‘Dangerous scheme’: UN says Israeli-US aid plan aims to reinforce Gaza control
The United Nations and aid organizations operating in Gaza say they will not cooperate with Israel and the US to establish a new “mechanism” for aid delivery, arguing the plan is aimed at reinforcing control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic against Palestinians.
Aid organizations have reported that Israel has proposed a plan, according to which, the warehousing and distributing of aid in Gaza would be given to US private security contractors.
Israeli and Arab officials familiar with the matter have said that if the plan is implemented, the Israeli forces would not be directly involved in the distribution of aid.
But instead, the regime’s forces would allegedly provide an outer layer of security for the private contractors and international organizations that deliver aid.
On Sunday, the UN Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a statement formally rejecting the idea.
OCHA says the plan would allow the regime’s military and political aims to impede humanitarian objectives, put restrictions on who is eligible to give and receive aid and force large numbers of Palestinians to move, which would violate international law.
‘Into militarized zones’
“The design of the plan presented to us will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies,” OCHA said.
“It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic, as part of a military strategy. It is dangerous, driving civilians into militarized zones to collect rations, threatening lives, including those of humanitarian workers, while further entrenching forced displacement,” OCHA continued.
UN Secretary General António Guterres and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, have dismissed the plan as a new scheme by the Israeli regime to further tighten its stranglehold on the besieged territory.
This is not the first time that the Israeli regime has tried to change the aid delivery in Gaza to put pressure and control Palestinians.
Back in February 2024, in what has become known as the “flour massacre,” the Israeli forces who were overseeing the distribution of aid to Palestinians, opened fire on hundreds of desperate people of the territory who were waiting for aid-delivery trucks southwest of Gaza City.
At least 112 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 wounded.
