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LAST UPDATE | 28 May
AN AID DISTRIBUTION hub run by a US-Israeli backed organisation in Gaza is “humiliating and insulting” to people impacted by Israel’s blockade on the region, an aid worker has said.
Oxfam’s Ghada Al-Haddad, who is currently working in Gaza, said the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ is providing Palestinians with limited supplies of food and hygiene products.
The foundation, which has faced intense criticism from UN agencies and NGOs that already operate in the besieged Palestinian territory, is requesting that people in need of aid in Gaza travel to its hub in the south of the region.
It does not provide shelter or clothes to people who, sometimes, travel hours by foot to retrieve much-needed supplies. The foundation’s CEO resigned before it launched operations in Gaza, citing concerns over displacement and impartiality.
Speaking to The Journal, Al-Haddad said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation represents a “clear violation of humanitarian principles”, due to the fact that it is being facilitated by Israel and the US and not a third party, such as Oxfam or the UN.
She said people in Gaza are asked to approach the hub for aid, despite the fact that the governments of the countries facilitating the stations have continued bombardments on the territory and its people.
One person was killed, and another 48 people were injured yesterday after Israeli troops opened fired at the hub, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The Israeli military denied it fired into the overcrowded facility, claiming its personnel had shot into the air.
The US-Israeli-backed organisation, who also denied the incident, saw its new hub near the southern city of Rafah overrun by hungry people desperate for food yesterday. A crowd broke through a fence and a journalist heard Israeli tank and gun fire.
“There are about 47 people who have been injured”, said Ajith Sunghay, the head of UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, adding that “most of those injured are due to gunshots”, and that “it was shooting from the IDF”.
“The numbers could go up. We are trying to confirm what has happened to them,” in terms of how seriously people were injured, Sunghay added.
The new aid distribution model is part of an Israeli plan to take over aid delivery in Gaza, which critics have said only allows Israel to further weaponise food supply.
Its former executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying it was impossible to do his job in line with humanitarian principles.
The UN and NGOs have subjected the foundation to criticism for making Palestinians approach them for aid.
Oxfam’s Al-Haddad told The Journal: “People are walking for miles on unpaved roads [...] which make it very difficult for elderly and vulnerable people to travel.”
She said the supplies given to people are not fit for purpose and that “compressive packages” of food, water, medicine and shelter are required.
“People literally need everything.”
She described the hubs are “humiliating and insulting to the people of Gaza”. Al-Haddad questioned the strategy from Israel, which placed almost three-month blockade on the region and its people before beginning a non-partisan aid regime.
Al-Haddad added: “Why do we have to create a new humanitarian distribution system when we’ve been on the ground for decades?”
The New York Times, citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported last week that a new US-backed aid plan for Gaza had been “conceived and largely developed by Israelis as a way to undermine Hamas”.
The UN has ruled out involvement in the US-Israeli plan, with spokesman Farhan Haq saying that it “does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence”.
A group of NGOs, including ActionAid, this month said: “Aid that is used to mask ongoing violence is not aid, it is in fact humanitarian cover for a military strategy of control and dispossession.”
Today, the head of UNRWA – the UN’s main aid agency in Palestine – said: “We have seen yesterday the shocking images of hungry people pushing against fences, desperate for food. It was chaotic, undignified and unsafe.”
“I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities. We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose,” the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said.
“Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards famine, so humanitarian (work) must be allowed to do its life-saving work now,” Philippe Lazzarini said.
Gaza rescuers have said sixteen people were killed in Israeli strikes across the territory.
“Sixteen people have been killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn”, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency.
Among them, nine belonged to the family of photojournalist Osama al-Arbeed and were killed in a strike on their home in Gaza’s north at 2am, Bassal said.
He added that Arbeed was injured, noting that he is a videographer and editor at a local film production organisation. Another six members of the same family were killed in central Gaza in a strike that left 15 people wounded, “including children”.
One other person, a civilian per Bassal, was killed near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.
The health ministry in Gaza said on yesterday that at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since Israel broke a ceasefire on 18 March, taking the war’s overall death toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.
With reporting from AFP and Press Association
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