UN condemns Israel's new aid program in Gaza, after chaotic start

Boston Globe

5 days ago

Israel had barred humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for more than two months, causing widespread hunger, before allowing shipments of food, fuel and other goods to begin flowing in last week. But desperately needed relief -- either from the old U.N.-run system or the new Israeli-designed one -- has yet to reach many people in Gaza.
On Wednesday night, large crowds of Palestinians broke into a warehouse belonging to the U.N. World Food Program, the agency said in a statement. 'Initial reports indicate two people died and several were injured in the tragic incident,' it said in a statement.
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The episodes raised further questions over Israel's latest attempt to overhaul the provision of aid to those in Gaza, in what Israeli leaders call an attempt to sideline Hamas. The U.N. and many other humanitarian groups have boycotted the initiative, which has also drawn anger from many of Israel's Western backers.
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Israel has also been threatening a major ground invasion, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised will be a decisive blow against Hamas. But the Palestinian armed group has refused to surrender despite well more than a year and a half of devastating bombardment and ground combat, fighting a dogged war of attrition and recruiting thousands of new fighters to its ranks.
Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official, said dozens of people had reportedly been injured in the chaotic fray Tuesday. He called the Israeli attempt to seize control of the humanitarian aid for Palestinians part of 'an assault on their human dignity.'
'Yesterday, we saw tens of thousands of desperate people -- under fire -- storming a militarized distribution point established on the rubble of their homes,' Whittall told reporters in a news briefing Wednesday.
The new aid operation, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had set up two distribution hubs so far and provided thousands of aid parcels without incident Wednesday. But European diplomats further criticized both the program and Israel's offensive. The foundation denied that any civilians or aid workers had been hurt in the process on either day.
'The disproportionate use of force and the deaths of civilians cannot be tolerated,' said Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, adding that aid 'must never be politicized or militarized.'
Under the new Israeli-designed system, four aid sites in southern Gaza are being secured by Israeli soldiers and overseen by private U.S. contractors. Previously, the United Nations largely coordinated the distribution of aid in the enclave, but Israeli officials have been eager to bypass the world body, accusing it of anti-Israel bias and of failing to prevent Hamas from hoarding supplies.
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U.N. officials have boycotted the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, saying that it fundamentally violates humanitarian principles. They say Israel's vision would replace hundreds of U.N. distribution sites with just four, requiring many Palestinians to travel miles and pass through a cordon of Israeli troops to obtain aid.
As of Wednesday, two distribution hubs were operational and more than 14,000 parcels of aid had been distributed.
That sharply contrasted with the chaos that erupted Tuesday, when thousands of Palestinians hoping to receive food had arrived at one of the hubs in what remains of the southern city of Rafah. Pushing and shoving, some later burst through the site's narrow fences, leading Israeli soldiers to fire warning shots, according to the Israeli military.
Jalal al-Homs, a displaced Palestinian in Khan Younis, witnessed the crowds and Israeli gunfire Tuesday when he sought to receive aid from the hub in Rafah's Tel al-Sultan neighborhood. He ultimately left hours later without getting a box of food for his family, with whom he is living in a tent.
On Wednesday, al-Homs, 35, said he had tried again to head for one of the aid hubs. As he approached, he said he saw crowds milling about, all hoping for food. Afraid the situation could again unravel, he went back home, he said.
'There's no organization,' al-Homs said in a phone call. 'I was scared that today would be the same as yesterday, which was disastrous.'
Netanyahu sought to characterize the scramble in a Tuesday night speech as a brief loss of control in the otherwise successful launch of the new initiative.
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Israel blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza for more than two months, causing widespread hunger among Palestinians. Israeli officials charged that much of the food, fuel and medicine flowing through the mainline U.N.-coordinated system had fallen under the control of Hamas.
Whittall said there was 'no evidence' that large amounts of U.N.-coordinated aid had been diverted by Hamas. He said the main obstacle to distributing aid was armed gangs in Gaza, many of whom were stealing aid 'under the watch of Israeli forces.'
'It doesn't have to be this way. We need our existing system to be enabled,' he added.
The Trump administration has been pressing to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that would begin with a two-month initial truce. On Wednesday, Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, said that the White House was readying a fresh proposal, adding that he 'had some very good feelings about getting to a long-term ceasefire.'
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