The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), under the leadership of Israel, began distributing aid on Tuesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the action “helps to win the war.” NU.nl explains what the GHF is, what the aid plan looks like, and what explains the fierce criticism.
Why is this important?
1. What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
In short: The GHF is an organization that distributes emergency aid in Gaza, but at the same time, it is a means for Israel to have (even more) control over the fate of the Gazans.
The GHF is an American organization that was founded earlier this year to distribute food packages, among other things. The organization is registered in the American state of Delaware and is supported by Israel and the United States. In addition to former soldiers and emergency aid workers, there would be a thousand armed security guards from a private American company deployed, reports The New York Times.
It is unknown who finances the organization. The GHF says it has received more than 100 million dollars (approximately 88.1 million euros) from a Western European country, but never announced which country. The US and Israel previously stated that they did not finance the organization.
A day before the emergency aid was to start, GHF chief Jake Wood quit his job due to the “lack of humanitarian principles” at the organization. According to Wood, the aid plan could not be carried out “without the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”
Independent aid organizations that have not been allowed into the Gaza Strip with their aid for months are not allowed to cooperate with the GHF and would not want to. CARE and the Red Cross, among others, expressed the same criticism to NU.nl as Wood. Due to Israel’s involvement, the aid loses its independence.
2. What exactly is the GHF’s plan?
The GHF wants to open four distribution points in the Israeli-controlled parts of Gaza. The first two have just opened. The BBC and news agency AP revealed the construction of the four distribution points via satellite images.
Three distribution points are located in the south near the destroyed city of Rafah, close to corridors of the Israeli army. The fourth is located in the middle of Gaza at the so-called Netzarim corridor. Corridors are occupied roads in conflict areas that simplify transport.
In this first week, one million people should receive emergency aid. It is estimated that there are a total of just over two million Gazans. The GHF has food for approximately 300,000 people at each point.
Earlier, the GHF reported that it would be boxes of 70 kilos, with enough food for ten days for a family of five. The first boxes that were distributed on Tuesday included pasta, flour, sunflower oil, chickpeas, white beans, tea, and biscuits.
The BBC found no indications on satellite images that other distribution points are being built in the Gaza Strip. When Wood was still GHF head, he said in an interview with CNN that two distribution points would appear in North Gaza within thirty days. But it is still unclear where those would come.
And (among other things) that’s where the problem lies: in which places is Israel setting up emergency aid? And especially: where not?
3. Why is there so much criticism?
Netanyahu says that the aid “helps to win the war”. Last week, the Israeli Prime Minister made that statement at a press conference. The United Nations also speaks of “aid as a weapon.”
And that is not only because Palestinians have to go out to collect their food boxes – with all the risks of attacks that entails.
So far it is not yet an issue, but there is a chance that Netanyahu wants to use the aid to keep many Gazans in the south. Earlier he said that he wants to move the Gazans to a “sterile zone” there. He then threatened that Palestinians “cannot always return” once they have entered this zone.
If he actually does that and parts of the Gaza Strip become empty, it makes Netanyahu’s war goal of occupying large parts (or even all) of Gaza a lot easier to achieve.
According to the UN, such a forced population transfer may be contrary to international law. “It seems that the area is being ethnically cleansed in this way,” says Professor Thea Hilhorst (Humanitarian Studies) to NU.nl.
But according to Netanyahu, that method is necessary because the Israeli army can better fight Hamas in this way. Israel wants to attack the remaining Hamas in ’empty’ parts of Gaza via the so-called Rafah method, reports an Israeli colonel on X. In practice, just like earlier in Rafah, the population is driven away and all remaining buildings are destroyed.
Furthermore, some aid organizations and also Hamas fear that the GHF will use facial recognition when distributing food aid. Israel has been doing this for some time to track down Hamas sympathizers. These are not arrested, but immediately shot. This facial recognition system also makes mistakes, which sometimes results in innocent civilians being shot dead, revealed The New York Times.
Hilhorst: “There is a real chance that there will be casualties at the distribution points.” After all, Israel has long accepted civilian casualties in attacks on alleged Hamas members, she says.
Hilhorst summarizes the entire GHF plan as follows:
“The GHF says it is setting up distribution points throughout Gaza, but the actual preparations have been set up at three points in the south so that people have to travel there from an area that Benjamin Netanyahu wants to depopulate. And he has said before that there is no guarantee that those people can return.”
“It seems as if aid is now being used by Israel for ethnic cleansing. People who are so desperate from hunger that they leave their place at the risk of never being able to return, regardless of the risks of facial recognition. That is the most violent way of aid you can imagine.”