JERUSALEM/GENEVA, May 7 — European leaders and aid groups have criticised Israeli plans to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza and use private companies to get food to families, after two months in which the military has prevented supplies from entering the Strip.

GENEVA, May 2 — The minds and bodies of children in Gaza are being broken following two months of aid blockade and renewed strikes, the executive director of the World Health Organisation emergencies programme said yesterday.