At least eight Palestinians who worked for the U.S-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation died in an ambush, the GHF said on Thursday, blaming Hamas militants for the killings that rocked the troubled food distribution operation.

Israel charged on Thursday that Hamas was "weaponising suffering in Gaza" after a US and Israeli-backed charity accused the Palestinian militant group of killing eight of its aid workers in the territory.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been instrumental not only in distributing aid, often without incident, but also in addressing falsehoods and sharing news from those on the ground. The GHF has now announced their aid workers were targeted.

The GHF, which began distributing food aid barely two weeks ago from sites in the southern and central Gaza Strip, said the team of about two dozen staff were attacked about 10 p.m. local time while traveling to a distribution center west of Khan Younis.