“COMPLETE chaos” engulfed the start of a controversial US humanitarian relief plan in Gaza today as thousands of starving Palestinians mobbed the first aid distribution centre set up by the private US agency Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and mercenaries fired live rounds to disperse them.

Israel has blocked almost all aid from the Gaza Strip for months, leading aid agencies to warn the territory faces famine.

The private US group was selected as Israel has blocked work by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), based on unsubstantiated claims it employs Hamas militants. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said today that Israel has still to provide evidence for its “very serious claims” about operatives of the agency being involved in the October 7 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Other aid groups said the GHF lacked experience in delivering aid to a famine-stricken war zone and was out of its depth, besides criticisms that the entire scheme politicises aid, which will only be distributed in areas under Israeli military control.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine warned that the aid distribution centres were “death traps” and that Palestinians trying to get food at them would also risk arrest by Israeli forces.

The official number of Palestinians killed during Israel’s invasion surpassed 54,000 today, with 79 more people killed in 24 hours. Israel also expanded its violence in the West Bank, firing live bullets and tear gas as they raided bureaux de change in Nablus in an operation with obscure motives. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel was trying to create a “flare-up” in the West Bank to justify more aggressive military action, with annexation the end goal.

The country’s international isolation continued to grow, with the Irish government confirming it will debate a Bill on banning imports from Israeli settlements.

But Israel’s government boasted today its supplies of military equipment continue to arrive uninterrupted, with the Defence Ministry bragging the 800th flight since the war started carrying weapons and ammunition had arrived, bringing the total to over 90,000 tons of supplies. Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base on Cyprus is believed to be a key link in the supply chain for Israel’s war machine.