The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the United States and Israel, did not distribute any food aid yesterday, accusing Hamas of making threats that “made it impossible” to operate in the enclave, which the Palestinian fighters denied, Reuters reports.

The GHF said it was adapting operations to overcome the unspecified threats. It later said in a Facebook post that two sites would reopen today.

A Hamas official told Reuters he had no knowledge of such “alleged threats”.

The Gaza government media office said later that GHF operation has “utterly failed on all levels” and that Hamas was ready to help secure aid deliveries by a separate long-running UN-led humanitarian operation. Hamas also called on all Palestinians to protect humanitarian convoys.

A Hamas source said the group’s armed wing would deploy some snipers from today near routes used by the UN-led aid operation to prevent armed gangs from looting food shipments. The UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.