Since
March, Israel has imposed a crippling aid blockade on Gaza as part of its
effort to starve Palestinians and ethnically cleanse them from the strip
The US is
planning to establish a new non-governmental foundation to distribute aid in
the Gaza Strip without the Israeli military’s involvement, US officials
announced on 9 May, without giving additional details.
US State
Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said an announcement from the foundation
would be made “shortly.”
“When they make their announcement, you'll have the details you
need,” she told reporters.
Since early
March, Israel has imposed a brutal siege on Gaza, blocking all deliveries of
aid to the coastal enclave and pushing around 2 million Palestinians to the
edge of hunger.
Israel will not
be part of distributing aid in Gaza, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on Friday
morning.
“A 14-page document from the newly registered Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation (GHF) envisions four distribution centers in Gaza providing up to
1.2 million Palestinians with food, water, and hygiene kits,” Haaretz reported.
The foundation
will establish additional distribution centers over time.
“Aid diversion, active combat, and restricted access have prevented
life-saving assistance from reaching the people it is meant to serve and eroded
donor confidence,” the GHF document states.
“GHF was established to restore that vital lifeline through an
independent, rigorously audited model that gets assistance directly – and only
– to those in need.”
However, a UN
agency active in Gaza has criticized the plan, which will force Palestinians
into small enclaves within Gaza under tight surveillance, surrounded by armed
private contractors.
“It appears the design of a plan presented by Israel to the
humanitarian community will increase ongoing suffering of children and families
in the Gaza Strip,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
“The use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement,
especially from the north to the south will create this impossible choice: a
choice between displacement and death,” Elder added.
Israeli
politicians and media personalities have called for starving Gaza’s population
to force them to flee their homes and lands and pave the way for Jewish
annexation and settlement of the strip.
Earlier this
week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed that “Gaza will be
entirely destroyed” as a result of an Israeli military victory, and that its
Palestinian population will “leave in great numbers to third countries,” in a
clear call for ethnic cleansing.
Smotrich’s
comments came a day after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan for “the
conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories.”
According to
the proposal, private security guards will secure the routes and distribution
centers, while Israeli soldiers will not be involved in securing or
distributing the supplies.
According to
the GHF document, the foundation's board includes former World Central Kitchen
chief executive Nate Mook, Mastercard's Raisa Sheynberg, Current Capital
founder Jonathan Foster, and lawyer Loik Henderson.
The Israeli
military killed seven international aid workers from World Central Kitchen in
April 2024 by firing three missiles at their convoy in Gaza.
The workers
were overseeing aid delivery at a time when Palestinians were facing famine due
to an Israeli aid blockade imposed.
Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Israeli defense minister Yoav
Gallant are the primary architects of the starvation policy in Gaza.
The
International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for their arrest,
indicating “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu … and Mr Gallant …
bear criminal responsibility for … the war crime of starvation as a method of
warfare.”
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