling more than 1.8 million meals. The flow of aid is expected to increase daily, it added.
But the United Nations said the supplies constitute a mere trickle of assistance in face of the needs of a population of about two million people at risk of famine.
Adding to the confusion, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s executive director resigned on Sunday, hours before the program was set to start. He said he had found it impossible to perform the job independently after reports in several news outlets, including The Times, raised questions about the group’s connections with Israel.
Separately from the new system, some U.N. aid trucks are still making their way through a single border crossing into southern Gaza. But U.N. officials say that distribution to warehouses and bakeries inside Gaza has been hampered by the lack of secure routes, and that negligible quantities of food are reaching the people who need it.
The United Nations said on Thursday that Israeli authorities had cleared about 800 truckloads of aid since lifting the blockade last week. Only about 200 of them have actually moved out to the population, however, because of the dangers surrounding aid distribution.
“That’s better than absolutely nothing,” said Olga Cherevko, a member of the U.N. humanitarian team for Gaza. “But it is less than a drop in the ocean.”
Israel’s blockade March had halted food and fuel entering Gaza since March, causing widespread hunger and deprivation among Palestinians there. Aid organizations suspended their operations as food stockpiles dwindled. Doctors reported malnutrition among children, and the United Nations recently warned that people across the territory were at risk of famine.
Israeli officials had said the blockade was an attempt to force Hamas to surrender and release the remaining hostages held in Gaza, dozens of whom are presumed dead. They argued that a new aid distribution system was necessary because Hamas was diverting humanitarian aid on a grand scale — claims that could not be independently confirmed, and that the United Nations said were exaggerated.
How have Israel’s allies responded?
The new system has raised concerns from Palestinians and the international community that the approach, which concentrates on sites in southern and central Gaza, for now, will forcibly displace residents from the northern part of the territory.
Using a handful of militarized sites for food distribution, rather than the hundreds previously used, also requires many people to walk for miles and cross Israeli military cordons to obtain aid.
President Trump called on Sunday for the war to wind down, and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has since presented Israel and Hamas with a new version of his proposal for a cease-fire deal. Israel said on Thursday that it had accepted the proposal. Hamas said it was considering it.
Britain’s minister of state for international development, Jenny Chapman, made her first visit to Israel and the West Bank this week. In an interview with the BBC in Ramallah, Baroness Chapman said Israel was “using hunger as a weapon of war.”
In a speech on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu defended the aid distribution effort, saying it would prevent Hamas from stealing supplies. The idea, he said, is to ensure that Hamas cannot loot aid and use it as a tool of war. He also said the plan was “eventually, to have a sterile zone in the south of Gaza where the entire population can move for its own protection.”
How are Palestinians in Gaza responding?
The vast majority of Gaza’s residents have already been forcibly displaced at least once — many of them several times — during the war.
Even before the Israeli military’s announcement, Palestinians had started fleeing their homes to seek shelter away from the Israeli lines. Last week, Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders in and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Suzanne Abu Daqqa, who lives in Abasan, outside of Khan Younis, said recently that what she feared most of all was being forced to leave her home again for a tent camp along the enclave’s coastline.
“If they tell us ‘leave,’ that will be a great catastrophe,” she said in a phone call.
The following day, Israel’s military warned residents of Abasan to flee or face “an unprecedented attack.”
How far have Israeli troops advanced?
For weeks, Mr. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders had been threatening a major escalation in Gaza unless Hamas agreed to Israel’s terms for a truce.
Then Israel announced on May 18 that its forces had launched “extensive ground operations” throughout the enclave, saying that soldiers from five divisions were participating in the renewed offensive.
The military said it would dissect Gaza into separate zones while ordering Palestinian civilians to leave combat areas.
But details about the renewed offensive and Israeli troop movements remain scarce. And despite escalating its rhetoric, the Israeli military has yet to fully invade major Palestinian cities like Khan Younis and Gaza City, as it did in the early days of the war.
Satellite images taken on May 20 and analyzed by The New York Times show Israeli military activity during the previous week across several locations near Israel’s border with Gaza, including in the northern part of the enclave and near the southern city of Khan Younis.
The military has also been active farther south in Rafah, where satellite images show it has destroyed extensive parts of the city since a cease-fire collapsed in mid-March.
Effie Defrin, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said at a news conference that the military was being intentionally ambiguous about its movements to protect its forces.
How many people have been killed?
Before announcing the renewed ground offensive, Israel had started ratcheting up its bombardment of Gaza. Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of people since mid-May, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
One recent attack hit around the European Hospital near the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli officials said the May 13 strike was an effort to kill Muhammad Sinwar, one of Hamas’s remaining top commanders in Gaza; neither Israel nor Hamas has officially confirmed his fate.
The Israeli military says it takes measures to avoid harming civilians, such as using “precise munitions” and giving advance warning of some strikes.
More than 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas set off the conflict with a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages to Gaza.
Isabel Kershner, Natan Odenheimer and Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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