The UN on Thursday rejected a US and Israeli-backed Gaza aid plan, which has been condemned as a transparent effort to use aid to force Palestinians into a tiny area of southern Gaza.
“This particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence, and we will not be participating in this,” deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.
Haq’s comments come a day after a new US-backed organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), announced that it would begin distributing aid in Gaza by the end of May and said that it had Israeli permission.
UN agencies and other aid organizations say they have thousands of trucks ready to enter Gaza to bring relief to the starving Palestinian population, but the US and Israel have devised the new scheme for aid over allegations that Hamas has diverted previous shipments, which the Palestinian group has denied.
The GHF plan would help facilitate Israel’s goals for its planned escalations in Gaza, which include the goal of “concentrating” the entire civilian population south of the Morag Corridor, a strip of land that separates the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
According to Israeli media, the plan is to establish four aid distribution sites south of the Morag Corridor, meaning Palestinians would be forced to travel to the area or starve. BBC reported on Thursday that an additional aid distribution site might be established near the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip.
According to Axios, the GHF has asked Israel to identify areas for aid distribution sites in northern Gaza within 30 days. By that time, many Palestinians in northern Gaza could starve to death as experts are warning a mass famine is imminent if the situation doesn’t change.
The GHF plan would involve private US security contractors providing security for the aid distribution centers. The initial plan, which was unveiled by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, would only feed 1.1 million people, or 60% of the population.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that he was “concerned” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and said the US was open to alternatives to the GHF plan. “I hear criticisms of that plan. We’re open to an alternative if someone has a better one,” he said. “We are for all the aid we can get without Hamas being able to steal it from people.”
According to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, Rubio expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the comment was absent from the State Department’s readout of the call.
