During an interview with Fox News, when queried if Israel would “take control of all of Gaza,” Netanyahu affirmed: “Our plan is to do so, to ensure our security, eliminate Hamas there, and liberate the population from Gaza.”

The security cabinet would still need to approve such a decision.

The GHF and the Israeli military have yet to provide any statements regarding the recent strikes or gunfire. This area, known as the Morag Corridor, remains inaccessible to independent journalists.

Recently, hundreds have perished while trying to reach GHF locations and in the chaos around overcrowded UN aid convoys. Most of these convoys suffer from looting and desperate throngs. Accounts from the UN human rights office, observers, and health officials have all reported frequent shootings by Israeli forces starting from May, following the release of a comprehensive two-and-a-half-month blockade.

The military claims to have only fired warning shots when crowds draw near its personnel. GHF states its security teams have sometimes used pepper spray or fired shots in the air to prevent dangerous stampedes.

Israel and GHF face mounting criticism

Human Rights Watch has urged global governments to halt arms sales to Israel after Israeli airstrikes last year targeted two Palestinian schools being used as shelters, resulting in fatalities.

The rights organization, based in New York, reported its investigation found no indication of military targets at the attacked schools. The airstrikes, which occurred on July 27, 2024, at the Khadija girls’ school in Deir al-Balah, and on September 21, 2024, at the al-Zeitoun C school in Gaza City, resulted in at least 49 casualties.

Doctors Without Borders, a medical charity known by its French acronym MSF, published a blistering report denouncing the GHF distribution system.

“This is not aid. It is orchestrated killing, ” it said.

MSF runs two health centers very close to GHF sites in southern Gaza and said it had treated 1380 people injured near the sites between June 7 and July 20, including 28 people who were dead upon arrival. Of those, at least 147 had suffered gunshot wounds — including at least 41 children.

MSF said hundreds more suffered physical assault injuries from chaotic scrambles for food at the sites, including head injuries, suffocation, and multiple patients with severely aggravated eyes after being sprayed at close range with pepper spray.

It said its health centres were set up for primary care, not mass casualty events, and the cases it saw were only a fraction of the overall casualties connected to GHF sites. It said the more severely wounded are mostly taken directly to hospitals or a nearby Red Cross field hospital, which has independently reported receiving thousands of people wounded by gunshots as they sought aid.

“The level of mismanagement, chaos and violence at GHF distribution sites amounts to either reckless negligence or a deliberately designed death trap,” the report said.

GHF said the “accusations are both false and disgraceful” and accused MSF of “amplifying a disinformation campaign” orchestrated by Hamas.

The US and Israel helped set up the GHF system as an alternative to the UN-run aid delivery system that has sustained Gaza for decades, accusing Hamas of siphoning off assistance. The UN denies any mass diversion by Hamas.

It accuses GHF of forcing Palestinians to risk their lives to get food and say it advances Israel’s plans for further mass displacement.