Hamas has killed five staff belonging to a new US aid delivery company in Gaza and may also have taken hostages, the organisation said.

In a statement early on Thursday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) team said the terror group attacked a bus carrying more than two-dozen of its team at around 10pm on Wednesday.

GHF said Palestinians working “side-by-side with the US” to deliver critical aid were “brutally attacked by Hamas”.

A statement said: “At the time of the attack, our team was en route to one of our distribution centres in the area west of Khan Younis.

“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 spokesman said both Americans and Palestinians were on the bus, and talked about staff being “unaccounted for”. Americans are not believed to be among those missing.

Any taking of hostages would be likely to complicate the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The group is believed to still hold 20 living Israelis somewhere in the strip from the October 7 raids.

However, GHF has released statements in the past that turned out to be misleading, and the IDF has yet to comment officially.

The US firm has been mired in controversy since it took over aid in Gaza as part of a US and Israeli plan to prevent humanitarian aid from falling into the hands of Hamas.