The Israel-backed body leading aid distribution in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday its distribution sites would not be opening Thursday morning, due to maintenance and repair work.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation indicated the sites would resume operations later in the day, but did not say when.

The GHF post said the organization would share information on opening times as soon as the work is complete.

A GHF spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the organization was actively engaged in talks with the IDF to enhance the army’s security measures beyond the immediate perimeter of GHF sites.

To support civilian safety outside distribution sites, the spokesperson said GHF had asked the IDF to introduce measures that guide foot traffic in a way that minimizes confusion or escalation risks near the IDF-operated perimeter around the sites; develop clearer IDF-issued guidelines to help Palestinians safely reach the distribution sites; and boost IDF training and refine internal procedures to ensure the safety of Palestinians.

GHF did not open its sites on Wednesday, after eight consecutive days of operation. The shutdown was implemented in order to carry out logistical work in order to more safely accommodate more Palestinians at distribution sites.

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the IDF said it fired warning shots toward Palestinians outside an aid distribution site after they approached troops while straying off a pre-approved path. Hamas officials and the Red Cross claimed dozens were killed and hundreds wounded from gunfire. The IDF asserted that those figures were exaggerated, while saying it was investigating the allegations.

A GHF spokesperson said Tuesday that the shutdown would only last a day, but the delay in reopening indicated that its logistical work was running behind schedule.

“GHF is working to make the distribution of food boxes as safe as possible, despite the difficult circumstances. We strongly urge all those heading to our locations to follow the routes set by the IDF to ensure safe passage,” the foundation said.

While much of Gaza’s population of about two million is located in southern Gaza, their tent encampments are not adjacent to GHF distribution sites, and those in northern and central Gaza have reported having to walk dozens of kilometers, sometimes while dodging IDF fire, in order to pick up a box of food. GHF has said that it is working to open new distribution sites, including in northern Gaza, but it has not given a timetable, while the tens of thousands of Palestinians amassing at distribution sites indicate that the need for food in Gaza remains dire.

For its part, GHF has reported distributing over seven million meals from over 100,000 boxes distributed over nine days. However, the boxes contain mostly dry food products that require cooking equipment and community kitchens, which are very limited in the Strip, as fuel remains very short.

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced Wednesday that 88 humanitarian aid trucks carrying flour and food entered the Gaza Strip throughout the day.

Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 1,197 trucks have entered the Strip. Some of the truckloads have been taken to the new aid distribution sites run by the GHF. The contents of many of the trucks that entered Gaza in recent weeks are still awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people.

Also on Wednesday, the IDF published a video it said shows a drone strike on two Palestinian gunmen who were carrying explosive devices meant to be used in an attack on troops in the Strip.

The video appeared to show secondary blasts, indicating that the pair were carrying explosives. The strike was carried out during operations of the Nahal Brigade in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, the military said.

On Tuesday evening a reservist was killed and four soldiers were wounded in separate incidents fighting against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip. The fighting came as troops continued to advance in Gaza, in a new IDF offensive aimed at capturing 75 percent of the Strip’s territory.

The slain soldier was named as Master Sgt. (res.) Alon Farkas, 27, of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade’s 6646th Battalion, from Kabri.

According to an initial IDF probe, a Palestinian gunman armed with an assault rifle opened fire on the paratroopers who were operating in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood. The gunman ambushed the troops from an alley and managed to flee following the attack, which seriously wounded another reservist, according to the military.

In a separate incident in the nearby town of Jabalia on Tuesday evening, Hamas used a drone to drop an explosive or a grenade on troops, according to the military. The explosion moderately wounded two soldiers of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit and lightly injured a Shin Bet officer.

A day earlier, three troops were killed in Jabalia when they were hit by a roadside bomb.

Farkas’s death on Tuesday brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 425. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

Israel on March 18 resumed its attacks against Hamas with a wave of airstrikes, ending a two-month ceasefire. The IDF has since deployed five divisions to the Strip, amounting to tens of thousands of troops, and has been carrying out a wide-scale ground offensive aimed at defeating Hamas’s military wing and ending its civil rule in Gaza.