Last night, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said that a bus carrying more than two dozen of its local team members and volunteers was attacked by Hamas, killing five and injuring others. They added today that three more team members had died.
The response from critics of Israel and outright Israel-haters – who claim to care about the lives of palestinian Arabs – has been silence.
The UN, which has repeatedly criticized the militarized aid delivery model run by GHF, as well as Israel allegedly killing Gazan civilians in various incidents, have not issued a statement specifically condemning Hamas for this bus ambush. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
The same can be said for EU officials and humanitarian NGOs.
I have also seen nothing about this incident from the Israel-haters, who would surely be frothing at the mouths had Israel been behind these deaths.
As for the mainstream media, it is also what we have come to expect.
Take the Guardian for example, who reported the incident…buried in this report about Israel allegedly killing 60 Gazans seeking food near a GHF distribution center.
In fact they only mention the incident right near the end of the report.
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them as they were seeking food from a US-Israeli distribution scheme, according to local health authorities.
Medical officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near Netzarim in central Gaza.
Later in the day, at least 14 people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they were moving towards another GHF distribution site, in Rafah, at Gaza’s southern border. On Tuesday Israeli troops killed 17 Palestinians around GHF sites.
The bodies of two Israeli hostages were recovered from Gaza by the army and the internal security service, Shin Bet. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement naming one of the dead hostages as Yair Yaakov, a 59-year-old father of three who was abducted and killed by Hamas in its 7 October 2023 attack in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and triggered the conflict. Netanyahu said the second hostage whose remains were recovered, could not yet be named.
There are thought to be 53 Israelis hostages still in Gaza, but most are believed to be dead.
The Gaza health authorities said on Wednesday the Palestinian death toll over the 20 months of conflict had passed 55,000. The health ministry was part of the Hamas government but is staffed by medical professionals and its statistics are regarded as reliable by the UN and other global organisations.
In recent days, more and more of the fatalities have been associated with GHF food distribution. On Wednesday, a New York-based law group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, warned the GHF of its “potential legal liability for complicity in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians”.
“As Palestinians now face mass starvation, Israel has teamed up with GHF to make accessing food not only dangerous and potentially deadly but also a tool of forced displacement,” its senior staff attorney, Katherine Gallagher, said. “If GHF continues its militarised aid operations, it must be prepared to face the legal consequences, whether in the United States or beyond.”
The Israeli government and armed forces are now under scrutiny by the international court of justice on allegations of genocide, in part because of the alleged use of food as a weapon against the occupied territory’s 2.2 million people.
Humanitarian experts had previously warned that the GHF scheme of distributing food from a restricted number of heavily militarised sites would be highly dangerous for people seeking food, forcing them to cross combat zones.
The organisation’s first executive director, Jake Wood, resigned last month, saying its plan ran counter to “humanitarian principles”.
Last week, a US consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group which had helped set up the GHF, severed ties with the organisation. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader and religious adviser to Donald Trump, with a record of outspoken support for Israel and minimal experience of humanitarian work, was appointed the new chair of the GHF.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops had fired “warning shots” overnight towards a group it said posed a threat to them. “This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured; the details are under review,” it said.
The GHF told the Reuters news agency it was unaware of Wednesday’s incidents but added that it was working closely with Israeli authorities to ensure safe passage routes are maintained, and that it was essential for Palestinians to closely follow instructions.
“Ultimately, the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population,” it said.
“There is not yet enough food to feed everyone in need in Gaza. Our current focus is to feed as many people as is safely possible within the constraints of a highly volatile environment.”
In a social media post, Moore said he had visited a GHF packing and distribution centre in Israel and claimed the organisation provided 2.5 million meals on Wednesday. That would bring the total to 16 million meals distributed in Gaza since it started operations on 27 May.
The GHF late on Wednesday accused Hamas of killing at least five people in an attack on a bus carrying two dozen Palestinians working with the aid organization to one of its distribution sites.
“We will continue our mission to provide critical aid to the people of Gaza,” it said in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, an Israeli civil rights group, Adalah, said that one of an international group of activists detained by Israel on a ship in the eastern Mediterranean, was being held in solitary confinement.
The BBC have also been doing BBC things:
The new group backed by Israel and the US for aid distribution in Gaza says Hamas attacked a bus transporting some of its Palestinian workers, killing at least eight people.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said the attack happened on Wednesday night as the bus carrying more than two-dozen workers travelled to a distribution centre in southern Gaza, and that it came after days of threats from Hamas.
The BBC cannot independently verify the statement, and Hamas has not commented but it previously denied it had threatened the foundation’s staff.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 103 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 wounded across Gaza in the past 24 hours.
Note how they casting doubt on the fact that Hamas had threatened the GHF, but in the very next sentence treat Hamas claims about the number of casualties as Gospel.
I am sure there are other examples of mainstream media malfeasance, but you get the idea.
This is all rather shocking… yet entirely predictable.
