US-backed Gaza aid plan distraction from Israel's atrocities: UNRWA

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has denounced a controversial US-backed Israeli aid plan for Gaza as a deliberate distraction from the regime’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians.  

Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X that such plans waste precious time and resources as famine looms and humanitarian aid remains blocked at the border.

Without directly referring to the plan, Lazzarini said on Saturday that “putting together new ‘plans’ is a distraction from the atrocities + a waste of resources.”

He said that the UN agency’s aid “is piled up outside [Gaza]: food will rot, medicines will expire. At the same time, the clock is ticking towards famine. The people of Gaza are dying.”

“Lift the siege. Open the gates. Let us do our jobs.”

The UN’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher, also warned on Friday that time should not be wasted on an alternative Gaza aid plan.

He wrote on X, “To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time: We already have a plan.”

“We have thousands of trucks of food at the border. Let us in. Let us work.”

More than two months after it completely blocked aid to Gaza, Israel has agreed to a plan that will be administered by a newly formed private foundation set up by the US.

The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would set up distribution sites secured by private US military contractors and manned by aid workers.

The United Nations’ major aid organizations, however, are refusing to participate in the new aid mechanism, warning it risks displacing Palestinians and increasing the dangers they face.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the plan could force families into an “impossible choice between displacement and death.”

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said if the US-backed plan were to be implemented, Gaza’s most vulnerable individuals— the elderly, children with disabilities, the sick, and the wounded who cannot travel to designated distribution zones— would face “horrendous challenges” retrieving aid.

The Gaza Strip has been under a complete aid blockade since Israel broke a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in mid-March.

Humanitarian organizations have warned repeatedly that food, water, medicines, and fuel have been running out across the populated territory.