Ward Nar (left) reacts as she speaks with the photographer after returning empty-handed from attempting to receive donated food for her family, including her husband Mohammed Zaharna (centre right) and their children, Sally (right) and Raed, at a communitAID workers expressed strong criticism today of plans by a group of US security contractors, former military officers and humanitarian aid officials to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza in line with proposals drawn up by Israel.
The newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is reportedly attempting to implement a new aid distribution system that supplants the current arrangement run by the United Nations and other international aid agencies.
The UN and aid groups have rejected the Israeli authorities’ attempts to control aid distribution.
Israel has blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for 10 weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis affecting 2.3 million Palestinians, and said that it won’t allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution.
The 14-page proposal circulated this week among aid groups and UN officials lays out plans similar to ones Israel has been discussing privately with international aid groups for weeks. For the first time, the proposal reveals plans to create the foundation and names the people who would be in charge.
A UN official said last week that Israel’s plans would “weaponise aid” by placing restrictions on who is eligible to receive it.
Aid workers have also condemned the plans, which would centralise distribution at four hubs under the protection of private security contractors.
Norwegian Refugee Council communications adviser Shaina Low warned that by forcing the population to relocate around aid hubs, the system would “depopulate entire parts of Gaza” and could be used to potentially expel the population.
Tamara Alrifai, communications director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which has led the aid effort it Gaza, described the plan as setting “a very dangerous precedent” for countries to use “full siege as a tactic of war” to force the abandonment of “existing aid structures and the entire international system that exists and is recognised and start creating a new system.”
