CAIRO — Amnesty International issued a report Thursday claiming it had evidence that a controversial Israeli- and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza uses starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit what it called genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with the Hamas terror group. Israel responded by saying the group had adopted Hamas lies as its narrative.
The UK-based human rights group condemned Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the US and Israel have backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.
“Israel’s genocide has continued unabated in Gaza, including through the infliction of conditions of life that have created a deadly mix of hunger and disease pushing the population past breaking point, said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said in the report.
The Foreign Ministry denounced the Amnesty report, saying the organization has “joined forces with Hamas and fully adopted all of its propaganda lies.”
“Its new name now is ‘Amnesty Hamas,'” the ministry said.
At the same time, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories — who has been condemned by Israel and the US for antisemitism — urged an international arms embargo on Israel for what she alleged is “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near GHF distribution centers over the past month. The figures cannot be verified and do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The centers are guarded by private security contractors and located near Israeli military positions. Palestinian officials and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at crowds of people moving near the sites.
In response, Israel’s military says it fires only warning shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm. It denies deliberately shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce “friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution centers. It also accuses Hamas of deliberately provoking violence.
The Amnesty report said Israel has “turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians” through GHF’s militarized hubs. The conditions have created “a deadly mix of hunger and disease pushing the population past breaking point.”
“This devastating daily loss of life as desperate Palestinians try to collect aid is the consequence of their deliberate targeting by Israeli forces and the foreseeable consequence of irresponsible and lethal methods of distribution,” Callamard said.
The Israeli army says it has fired warning shots to control crowds and only fires at people it says are acting suspiciously.
The Foreign Ministry and COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said Israel has facilitated the entry of over 3,000 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip since May 19 and the GHF has delivered boxes of food with the equivalent of 56 million meals.
In a post to X, the Foreign Ministry published images of aid delivered to Gaza and wrote “‘Amnesty Hamas’ doesn’t want you to know any of this.”
Humanitarian organizations say the amount is not nearly enough to meet the overwhelming need in Gaza. The GHF did not immediately return requests for comment.
The World Food Program, a UN agency, says despite the new Israel-backed initiative, food consumption reached a critical low last month, with food diversity reaching its worst level since the conflict began.
“The continued closure of crossings, intensified violence since March, soaring food prices, and extremely limited humanitarian and commercial supplies have severely restricted access to even basic food items,” the WFP said in a June report.
Amnesty’s report follows a statement earlier this week from more than 165 major international charities and nongovernmental organizations calling for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. They say the new mechanism allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and is ineffective.
It’s the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Last month, the US government pledged $30 million for the group to continue operation, the first known US donation to the group, whose other funding sources remain opaque.
For two and a half months before the GHF’s opening in May, after a ceasefire fell apart, Israel blocked all food, water, and medicine from entering Gaza, charging that Hamas was stealing the aid being transported under a preexisting system coordinated by the United Nations. It now wants the GHF to replace that UN system. The UN and aid groups deny that there is a significant diversion of supplies.
Palestinian witnesses have described scenes of chaos around the distribution sites, and two contractors in the operation have told The Associated Press that colleagues fired live ammunition and stun grenades toward crowds of people. Palestinians often must travel long distances to reach the sites.
In a statement Tuesday, the GHF rejected criticism of its operations and claimed it has delivered more than 52 million meals to hungry Palestinians.
“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” the GHF said.
The GHF has called for Israel’s military to investigate the allegations from Gaza’s Health Ministry, but said last month there has been no violence in or around its centers and its personnel have not opened fire.
War was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel in an attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Terrorists also abducted 251 people as hostages to Gaza, of whom 49 remain in captivity.
Amnesty accused Israel last year of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with the Hamas terror group, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure, and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid. The accusation was rejected by Amnesty’s local branch, leading to Amnesty International suspending the Israel branch for “undermining: its mission.
Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.” It is challenging such allegations filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, and has rejected the International Criminal Court’s accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister committed war crimes in Gaza.
In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese said: “The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is apocalyptic.”
“Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history,” she added, in a speech that was met with a burst of applause from the Geneva council.
Israel’s delegate was not present in the room in line with a new policy to disengage with the council, which Israel says has an antisemitic bias.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Albanese’s speech.
The Trump administration has recently asked for the UN to remove Albanese, accusing her of “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism.”
Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts to document abuses around the world, was presenting her latest report, which named over 60 companies she said were involved in supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.
“What I expose is not a list, it is a system, and that is to be addressed,” she told the council.
“We must reverse the tide,” she added, calling for states to impose a full arms embargo, suspend all trade agreements and ensure companies face legal consequences for their involvement in violations of international law.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva earlier this week said Albanese’s latest report was “legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of her office.”