Good morning. If the new system for distributing supplies in Gaza is supposed to be an adequate replacement for the major aid organisations that were previously in place, it has got off to an inauspicious start.
On Tuesday, after the first food point run by the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – a non-government organisation (NGO) with Israeli support that uses US-based contractors – opened in Rafah, Israeli forces stationed at the perimeter opened fire. Panicked civilians fled the scene, most without the food they came for; dozens of people were injured, and at least one died.
Even before the disaster of its initial operation, the GHF’s executive director resigned, warning that it could not be an independent, impartial provider of aid. Meanwhile, urgent warnings continue that children and elderly people are dying of starvation, and hundreds of thousands more are on the brink of famine. Last night, it emerged that four people had died after the UN’s World Food Programme said “hordes of hungry people” had broken into a food supply warehouse in central Gaza.
Today’s newsletter, with the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison, is about what happened in Rafah – and what it suggests about whether the new plan is up to the task, or even intended to attempt it. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
UK news | The housing ombudsman has warned that “simmering anger at poor housing conditions risks becoming social disquiet”, as his office records a 474% increase in complaints. Richard Blakeway said it was “neither fanciful nor alarmist” to suggest anger at housing conditions would cause an “irreparable” fracturing of trust, saying the “shock of Grenfell Tower and Awaab Ishak’s death resonate still”.
Trump tariffs | A US federal trade court has blocked Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. The ruling, which the White House is said to be appealing, would blow a hole in Trump’s strategy to use steep tariffs to wring concessions from trading partners.
Ukraine | Ukraine and Germany have agreed to future military cooperation in which Berlin will help finance long-range weapons production on Ukrainian soil. The deal came as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia had amassed 50,000 troops in the Sumy region bordering Russia.
UK news | Prosecutors have confirmed they have authorised 21 charges against influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking. The Crown Prosecution Service said that the two men would not be tried in the UK until an investigation into charges they face in Romania is concluded.
School meals | Guidance urging schools in England to serve children meat at least three times a week should be overhauled to increase the eating of vegetables, a leading charity has said. The Food Foundation found that 80% of the most commonly eaten meat dishes in schools are either processed or red meat.
In depth: ‘Instead of bringing food to people, they are telling people to come to the food’
As word spread on Tuesday that one of the distribution points used by the new body responsible for distributing food, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), had opened, tens of thousands of people headed there. Crowds of desperate people broke through fences around the site, and Israeli forces started shooting. While those were later claimed by Israel to be “warning shots”, at least one civilian died and 48 others were injured, many with gunshot wounds.
That outcome points to the very reason that traditional aid operations do not use armed security or work with belligerent forces – and, perhaps, the dangerous inexperience of those behind the new system: it is hard to build networks of trust in communities under attack, and easy to retreat behind guns.
“When they say ‘warning shots’, it’s not clear where they aimed that gunfire, but even if they fired into the air over the crowd, those bullets have to come down,” Emma said. “This is what happens when you use a dangerous, untested method at a time of extreme crisis.”
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Did this sort of thing happen under the old system?
While convoys have been targeted by armed groups, and desperate civilians looting to feed their families, the distribution networks of major aid groups and the UN — which are closely audited and take food into communities rather than concentrating it in a few places — have held up well during the war.
“There has never been an incident like this at a UN or humanitarian operation’s distribution position,” Emma said. The worst previous incident, known by Palestinians as the flour massacre, saw at least 112 people killed and 760 injured when desperate crowds gathered as aid trucks arrived in Gaza City; there were conflicting accounts of whether most of the victims were shot by Israeli troops or died in an ensuing stampede.
But even that horrifying case was “not about a UN or humanitarian distribution operation degenerating into chaos,” Emma said. “It happened as a convoy arrived, at a time of desperation when northern Gaza was under the most intense siege.”
Many of the attacks on convoys have happened as trucks travel out of border areas under Israeli control and cross “no man’s land” before they get to areas where aid groups can operate safely. “Given the Israeli forces have extensive control of Gaza, and have a legal obligation as an occupying power to ensure civilians can get food, you might think they should be able to maintain security to the point of distribution,” Emma noted.
Meanwhile, Palestinian attempts to protect aid from attacks have been targeted by Israeli strikes. Israel says that the police force in Gaza are legitimate targets because the force reports to the Hamas government. One such incident saw six members of a security team killed last week.
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How effective is the new system at getting food to Palestinians?
The new arrangements appear much less effective at getting supplies to those most desperately in need. One key reason for that is that “instead of bringing food to people, they are telling people to come to the food,” Emma said: supplies are being distributed at static distribution points in boxes weighing up to 20kg that are meant to feed “5.5 people for 3.5 days”. “If someone is on foot and severely malnourished or elderly, how are they supposed to reach the centre or carry a box like that with them?”
Israel has repeatedly claimed that this approach is necessary to stop supplies being requisitioned by Hamas. “But once people leave the distribution points, that could just as easily be happening now,” Emma said. In any case, the UN says its closely monitored supply chains are secure, and Israel has never provided any evidence to back up its claims, or even offered statistics on the scale of the alleged problem.
Quite apart from the logistical particulars, there is a much more fundamental question: whether the supplies now being allowed in are anything like enough to tackle the hunger crisis. Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza – where many people were already living in a state of severe food insecurity – on 2 March; the UN estimates that about 600 trucks are needed each day to begin addressing the problem. Since the total siege was eased earlier this month, Israel says that 1,050 have entered in total.
The GHF said on Tuesday that it had distributed 462,000 meals – enough for just over 50,000 people, about 2% of Gaza’s population, for three days. While the operation is now meant to scale up, that is a vanishingly small number against the scale of the need. With those numbers in mind, Emma said, “it is difficult to see this as anything other than performative. It is not even the beginning of a solution.”
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What other reasons might there be for the change?
Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that warnings of famine are merely “the current fad, the current lie” – although Israeli officials are said to take a different view in private. Instead, Netanyahu has framed the operation as “a diplomatic issue”.
With media and even diplomats kept out of Gaza, and Palestinians treated as unreliable sources in parts of the media, humanitarian workers have often provided compelling eyewitness evidence of the human cost of Israel’s assault on the territory. “There are those who see this operation as a way to remove those independent observers,” Emma said.
The darkest fears about the attempt to concentrate food supplies in a few sites — forcing civilians to cluster around them - are connected to the fact that the locations are concentrated in the south, and are likely to mean Palestinians elsewhere will be again displaced in search of food.
Some humanitarian organisations see that as a prelude to mass deportation – a step backed by influential Israeli cabinet ministers which, when taken together with the scale of the violence visited upon Palestinians in Gaza since the war began, would strengthen the case that Israel is committing genocide. Earlier this month, the far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to … the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas or terrorism, and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries.”
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Who is running the programme?
When the new system was announced earlier this month, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said that it was “wholly inaccurate” to call it an Israeli plan. Of Tuesday’s operation, Emma said that she had been told that Palestinians were handing out the supplies, and photos showed some stamped with the logo of charities already operating in Gaza.
But even when the scheme was announced, there were reports that the Israeli government was heavily involved in its creation. And on Saturday, the New York Times reported that the plan was first conceived in December 2023 by an Israeli group with close ties to the government, and that from the beginning it was viewed at least in part as a way to undermine Hamas.
Mainstream humanitarian groups and the UN have condemned the new system as incompatible with the basic principles of aid distribution because of the role played by the Israeli government – and now Jake Wood, the executive director of the GHF, has resigned, saying that the operation could not fulfil its mission in a way that adhered to “humanitarian principles” – the same objection the humanitarian community has been raising for months.
“You’d call it a farce if it wasn’t a tragedy,” Emma said. “They do not have any heavyweight aid figures involved – and yet they are supposedly the solution to one of the worst and most complex humanitarian crises that the world has seen in years.”
What else we’ve been reading
Emma’s predecessor as Middle East correspondent, Bethan McKernan, recently returned to the UK. In this superb essay marking her departure, she reflects on the surreal disjunctures between Gaza and Israel that characterised her time there even before the war: “I was worried that I would start finding the situation normal,” she writes. “But it never happened.” Archie
Growing up as a Black girl in the UK, Sarah Deen often felt as if she didn’t belong – until she discovered K-pop. She explains that through its vibrant fandom, she found new friends and a renewed sense of confidence. Aamna
John McDonnell is not someone you’d ever expect to give Keir Starmer a glowing review – but this opinion piece, calling for Starmer’s opponents to “assert themselves to take back control of Labour”, is a strikingly intense attack on the government. Archie
King Tut’s, Glasgow’s beloved music venue, celebrates its 35th year. It’s where Oasis was discovered, The Verve and Radiohead played there, and where acts like Manic Street Preachers and Florence + the Machine got their start. Rachel Keenan explores why this iconic venue continues to thrive. Aamna
It is well established that strength training is helpful at every age, but how quickly you can apply the strength you have, could be key to a better quality of life. Joel Snape goes through the simple exercises that can enhance your power. Aamna
Sport
Football | Chelsea fell behind early on but goals from Enzo Fernández, Nicolas Jackson, Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo – with two superb assists from Cole Palmer – clinched a 4-1 victory against Real Betis to win the Conference League.
Tennis | Emma Raducanu said her heavy defeat by Iga Świątek in the second round of the French Open showed she needs to catch up with the best players in the world. Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion, produced an imperious performance to defeat the Briton 6-1, 6-2 and reach the third round.
Cricket | The prospect of Team GB playing cricket at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games has moved a step closer with confirmation the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Scotland are joining forces for the sport’s long-awaited return.
The front pages
“Anger over poor housing could spark social tension – watchdog” is the Guardian’s lead story today. The Times has “Doctors told strikes will harm effort to heal NHS”, while the i paper goes with “BBC ‘letting off’ over 75s who fail to pay their TV licence fee”. “Liverpool suspect is a company director” says the Mail, while the Mirror goes with “Arrested driver is ‘a lovely family man’”. A bit of excitement from the Telegraph: “Army of hackers to take on Putin” – a billion pounds will be sunk into the UK military’s cyber capacities. “£123m down the drain” – Metro reports on the record fine against Thames Water. “Heroes’ trips of tributes are safe forever” is the Express’s story about Normandy veterans. And here’s the one you’ve been waiting for, in the Financial Times: “Lagarde discussed early ECB exit to head Davos body, says ousted Schwab”.
Today in Focus
The OpenAI empire
Technology journalist Karen Hao, who has been reporting on OpenAI since 2019, compares the company’s unprecedented growth to a new form of empire
Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Millions of visitors head to British museums each year, but the items on display often represent only a small fraction of what institutions hold in their collections. V&A East Storehouse, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new outpost in east London, offers an innovative solution: its groundbreaking £65m facility provides full immersion into the behind-the-scenes world of museum conservation.
Unlike traditional museum stores, visitors can walk freely and “breathe the same air” as its 250,000 artefacts. They can wander the aisles and watch curators at work –unloading porcelain, polishing a priceless spoon collection, or carefully packing poison darts. Guardian writer Oliver Wainwright explores this wider museum shift toward transparency and accessibility.
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
