Human Rights Watch says Israel curbed aid

Human Rights Watch said on May 19 that Israeli forces continued to kill civilians and restrict humanitarian aid in Gaza during a ceasefire that began in October 2025. The rights group tied that claim to attacks on aid and medical operations, including an April 6 strike on a World Health Organization vehicle in eastern Khan Younis that killed a contractor and prompted the WHO to suspend medical evacuations through Rafah for six days. (hrw.org) Human Rights Watch said the findings came as the Board of Peace prepared to brief the U.N. Security Council on May 21 on a six-month progress report on the truce. OCHA data cited by the group showed at least 593 aid workers had been killed in Gaza since October 2023, including eight after the ceasefire began. ### Which incident did Human Rights Watch highlight most directly? The April 6 attack in eastern Khan Younis was one of the clearest examples cited by Human Rights Watch. The group said a World Health Organization vehicle came under attack, killing a contractor, and that the incident forced the WHO to halt medical evacuations via Rafah for six days. Adam Coogle, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East deputy director, said in the group’s statement that the ceasefire plan “was supposed to bring relief.” Instead, he said, Palestinians in Gaza were still hungry, still unable to reach medical care and still being killed. (hrw.org) ### How broad does HRW say the damage to aid operations has been? OCHA figures cited by Human Rights Watch put the number of aid-worker deaths in Gaza at 593 since October 2023. Human Rights Watch said eight of those deaths were recorded after the ceasefire began, including workers killed in April at a water well in Gaza City and at the NGO Ard El Insan. (hrw.org) Human Rights Watch also said aid volumes remained well below what was needed and that key access routes had been obstructed repeatedly. A separate account carrying the group’s findings said more than 200 water and sanitation facilities across Gaza had been running on backup generators for more than two and a half years, with many relying on recycled oil. (littlebunker.com) ### What does this say about the ceasefire itself? The October 2025 ceasefire has not stopped routine attacks or restored normal humanitarian access, according to Human Rights Watch and other U.N.-linked reporting. The U.N. human rights office said on April 10 that Palestinians across Gaza remained unsafe six months after the ceasefire announcement and that Israeli attacks were continuing routinely. (hrw.org) Human Rights Watch framed its statement around the upcoming Security Council discussion rather than a new battlefield development. The group said Israeli authorities were still undermining humanitarian lifelines more than six months into the truce. (littlebunker.com) ### Why are negotiations now focused on fighters in Rafah? About 200 Hamas fighters in tunnels in the Israel-controlled Rafah area became a sticking point in ceasefire diplomacy, according to reporting carried by Arab News from Reuters and other outlets that matched it. The reports said Turkiye was working with the United States and Arab mediators to secure safe passage for the fighters elsewhere in Gaza if they surrendered their weapons. (hrw.org) The same reports said Israel resisted arrangements that would let the fighters move freely inside Gaza. That left mediators trying to resolve a narrow military problem inside a broader ceasefire process. (hrw.org) ### How does the Lebanon track fit into this? Lebanon and Israel were still holding direct, U.S.-backed talks as of May 21, even after a 45-day ceasefire extension failed to stop the fighting, UPI reported. Separate reporting said the extension was announced on May 15 after a third round of talks in Washington and that a fourth round was scheduled for June 2-3 at the State Department. (arabnews.com) The overlap is procedural rather than formal: Gaza aid access, Hamas fighter arrangements in Rafah and Lebanon-Israel talks are all being handled through ceasefire management rather than final-status diplomacy. That is an inference from the parallel negotiations described in the cited reports. (arabnews.com) May 21 was the next immediate marker. Human Rights Watch said the U.N. Security Council was due to receive the six-month Gaza ceasefire progress briefing that day, while U.S.-mediated Lebanon-Israel talks were set to resume on June 2-3, according to State Department-linked reporting. (hrw.org) (upi.com)