Head of US-backed Gaza aid foundation quits as Israeli air strike kills dozens

JERUSALEM/CAIRO – The head of a US-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly on May 25, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amid war, as an Israeli air strike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside.

Reflecting growing international pressure on Israel, close ally Germany said the recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas.

Israel has faced mounting Western outcry in May as its military launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment during 19 months of conflict and where the population of two million is at risk of famine.

After nearly three months of blockade, the Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed.

Mr Jake Wood, executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for the past two months, said he resigned because it could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence”.

His departure underscores the confusion surrounding the foundation, which has been boycotted by the UN and the aid groups supplying aid to Gaza before Israel imposed a total blockade on the enclave in March.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which would use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on May 26, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.

“We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead,” it said in a statement.

The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the UN, whose officials have said the private company’s aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.

The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition technology, according to aid officials.

But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.

The groups said the new system would undermine the principle that aid should be overseen by a neutral party.

Israel, which floated a similar plan earlier in 2025, said it would not be involved in distributing aid, but it had endorsed the plan and would provide security for it.

Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would “replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians and use food as a weapon during wartime”.

Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population. Hamas, which rejects the charge, says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters.

Continued air strikes

While the aid system is worked out, Israel has continued to carry out strikes across the densely populated Gaza Strip, killing at least 45 people on May 26, according to local health authorities.

In Gaza City, medics said, 30 Palestinians – including women and children who had been displaced by the war and were seeking shelter in a school – were killed in an air strike.

Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burnt bodies being pulled from the rubble.

Ms Farah Nussair, a survivor of the attack, said “just the tired ones” who needed food and water were in the school.

With a child in her lap, she added: “We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north.

“We came to schools... There is no security or safety, neither at schools nor hospitals – not anywhere.”

Israel’s military said numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. It did not provide evidence that the school was being used by militants.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking to broadcaster WDR, said he planned to hold a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him “to not overdo it”, though for “historical reasons”, Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners.

“Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,” Mr Merz said.

Another strike on a house in Jabalia near Gaza City killed at least 15 other people, medics said.

Israel stepped up military operations in the enclave in early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages.

The campaign, which Mr Netanyahu has said will end with Israel in complete control of Gaza, has squeezed the population into an ever-narrowing zone in coastal areas and around the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli campaign, triggered after Hamas-led Islamist militants stormed Israeli communities on Oct 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, has devastated Gaza and pushed nearly all of its residents from their homes.

The offensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them civilians, according to its health authorities. REUTERS