Israel-backed
food aid group admits it won’t be able to reach most vulnerable in Gaza
The UN and
other organisations say working with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would
compromise neutrality
Emma
Graham-Harrison
Sat 17 May
2025 07.01 BST
The
organisation backed by Israel to take over food distribution in Gaza as famine
looms has admitted it would not be able to feed some of the most vulnerable
civilians from the militarised compounds it plans to set up.
Aid groups
and the United Nations have already refused to work with the Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation (GHF), a Swiss-registered organisation led by a former US marine.
They say it does not have the capacity to end hunger in Gaza and would make it
harder to get aid to civilians caught up in other wars by undermining their
neutrality.
Israel has
not officially laid out its plans for food distribution in Gaza, but statements
from the GHF and briefings from Israeli officials envisage four or five
militarised distribution centres in southern Gaza, run by private security
companies, under the oversight of Israeli military bases.
GHF is in
“advanced discussions” with Israel on details and timing and hopes to have news
soon, a person involved with planning at the foundation said.
Heads of
household would be expected to collect boxes weighing up to 20kg with several
days’ supply of food and basic hygiene items like soap for their families.
There is no provision for those too sick or weakened by famine to walk long
distances across Gaza’s ruined landscape with heavy loads.
“From what
we have understood, the plan would increase the ongoing suffering of children
and families in the Gaza Strip,” said United Nations Children’s Fund
spokesperson Jonathan Crickx.
“How is a
mother of four children, who has lost her husband, going to carry 20kg back to
her makeshift tent, sometimes several kilometres away?” Crickx said. “The most
vulnerable people, including the elderly, people with disabilities, the sick
and wounded, and orphans, will face huge challenges to access aid.”
Beyond
logistical problems with Israel’s plans, humanitarian organisations say that
agreeing to work under Israel’s military would compromise the neutrality that
is the most crucial protection for their unarmed teams.
It would
also make it harder for them to operate in other conflict zones, where
neutrality is key to being able to reach civilians in contested areas.
“These plans
are basically instrumentalising humanitarian aid, putting it into the hands of
a party to the conflict, which goes against the principles of impartiality and
independence. We don’t work with parties to (any) conflict,” said Bushra
Khalidi, policy lead for the Palestinian territory at Oxfam.
“Giving
Israel power over who receives the aid and where basically turns it into a tool
of coercion, and it blurs the line between the humanitarian assistance and
Israel’s military objectives, which in turn puts civilians and aid workers at
serious risk.”
That is a
particular concern because Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of aid workers
during the war, including both Palestinians and foreign citizens.
Over two
months into a siege of Gaza, with famine edging closer, Israel appears to be
using Palestinian lives to try to coerce the UN and aid groups into cooperating
with its new plans for militarised aid delivery, one western diplomat said.
They have
been presented with a bleak choice – to either cooperate or let Palestinians
continue to go hungry. “When the consequences are starvation, that is a very
hard decision to make,” the diplomat said.
For now UN
and major international aid groups have presented a unified rejection, and
Israel may be forced to partly back down if it wants to avert full-blown
famine.
Under
international law Israel, as an occupying power, has a responsibility to
provide for the basic needs of civilians in Gaza, including food and medicine.
Despite the
government’s insistence that there are no food shortages, some military
officials are now privately admitting that Palestinians are on the brink of
starvation, the New York Times reported.
GHF
acknowledged this week it would not be able to reach the most vulnerable
Palestinians.
“In order to
provide all Gazans, including those that are infirm, immobile, or unwilling to
travel to a secure distribution site, with access to food aid, GHF will require
aid distribution mechanisms that expand beyond the currently scoped model,” the
organisation said in a statement.
Israeli
forces are already preparing sites that match descriptions of militarised aid
hubs planned by GHF, a BBC investigation found. But only the UN and aid groups
on the ground at the moment have the capacity to distribute aid in the
community.
Israel’s
siege and its apparent new plan to control food going into Gaza has been
justified by repeated claims that Hamas is systematically stealing a
significant proportion of food aid intended for civilians.
Despite
intense scrutiny of aid networks in Gaza, Israeli officials have never provided
evidence to back up these claims, which diplomats and humanitarians say are not
true. Monitoring and audit systems to account for public money can track
deliveries from arrival in Gaza to the moment they are handed over.
This
openness contrasts with the GHF’s secrecy in its first few weeks of existence.
It does not have a website or public contact details beyond a postal address.
Its communications about one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in the
world have been largely limited to two statements circulating online.
It has
burnished its credentials by listing the names of two high-profile humanitarian
figures as part of its senior team, the former head of the World Food Programme
David Beasley and the former CEO of World Central Kitchen Nathan Mook. But both
have told CNN they are not currently involved. The GHF did not respond to
requests for comments about personnel.
Even if
Israel decides to back down over food supply networks in the short-term, few
expect pressure on international humanitarian groups to let up.
Last week 55
organisations called for the international community to take action on new
rules for registration inside Israel, saying the regulations threaten to shut
their work down.
“Based on
vague, broad, politicised, and open-ended criteria, these rules appear designed
to assert control … [and] silence advocacy grounded in international
humanitarian and human rights law,” they said in an open letter.
Israeli
officials are seeking not only control of aid supplies, but the people
delivering it, Khalidi said. With foreign journalists and diplomats barred from
entering Gaza, humanitarians on the ground have been some of the only external
witnesses to the impact of Israel’s campaign there.
“We have
been monitoring, reporting, and calling for accountability on what we’re
witnessing on the ground. And Israel is not happy about that.”
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