 "A woman crouches next to boxes of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies, in Rafah. Reuters")
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the controversial aid group that has been at the forefront of distributing food in the region, has accused Hamas of attacking one of its buses carrying staffers to a distribution centre. The group has said that at least five of its members were killed and several others were injured in the assault.
The group said in a statement that around 10 pm local time “a bus carrying more than two dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team… were brutally attacked by Hamas.”
“We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage,” the statement read.
 "Palestinians say local gunmen, Israeli troops opened fire near US-backed aid centre")
 "Gaza: Four killed, others injured in shooting near aid distribution point")
The group told AFP that all the passengers in the bus were Palestinians and were en route to GHF’s distribution centre in the area west of Khan Younis. The aid group has been making headlines for quite some time as Gazans keep coming under attack by gunmen at aid distribution centres run by GHF.
“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” the group said in its statement. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.”
60 Palestinians die
Meanwhile, Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 60 Palestinians as they sought food at one of GHF’s aid distribution centres.
A New York-based law firm has warned GHF of its “potential legal liability for complicity in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians”.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that the death toll among Gazans has passed 55,000 over 20 months of conflict.
Bodies of 2 hostages recovered
Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
A military statement said a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and “an additional hostage whose name has not yet been cleared for publication” from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Yaakov, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was 59 when he was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day.
With inputs from agencies