Hamas says it killed 12 Israeli-backed fighters. Israeli-supported group says they were aid workers

This is a locator map of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. (AP Photo)

CAIRO — A unit of Gaza’s Hamas-run police force said it killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia after detaining them early Thursday. An Israel-supported aid group, however, said the dead were its aid workers, eight of whom were killed when Hamas attacked their bus.

It was not immediately possible to verify the competing claims or confirm the identities of those killed. The militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, said its fighters had attacked Hamas and killed five militants but made no mention of its own casualties. It also accused Hamas of detaining and killing aid workers.

The deaths were the latest sign of turmoil surrounding the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private contractor that Israel says will replace the UN in distributing food to Gaza’s more than 2 million people. The past two weeks, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in near daily shootings as they try to reach GHF centers, with witnesses saying Israeli troops nearby have repeatedly opened fire.

On Wednesday, at least 13 people were killed and 170 wounded when Israeli forces fired toward a crowd of Palestinians near a GHF center in central Gaza, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. The military said it fired warning shots overnight at a gathering that posed a threat, hundreds of metres (yards) from the aid site.

Internet and phone lines, meanwhile, were down across Gaza, according to telecom provider Paltel and the Palestinian telecoms authority. They said a key line was severed during an Israeli operation and that the military would not allow technicians into the area to repair it.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said emergency services were cut off because of the outage, and civilians cannot call ambulances. It said most UN agencies and aid groups could not reach their staff on the ground.

`They were aid workers’

Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza, making it difficult to confirm what happened in the killings early Wednesday near the southern city of Khan Younis.

GHF said Hamas attacked a bus carrying more than two dozen of its Palestinian aid workers, killing at least eight and wounding others. It said it feared some had been abducted.

“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” it said. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.”

The Israeli military circulated GHF’s statement but declined to provide its own account of what happened.

Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump who was recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings “absolute evil.”

The UN’s OCHA said it could not confirm the circumstances of the killings but said “civilians must never be attacked, let alone those trying to access or provide food amid mass starvation.”

GHF says its staff at the centers include unarmed Palestinian employees. Much of the staff are armed international contractors, mainly Americans, guarding the centers.

The Abu Shabab group fighters are deployed inside the Israeli military zones that surround the GHF centers, according to witnesses. Earlier this week, witnesses said Abu Shabab militiamen had opened fire on people en route to a GHF aid hub, killing and wounding many. GHF says it does not work with the Abu Shabab group. Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians opposed to Hamas.

Hamas says it killed traitors

Hamas has rejected the GHF system and threatened to kill any Palestinians who cooperate with the Israeli military.

The Sahm police unit, which Hamas says it established to combat looting, released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel.

It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them.

Mohammed Abu Amin, a Khan Younis resident who was at the scene, said a crowd celebrated the killings, shouting “God is greatest” and condemning those killed as traitors.

Ghassan Duhine, who identifies himself as deputy commander of the Abu Shabab group and a major in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, issued a statement saying Abu Shabab fighters had clashed with Sahm and killed five. He denied that the bodies in Sahm’s images were the group’s fighters.

The Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has denied any connection to the Abu Shabab group. But many of the militiamen identify themselves as PA officers.

Aid initiative already marred by controversy

Aid workers say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel’s renewed military campaign and its 2 1/2 month ban o n imports of food, fuel, medicine to Gaza, which was slightly eased in mid-May.

OCHA warned that fuel “may very soon run out” at 67 of the 85 remaining partially functioning hospitals and health care centers in Gaza, meaning vital equipment would go dead.

Despite the easing of the blockade, Israel has still not allowed fuel to enter. OCHA said the military gave it permission to retrieve fuel stored in northern Gaza after weeks of denials, but the team sent Wednesday had to turn back because of Israeli shelling in the area.

The United Nations and major aid groups have rejected the GHF distribution system. They say it is unable to meet Gaza’s needs and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to enact its military objectives, including plans to move Gaza’s entire population to southern Gaza near the GHF hubs. Some fear this could be part of an Israeli plan to coerce Palestinians into leaving Gaza.

Israel and the United States say the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid from the long-standing UN-run system. UN officials deny there has been any systematic diversion of aid by Hamas.

The Israeli military on Thursday released what it said were seized Hamas documents showing it takes aid. One document, apparently showing minutes from a meeting last year, included an item saying the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, had previously taken 25% of the aid but had agreed to settle for 7%, with 4% going to the Hamas-run government and 4% to the political movement. It did not specify the source or quantity of the aid. Israel did not release the entire document.

The documents also detailed Hamas’ efforts to keep traders from hoarding goods and charging inflated prices for them. One of them appeared to acknowledge that some such traders had links to Hamas.

The Associated Press could not confirm the documents’ authenticity.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. They are still holding 53 captives, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

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Samy Magdy And Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed.