Israel Faces Growing Outrage Over 'Indefensible' Killing of Civilians

UN says more than 1,000 Palestinians have died in attacks on Gaza aid hubs

- Peter Beaumont

Israel faced intensifying international condemnation for its killing of starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza and attacks on humanitarian efforts yesterday as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the "last lifelines keeping people alive" in the strip were "collapsing".

An angry chorus of senior figures, among them the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and a senior Catholic cleric, expressed a growing sense of global horror over Israel's actions.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X: "I spoke again with [the Israeli foreign minister] Gideon Saar to recall our understanding on aid flow and made clear that IDF [Israel Defense Forces] must stop killing people at distribution points. The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible."

She said "all options were on the table" if Israel did not deliver on aid pledges but did not say what those options included.

According to UN officials yesterday, more than 1,000 desperate Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the end of May trying to reach food distributions run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid widening conditions of starvation in the Palestinian territory.

The comments came as Israeli forces attacked warehousing and staff accommodation in Deir al-Balah - Gaza's main aid hub - belonging to the World Health Organization.

Israel also cancelled the work visa of Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) inside Gaza and the most senior UN aid official in the coastal strip.

Speaking to the UN security council yesterday, Guterres described the situation in Gaza as a "horror show" and condemned the Israeli attacks on UN offices.