Hamas says it killed 12 Israeli-backed fighters. Israeli-supported group says they were aid workers

Hamas says it has killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia, whom an aid foundation says are its staffers.

Palestinian children queue up for food at a distribution point in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. Picture; AFP.

Hamas says its Gaza police force has killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia, whom an aid foundation says are its staffers.

Hamas said it killed members of the Abu Shabab militia, after detaining them on Thursday. Last week Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel was arming the militia to help combat Hamas in Gaza and assist with aid distribution.

The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said eight of the dead were its staffers, killed when the militant group attacked their bus.

The GHF claims Hamas had prevented the wounded from being treated at a hospital in the Strip. GHF interim CEO John Acree said some employees “may have been taken hostage.”

In a statement, GHF said: “We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms.

“These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.”

It was not immediately possible to verify the competing claims or confirm the identities of those killed. The Israeli military circulated GHF’s statement but declined to provide its own account of what happened.

The militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, said its fighters had attacked Hamas and killed five militants but made no mention of its own casualties. It also accused Hamas of detaining and killing aid workers.

The deaths were the latest sign of turmoil surrounding the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private contractor that Israel says will replace the UN in distributing food to Gaza’s more than 2 million people. Over the past two weeks, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in near daily shootings as they try to reach GHF centres, with contradictory reports about who is behind the shooting. The IDF has confirmed firing warning shots in at least eight instances, but disputed the Hamas death tolls.

Abu Shabab has said it secures aid deliveries but been accused of looting aid trucks. On Thursday Israel released what it said were Hamas documents showing the terror group maintained a policy of confiscating 15 per cent-25 per cent of aid entering Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023.

The documents also detailed Hamas’ efforts to keep traders from hoarding goods and charging inflated prices for them. One of them appeared to acknowledge that some such traders had links to Hamas.

On Wednesday, at least 13 people were killed and 170 wounded when Israeli forces fired toward a crowd of Palestinians near a GHF centre in central Gaza, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. The military said it fired warning shots overnight at a gathering that posed a threat, hundreds of meters (yards) from the aid site.

Just devastating. Absolute evil.

These dear people were murdered by Hamas because they just wanted to feed their people. They were not militants. They were humanitarians, many of them young people.

The people of Gaza have always been the first victim of Hamas and if Hamas… https://t.co/q7yyYuBmeE

— Rev. Johnnie Moore Ù† (@JohnnieM) June 12, 2025

Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump who was recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings of the aid workers “absolute evil.” The UN's OCHA said it could not confirm the circumstances of the killings but said “civilians must never be attacked, let alone those trying to access or provide food amid mass starvation.” GHF says its staff at the centres include unarmed Palestinian employees. Much of the staff are armed international contractors, mainly Americans, guarding the centres.

The Abu Shabab group fighters are deployed inside the Israeli military zones that surround the GHF centres, according to witnesses. Earlier this week, witnesses said Abu Shabab militiamen had opened fire on people en route to a GHF aid hub, killing and wounding many. GHF says it does not work with the Abu Shabab group.

Hamas has rejected the GHF system and threatened to kill any Palestinians who co-operate with the Israeli military.

The Sahm police unit, which Hamas says it established to combat looting, released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel.

It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them. Mohammed Abu Amin, a Khan Younis resident who was at the scene, said a crowd celebrated the killings, shouting “God is greatest” and condemning those killed as traitors.

Ghassan Duhine, who identifies himself as deputy commander of the Abu Shabab group and a major in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, issued a statement saying Abu Shabab fighters had clashed with Sahm and killed five. He denied that the bodies in Sahm's images were the group’s fighters.

The Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has denied any connection to the Abu Shabab group. But many of the militiamen identify themselves as PA officers.

AP