By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – The U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has denied reports that Israeli troops fired at civilians near an aid distribution site in Gaza, killing dozens.
News channels CNN, BBC, and others still carried reports late Sunday that 31 Palestinians were killed in Gaza by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fire, despite GHF showing a video that it said provides evidence to the contrary.
Worthy News reviewed the video, which showed crowds of people calmly receiving and picking up humanitarian aid supplies.
The IDF said it works with GHF and international aid groups to ensure aid reaches Gaza’s residents — not Hamas, which killed 1,200 Jews on October 7, 2023, sparking the war.
The military accused Hamas of “deliberately obstructing” food distribution, harming civilians, and using “starvation as a tool” to maintain control.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defense agency said in an update that Israeli fire killed at least 22 people on Sunday, revising an earlier death toll.
“The number of martyrs from the massacre at the American aid center in Rafah has risen to at least 22, with more than 120 wounded, including children,” civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
BYPASS UN
GHF, which aims to bypass the United Nations as the main supplier of aid to civilians of Gaza, said the reports “were fabricated.”
An IDF source reportedly clarified that during the night, roughly one kilometer (0.6 miles) from the humanitarian aid distribution area and outside its operating hours, troops took action to prevent several suspects from approaching their position. “Evasive fire” was allegedly directed at individuals advancing toward the forces. It was unclear if or how many people had been killed or injured in that incident.
The military stressed that this incident was “entirely unrelated” to the “false allegations” of IDF firing at civilians near the aid site.
Following the incident, the GHF denied claims of casualties and injuries at its aid distribution sites. “All aid was distributed today without incident. No injuries or fatalities. We have heard that Hamas has actively fomented these fake reports. They are untrue and fabricated,” GHF noted.
Separately, the Red Crescent claimed 14 Palestinian people “were injured” on Sunday by Israeli fire near another aid site in central Gaza, but those reports could not be verified independently.
While the IDF said it supports selective aid efforts, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to continue advancing towards “all targets” in Gaza despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations being mediated by the United States, Israel’s biggest ally.
Katz and others in the government have made clear that Hamas should release all remaining hostages and that the group must be destroyed.
CEASEFIRE PROPOSAL
Hamas announced Saturday that it had replied to the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal, but Washington’s main negotiator criticized the response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian group said in a statement that under the deal, it would release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners.
The updated proposal also includes a demand for an end to the war, which had previously been a red line for Israel, and envisions the release of the Israelis held captive in Gaza being spread out more throughout the 60-day truce rather than in two batches on the first and seventh day as the U.S. offer suggested.
Witkoff responded on Saturday evening by saying the Hamas response was “totally unacceptable and only takes us backward.”
“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,” he said. “That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.”
The Israeli prime minister’s office said: “While Israel has agreed to the updated Witkoff outline for the release of our hostages, Hamas continues to adhere to its refusal … Israel will continue its action for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
A senior Hamas official responded that the group “did not reject” the hostage release proposal and that Witkoff’s response to their answer was “unfair” and showed “complete bias” in favor of Israel.
ISRAELI RALLIES
However, several rallies were held late Saturday across Israel demanding a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
Speaking at the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Sharon Aloni Cunio, a freed hostage whose husband, David Cunio, remains in captivity, said: “Now is the time to make a deal. Return the fathers to our children. Don’t make them orphans.”
A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum added: “We call upon the prime minister from here. The time has come for a deal. For the sake of our children’s future. One comprehensive deal to bring them all home. Right now.”
Yet Israel’s government suggests that without Hamas being destroyed, new threats will emerge for the Israeli nation.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military confirmed that it killed Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’s Gaza chief, on May 13. Sinwar was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month.
He was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel. Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, had more warnings for Hamas, saying he instructed the military to continue advancing towards “all targets” in Gaza despite a rising death toll and ongoing ceasefire negotiations being mediated by the U.S. Israel’s biggest ally.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that at least 54,418 Palestinian people have been killed and 124,190 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023. Those figures have been difficult to verify independently. Israel has given lower figures and says roughly half of those killed are Hamas fighters.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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