An NGO supported by Israel and the United States has announced that it should start distributing aid to besieged Gaza, despite its leaving chief, citing concerns about its independence.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement on Monday that it should launch direct aid delivery in the Beaten enclave, a few hours after its executive director Jake Wood announced its resignation.
The GHF, which has been used to distribute food, drugs and other vital supplies that have been blocked by the Israeli army for two months, said it aims to provide aid to 1 million Palestinians in the territory by the end of the week.
The NGO said that it then planned to “quickly develop the population in the coming weeks”.
Israel said last week that this would allow “minimum” assistance deliveries to Gaza, where help agencies would warn generalized famine and multiple deaths after famine, but the reports suggest that the few supplies that have entered the enclave have reached the hungry population of Gaza of 2.3 million.
The United Nations and other aid agencies have refused to work with the GHF, warning that the conditions under which it will work, in particular by forcing the Palestinians to come together at centralized help points, put people in danger and undermine other efforts of help.
Wood announced his resignation on Sunday, citing concerns about GHF’s independence.
The organization could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, which I will not give up,” he said in a statement, and asked Israel to allow the entry of more aid.
The GHF board of directors, in a statement, said that it was “disappointed” by resignation but remained determined to extend the efforts of aid through the strip.
A spokesperson for the US State Department also said that he had been in favor of the NGO.
Wood’s departure follows growing criticisms of the GHF operational and independence.
The NGO, which claims that it has been based in Geneva since February, has emerged “private meetings of civil servants with similar views, military officers and business people with close links with the Israeli government,” said New York Times.
The UN and large humanitarian organizations have feared that GHF operations will undermine existing rescue efforts, as well as to restrict food access to the limited areas of Gaza, which would oblige civilians to travel long distances to access aid and cross the Israeli military lines.
It is also feared that the GHF distribution plans, which, according to the United States and Israel, will be designed to prevent Hamas from controlling aid, could be used to advance an Israeli goal from depopulating northern Gaza by concentrating aid in the South.
‘Weapon of war’
The controversy on the GHF takes place in the context of worsening the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
According to the latest classification report for the integrated food security phase (IPC), 1.95 million people – 93% of the Gaza population – are faced with high levels of food insecurity or do not have enough to eat.
Aid agencies have described the crisis as an artificial famine and accused Israel of using famine as a weapon of war.
Robert Patman, professor of international relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told Tel Aviv Tribune that Wood’s resignation reflected the lack of support from humanitarian organizations established for the GHF.
“It is not a secret for anyone that the main donors of aid had not been convinced by this proposal, which is essentially a start-up,” he said.
Patman has also noted that many humanitarian actors argue that there is “no need for a new humanitarian organization”, stressing that the international community should rather focus on lifting Israeli blocking on Gaza.