‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s donations to Gaza now half that of Australian government

Mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and Nicola Forrest will give another $18 million to humanitarian efforts in Gaza, making the billionaires’ $40 million donations in food, water and medical aid now worth almost half the value of the Australian government’s $82.5 million contribution to Palestinians.

Forrest said he wanted Australia’s philanthropic and private sector to give more to people suffering in Gaza, particularly families and children who were at risk of starvation. Food insecurity has been one of the most fraught issues of the war that began after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has now given $40 million in funding for aid to the Gaza Strip during the conflict.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The number of trucks carrying food and other goods to Gaza fell to around 130 per day on average in September, according to Israeli government statistics. That is below the average of 150 a day recorded since the beginning of the war, and far off the 600 trucks a day that the US Agency for International Development has said are required to address the threat of famine in wartime.

The Forrests’ Minderoo foundation will give $7.3 million to the World Central Kitchen, which Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom was working for when she was killed by an Israeli airstrike in April.

They said the funding would provide 1.5 million meals, while another $7.3 million will be donated to the United Nations’ World Food Programme, which is providing parcels to families in shelters, hot meals, support to bakeries, and nutritional products for mothers and children.

Minderoo will also give $3.6 million for critical water and sanitation infrastructure to the Palestinian Water Authority, UNICEF and local partners, which will include repairs, new sewage pumping stations and solar water wells.

“We are one of few philanthropies in Australia giving to the humanitarian needs in Gaza. We want to see the philanthropic and private sector respond more strongly to the humanitarian needs in Gaza,” Forrest said.

It brings Minderoo’s donations to Gaza to about $40 million since last October. By comparison, the Australian government has given $82.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the West Bank, with its latest $10 million in late September directed to UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund.

The Albanese government also gave $2 million to UNICEF’s humanitarian work in Lebanon last week, as the war between Israel and Hezbollah escalated.

Nicola Forrest, the co-founder of the Minderoo Foundation who is separated from her husband Andrew, said the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza demanded swift action. “It is heartbreaking to see the suffering of civilians in Gaza, especially children, who suffer disproportionately as innocent victims of conflict,” she said.

“Our focus has centred on filling the gaps that our partners on the ground tell us exist.”

Reuters has reported that food supplies to Gaza have fallen sharply in recent weeks as Israeli authorities introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid, and were separately scaling down deliveries organised by businesses.

The twin restrictions reignited concerns among aid workers that pervasive food insecurity will worsen for Gaza’s 2 million people. “Lack of food is some of the worst it’s been during the war, these past weeks especially,” Nour al-Amassi, a doctor who works in southern Gaza, told Reuters.

Israeli authorities have denied they are starving civilians, saying they facilitate food deliveries to Gaza despite challenging conditions.

Gaza health authorities say more than 41,700 people have been killed in the war that began when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1200 people and taking 250 hostages.

With Reuters

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