A new aid system in Gaza has started operations, a US-backed group says

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A new aid system in Gaza opened its first distribution hubs Monday, according to a U.S.-backed group that said it began delivering food to Palestinians who face growing hunger after Israel's nearly three-month blockade to pressure Hamas.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is taking over the handling of aid despite objections from United Nations. The desperately needed supplies started flowing on a day that saw Israeli strikes kill at least 52 people in Gaza.

The group said truckloads of food -- it did not say how many -- had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun. It was not clear where the hubs were located or how those receiving supplies were chosen.

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

The U.N. and aid groups have pushed back against the new system, which is backed by Israel and the United States. They assert that Israel is trying to use food as a weapon and say a new system won't be effective.

Israel has pushed for an alternative aid delivery plan because it says it must stop Hamas from seizing aid. The U.N. has denied that the militant group has diverted large amounts.

It's not clear who is funding the group

The foundation began operations a day after the resignation of its executive director. Jake Wood, an American, said it had become clear the foundation would not be allowed to operate independently. It's not clear who is funding the group, which said it had appointed an interim leader, John Acree, to replace Wood,

The organization is made up of former humanitarian, government and military officials. It has said its distribution points will be guarded by private security firms and that the aid would reach a million Palestinians — around half of Gaza's population — by the end of the week.

Under pressure from allies, Israel began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza last week after blocking all food, medicine, fuel or other goods from entering since early March. Aid groups have warned of famine and say the aid that has come in is nowhere near enough to meeting mounting needs.

Hamas warned Palestinians on Monday not to cooperate with the new aid system, saying it is part of Israel's plans to transfer much of Gaza's population to other countries.

Israel says it plans to facilitate what it describes as the voluntary migration of much of Gaza's population of 2 million, a plan rejected by Palestinians and much of the international community.

Israel's military campaign has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and internally displaced some 90% of its population. Many have fled multiple times.

Airstrikes hit shelter

The Israeli airstrikes killed at least 36 people in a school-turned-shelter that was hit as people slept, setting their belongings ablaze, according to local health officials. The military said it targeted militants operating from the school.

Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas. It has vowed to seize control of Gaza and keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and until it returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the 2023 attack. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It says more than half the dead are women and children but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

The strike on the school in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City also wounded dozens of people, said Fahmy Awad, head of the ministry's emergency service. He said a father and his five children were among the dead. The Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals in Gaza City confirmed the overall toll.

Awad said the school was hit three times while people slept, setting fire to their belongings. Footage circulating online showed rescuers struggling to extinguish fires and recovering charred remains.

The military said it targeted a militant command and control center inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad used to gather intelligence for attacks. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas.

A separate strike on a home in Jabalya in northern Gaza killed 16 members of the same family, including five women and two children, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies.

Palestinian militants meanwhile fired three projectiles from Gaza, two of which fell short within the territory and a third that was intercepted, according to the Israeli military.

Ultranationalists march in east Jerusalem, break into UN compound

Ultranationalist Israelis gathered Monday in Jerusalem for an annual procession marking Israel's 1967 conquest of the city's eastern sector. Some protesters chanted ''Death to Arabs'' and harassed Palestinian residents.

Police kept a close watch as demonstrators jumped, danced and sang. The event threatened to inflame tensions that are rife in the restive city amid nearly 600 days of war in Gaza.

Hours earlier, a small group of protesters, including an Israeli member of parliament, stormed a compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned. The compound has been mostly empty since January, when staff were asked to stay away for security reasons. The U.N. says the compound is protected under international law.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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