UNITED NATIONS - International aid groups said on April 4 that there is nothing more they can do to protect staff in the Gaza Strip and that it is up to Israel to avoid killing them, as the United Nations appealed for direct humanitarian coordination with the Israeli military.

Global outrage at the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people escalated after an Israeli air strike on April 1 killed seven people working for US-based food charity World Central Kitchen.

The UN says at least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in the six-month-long war as Israel retaliates against Hamas over a deadly Oct 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group.

While some aid groups have suspended operations following the strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy, none have said they plan to withdraw from Gaza despite the repeated attacks on aid operations. The UN warns a famine is imminent.

The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza.

“Every day we are forced to decide whether to suspend an operation or to proceed with an operation – and often, the decision is to suspend because we don’t have the proper security conditions in place,” Mr Scott Paul, associate director for peace and security at Oxfam America, told reporters.

The UN and international aid groups operating in Gaza said they share the locations of all premises and planned movements with the Israeli authorities and are in daily contact.

The US said on April 2 that it was “unacceptable and inexplicable” that the Israeli military’s procedures to avoid harming aid workers were not functioning appropriately.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on April 4: “One of the things that would probably improve the system... is for us to have the ability to have more direct contact with the military, as opposed to going through a number of layers of military-civilian coordination as it does now.”

Israel’s Defence Ministry said on April 2 that it would work to strengthen coordination, including by opening a joint situation room to coordinate between the Israeli military’s southern command and international aid organisations.

Israel also said on April 4 that it would adjust war tactics.

Ms Bushra Khalidi, an Oxfam policy adviser, said: “The rules of war require that those fighting always know the difference between military targets and humanitarian relief workers.”

“If there’s any ever any doubt, it’s on Israel to avoid harming us,” she said, adding that aid groups make their staff as visible as possible in an effort to protect them.

Celebrity chef Jose Andres, who founded World Central Kitchen, told Reuters that Israel had targeted his aid workers “systematically, car by car”.

Israeli government spokesperson Raquela Karamson responded on April 4: “This was unintended.”

Ms Louise Bichet, head of the Middle East department for Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), said her organisation’s offices in Gaza City had been partly destroyed, “even though we had clearly communicated our GPS coordinates and it was very well known by the Israeli army”.

“This shows the failure of the deconfliction process and poses a serious question... (about) the understanding and respect of IHL (international humanitarian law) by the state of Israel,” she said.

UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA – described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza – said there have been more than 300 strikes on its facilities and 177 staff have been killed.

UNRWA said it had shared the coordinates of all its facilities in Gaza with all parties to the conflict. Several aid convoys to northern Gaza were also targeted despite detailed coordination with the Israeli military, UNRWA said.

Dr Isabelle Defourny, president of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) France, said the humanitarian coordination system was not working and that she could not imagine how it could be improved when there was a “lack of proportionality” in how Israel was conducting the war.

“They know where we are, what we do, where we will work,” she said. “Despite that... there are security incidents.” REUTERS