UN demands probe into Gaza aid center killings

The United Nations has called for an immediate and impartial probe into aid sites set up by the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, amid continuing chaotic scenes during its aid distribution, which turned deadly on Tuesday, claiming at least 27 lives and injuring dozens.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called the attacks "unconscionable".

"The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction on a massive scale, repeated forced displacements, and intolerable dehumanizing rhetoric and threats by Israel's leadership to empty the strip of its population, also constitute elements of the most serious crimes under international law," he added.

"Palestinians have been presented with the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meager food that is being made available through Israel's militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism," he said.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the GHF's "militarized system" endangered lives and violated international standards on aid distribution — also a reason the UN and various aid groups were against the operation of GHF in the Gaza Strip.

Imminent risk

Turk reiterated that in 2024, the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, found that there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

On Wednesday, 10 elected members of the UN Security Council asked for the 15-member body to vote on a draft resolution that would demand "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza", and a release of all hostages held by Hamas, including the unhindered entry of all aid into Gaza, according to a Reuters report.

In an interview on Sky News Trump100 podcast on Monday, former US State Department spokesman during the Joe Biden administration, Matthew Miller, acknowledged "without a doubt "that Israel "has committed war crimes". However, he did not believe genocide was being carried out in Gaza.

In a post on X referring to Tuesday's incident, the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said its troops "identified several suspects deviating from the designated routes, moving toward them".

"The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near individual suspects who advanced toward the troops. The IDF is aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into," the post said.

The IDF said it allows GHF "to operate independently in order to enable the distribution of aid to the Gazan residents — and not to Hamas".

Following the incident, the GHF paused its aid distribution sites on Wednesday as it named a new executive — Johnnie Moore, a former evangelical adviser to the White House — to lead the controversial agency, the Times of Israel reported.

The IDF's spokesman Avichay Adraee had warned Palestinians that going to the roads leading to the aid sites would be prohibited, as they were considered combat zones.

The World Health Organization said that it still has "teams on the ground" in Gaza ready to distribute supplies "if only they could be allowed to move".