Gaza aid foundation chief quits, complains of lack of neutrality
JERUSALEM/CAIRO—The head of a US-backed foundation set to supply aid in Gaza quit unexpectedly on Sunday, a day before the group was due to begin operations.
Jake Wood, executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for the past two months, said he resigned because it could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”
His departure underscores the confusion surrounding the foundation, which has been boycotted by the United Nations and the aid groups supplying aid to Gaza before Israel imposed a total blockade on the enclave in March.
The groups say the new system will undermine the principle that aid should be overseen by a neutral party. Israel, which floated a similar plan earlier this year, says it will not be involved in distributing aid but it had endorsed the plan and would provide security for it.
Last week, under growing international pressure, Israeli authorities allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave but the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed by a population of 2 million at risk of famine after nearly three months of blockade.
Private contractors
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which would use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
“We plan to scale (up) rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead,” it said in a statement.
The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticized by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company’s aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.
The new operation will rely on four major distribution centers in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition technology, according to aid officials.
But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.
New system
Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would “replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime.”
Israel says the system is aimed at separating aid from Hamas, which it accuses of stealing and using food to impose control over the population, a charge rejected by Hamas, which says it protects aid convoys from gangs of armed looters.
While the aid system is worked out, Israel has continued to carry out strikes across the densely populated Gaza Strip, killing at least 45 people on Monday, according to local health authorities.
