US says new foundation to spearhead Gaza aid

Under the group’s plans, the UN would be sidelined and food would reportedly be provided only to 60 per cent of Gaza’s population.

Palestinians queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP.

The White House administration has announced a new humanitarian foundation to distribute aid to Gaza, sidelining the United Nations as Israel’s two-month blockade brings severe shortages to theterritory.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the foundation was non-governmental and would make an announcement “shortly,” without offering further details.

“We welcome moves to quickly get urgent food aid into Gaza … in a way that the food aid actually gets to those to whom it’s intended,” Ms Bruce told reporters.

“It cannot fall into the hands of terrorists such as Hamas.”

The foundation will be run by a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials and will distribute food and other supplies along lines proposed by Israel.

The Associated Press obtained a proposal from the newly created group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which lays out plans similar to those Israel has been discussing privately for weeks with international aid groups. The proposal reveals for the first time plans to create the foundation and names the people leading it.

Israel has blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for 10 weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians. It has said it won’t allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution and insists that Hamas is sidelined.

Under the new group’s proposal, Palestinians would receive pre-packaged rations, potable water, hygiene kits, blankets, and other supplies at a number of distribution hubs.

The Times of Israel reports that under the group’s plans, food would initially be provided only to 60 per cent of the Strip’s population

The GHF memo obtained by The Times of Israel says the “Secure Distribution Sites” (SDS) it will establish to distribute aid will initially only serve 1.2 million people, while the population in the Strip is about 2 million people.

The memo states that the four SDSs will have the “capacity to expand past 2 million,” but doesn’t specify how long the initial phase will last, The ToI reports.

An Israeli official told the newspaper Israel was hoping some countries would start to take in Palestinians, to minimise the discrepancy between the aid initiative’s initial capacity and Gaza’s population.

A UN official said last week that Israel’s plans would “weaponise aid” by placing restrictions on who is eligible to receive it.

Aid workers have also criticised the plans, saying they could not possibly meet the needs of Gaza’s population, and would forcibly displace large numbers of Palestinians by driving them to move nearer to the aid.

It came amid reports the US and Israel are in talks over Washington taking over the administration of the Gaza Strip, days before President Trump arrives in the Middle East.

The talks, which according to the Reuters news agency are at a preliminary stage, would involve the US leading a transitional government until safety and security in the Palestinian territory had been established.

According to the report there would be no role in the US-administered strip for Hamas, which has led Gaza since 2007 or the Palestinian Authority (PA), the body that has jurisdiction over the parts of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinians.

Initially, the high level discussions between American and Israeli officials are understood to have been about considering an interim administration in Gaza similar to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet approved a new ground operation to occupy territory in the Gaza Strip, in a strategic shift that would entail moving most of Gaza’s population to an area cleared of militants and taking control of aid distribution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would retain a presence in areas it seizes in Gaza and would rely on the tens of thousands of reservists the military would call up as part of the offensive.

“One thing will be clear – they’re not going in and out,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to his X account on Monday, suggesting that Israeli troops wouldn’t quickly withdraw from cleared areas as they did in the first ground operation after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks.

he believed would be involved.

AP, AFP