U.S.-backed organisation intends to launch a new system for delivering aid in the Gaza Strip by the end of May. However, the United Nations has declined to take part, citing concerns that the initiative is neither neutral nor impartial.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Aid deliveries in Gaza will be overseen by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was established in February in Switzerland, according to the Geneva commercial registry.
The foundation intends to work with private U.S. security and logistics firms – UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions – according to a source familiar with the plan.
A second source familiar with the plan said the GHF has already received more than $100 million in commitments. It was not immediately clear where the money was coming from.
Senior U.S. officials were working with Israel to enable the GHF to start work, acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the Security Council earlier this month, urging the U.N. and aid groups to cooperate. Israel has said it will allow the foundation’s work without being involved in aid deliveries.
Working of The New Plan
According to a GHF document circulating among the aid community earlier this month, the foundation would initially operate from four “secure distribution sites” that could each serve 300,000 people with food, water and hygiene kits. Israeli officials have said those hubs would be in Gaza’s south.
The private U.S. companies would transport the aid into Gaza to the hubs, where it would then be distributed by aid groups – not the private companies, the first source said.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon has said a few aid groups have agreed to work with the GHF. The names of those groups are not yet known.
Israel has agreed to expand the number of distribution sites and find ways for aid to get to civilians who are unable to reach a distribution site, the foundation has said.
The foundation has asked Israel’s military to identify “locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF-operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within 30 days.”
GHF has also said it would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel.
Why UN Backed Out
The United Nations says the U.S.-backed distribution plan does not meet its long-held principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has said time should not be wasted on the alternative proposal.
In a briefing to the Security Council, he explained what was wrong with the Israel-initiated plan: “It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm… This restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet, which makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip.”
Why A Substitute Plan
Israel stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 after accusing Hamas of stealing aid.
The Palestinian militants denied and demanded the release of all remaining hostages taken during an October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
That assault triggered the war, which Gaza authorities say has killed 53,000 people.
In early April, Israel proposed what it described as “a structured monitoring and aid entry mechanism” for Gaza.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was swiftly rejected by those who said it risked “further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour.”
Since then, pressure has been growing on Israel to allow aid deliveries to resume.
A global hunger monitor last week warned that half a million people face starvation – about a quarter of the population in the enclave – and U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that “a lot of people are starving in Gaza.”
Amid the stalemate over Israel’s plan, Washington backed the newly created GHF to oversee aid distribution.
The GHF then announced last week that it aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May.
In the meantime, Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume under the existing distribution model, with five trucks entering Gaza on Monday, which Fletcher described as “a drop in the ocean”.
The U.N. said on Tuesday it has received Israeli approval for about 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza.
The Active Plan
Throughout the conflict, the United Nations has described its humanitarian operation in Gaza as opportunistic, facing problems with Israel’s military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza and looting by armed gangs.
But the U.N. has said its aid distribution system works, and that was particularly proven during a two-month ceasefire, which was abandoned by Israel in mid-March.
Israel would first inspect and approve the aid. It was then dropped off on the Gaza side of the border, where it was picked up by the U.N. and distributed.
(With inputs from Reuters)
