New aid distribution body has been denounced and called a politicisation of aid in Gaza.
The United States says a new Israeli-approved organisation – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – is the key to resolving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, but it already is receiving its fair share of criticism.
The GHF says it is going to start operations before the end of May. United Nations officials and humanitarian groups say it will not have the ability to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israel’s two-month-long blockade.
Instead, the aid groups that have been working in Gaza point out that they have the capacity to bring in food and other humanitarian supplies – if only Israel would let them.
So what is the GHF, and why is the situation in Gaza so desperate? Here’s everything you need to know:
Officially independent, the GHF is an Israeli- and US-backed body that plans to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip.
One in five people in Gaza currently face starvation due to the Israeli blockade of food and aid while 93 percent are experiencing acute food shortages, according to a UN-backed assessment released last week.
Through the GHF, Palestinians in Gaza would receive a “basic amount of food”.
The initial plan was announced last Wednesday with a timeline of about two weeks before it was up and running.
It’s still unclear how the GHF will be funded, but the foundation says it will set up “secure distribution sites” to feed 1.2 million people in Gaza before expanding to feed every Palestinian in the territory.
It says it will coordinate with the Israeli military while security would be provided by private military contractors.
The GHF initiative has been widely panned by aid groups and the UN.
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
The UN and humanitarian aid agencies say they already have the means to distribute desperately needed aid and alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The GHF, on the other hand, is seen by critics as a way of politicising aid and not having the experience or capacity to bring aid to more than two million people.
The GHF “restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet”, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said at the Security Council last week. “It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”
Eleven humanitarian and human rights organisations signed a statement in which they “unequivocally reject the establishment” of the GHF, calling it:
“A project led by politically connected Western security and military figures, coordinated in tandem with the Israeli government, and launched while the people of Gaza remain under total siege. It lacks any Palestinian involvement in its design or implementation.”
That lack of Palestinian involvement, coupled with Israel’s approval for the project and the planned presence of the Israeli military “on the perimeter” of the distribution sites, according to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, raises Palestinian suspicions that the establishment of the GHF will give even more power to Israel over aid distribution in Gaza.
Israel is blocking it.
Israel began preventing the entry of all food and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza on March 2 during a ceasefire, which it unilaterally broke on March 18.
Even before the blockade, Israel restricted the amount of aid that could come in, and some Israeli protesters also blocked and destroyed aid.
The situation has reached dire levels with the World Food Programme saying 70,000 children need urgent treatment for “acute malnutrition”.
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