There's a new Gaza aid organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), sponsored by Israel and the United States, that the UN and most international aid groups oppose.
The UN says the group was engaged in “engineered scarcity” rather than feeding Gazans. In fact, the whole purpose of the GHF was to prevent the UN and other NGO aid groups from using Hamas-controlled conduits to deliver aid. Israel suspects that those conduits divert aid from civilians to feed Hamas terrorists.
The UN rejects that claim and says the biggest problem with the Foundation is that they don't give aid to everyone who asks.
"Humanitarian groups and the U.N. have said they cannot work with the group, raising concerns that the aid program could violate humanitarian principles, militarize aid delivery, and lead to further displacement of Palestinians," reports the Washington Post.
GHF operates four aid distribution hubs throughout Gaza, guarded by private security contractors. The aid sites have chain-link fences that move Palestinians into aid centers that are surrounded by large sand berms. All of this security didn't help much on Tuesday when thousands of Gazans stormed the site and someone fired into the crowd, killing one Gazan and wounding 48.
Israel denies it opened fire. The military contractors also say they didn't fire on civilians. The military said it fired warning shots to try to manage the unruly crowd. The facts are in dispute, but what's clear is that the UN and the humanitarian groups opposing the GHF are gleefully claiming, "I told you so."
“We warned this would happen, and now it’s unraveling before our eyes. What is being presented as a humanitarian mechanism is, in reality, a system of control,” said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead for the Palestinian territories.
Some of the early backers of the GHF have backed away, possibly because of intimidation by the UN.
The foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, resigned on May 25 — just ahead of the aid launch — saying the plans were not consistent with what he called the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”
Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official, described the aid program in a news briefing as “engineered scarcity” with four distribution hubs in central and southern Gaza, secured by private U.S. security contractors.
The shaky start to the Israeli aid initiative comes amid repeated warnings by the United Nations that the 2 million Palestinians who are sealed in the 140-square-mile enclave are nearing the brink of famine, following a months-long Israeli blockade on aid entering the Gaza Strip.
The chaos at GHF distribution hubs is not the only aid center to see violence. A UN warehouse in central Gaza run by the World Food Program (WFP) was overrun, with four Gazans killed in the crush and scores injured.
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While Gazans are desperate and hungry, the chaos could have been given a helping hand by Hamas, which has an enormous stake in seeing the population starved and angry at the Israelis. In a mob like the ones outside the aid distribution centers, it doesn't take much to start a stampede, giving the GHF a black eye.
“The message that is being sent through the establishment of these militarized hubs appears to be that in Gaza, survival is a privilege, granted only to those who comply with a military plan,” said Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official, at a news briefing.
They are "militarized" to the extent that men with guns are the only way to keep order in a famine situation. The rest of that statement is a lie. No one is being asked to "comply" with a military plan in exchange for aid.
A spokesman for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation told The Post that the foundation “will never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians.” He also said early planning documents do not necessarily reflect the current thinking of the foundation, which he said did not include building housing compounds or vetting aid recipients — points several people engaged in the planning process raised as stirring ethical concerns.
The UN and other "humanitarian" aid groups don't want outsiders horning in on their aid distribution racket. That's not very humanitarian of them, is it?
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