Despite a somewhat chaotic start, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has crossed its first hurdle and delivered its first aid packages. Photos online and those distributed by the IDF on Tuesday showed boxes full with various products. These products appear to include the kind of staples that can feed a family for several days or even a week, including pasta, rice, flour, vegetable oil, and other basic essentials.
This initiative will be watched closely in the region. The US-led initiative has not appeared to receive a lot of support from countries that might otherwise be supportive. US President Donald Trump traveled to the Gulf in mid-May and visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
The UAE and Bahrain both have relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords. The UAE, especially, has been supportive of Gaza over the last year and a half. It had helped with medical support and had sent aid via Egypt and via support for air drops.
While Al-Ain media in the UAE did not initially cover the new aid initiative, Al-Arabiya did cover it on Tuesday. The report indicated that photos had shown aid being delivered. “The new food distribution mechanism is limited to a small number of centers guarded by armed contractors, where people must go to collect it.” The article, relying on an Associated Press report, noted that four centers have been established, three of them in southern Gaza.
The report noted that the GHF “said it plans to reach more than one million Palestinians by the end of the week. The foundation announced that each of its four initial centers will provide meals to approximately 300,000 people.”
More centers are expected to be opened. Clearly this will depend on the success of the first operations. “The aid will be delivered with the help of private contractors who will transport the supplies in armored vehicles from the Gaza border to the centers, where they will also provide security.”
The goal is to deter criminal gangs and others from stealing the aid. In the past, aid entered via the Kerem Shalom crossing and was often stolen. Armed men could be seen on the aid trucks. The UN and other organizations active in Gaza did not appear to try to prevent this. In fact, these organizations that have worked in Gaza for years have opposed the US-led efforts and the new centers. It is not clear if this is because these other organizations that historically managed aid delivery want to maintain a monopoly on aid and benefit from that monopoly, or if they have partnered so closely with Hamas that they don’t want to see Hamas lose power.
Arab media lacking independent reporting on this issue
While Arab states may be watching closely, their media don’t seem to be doing a lot of independent reporting on this issue. The report at Al-Arabiya relied on satellite photos from May 10 that showed the initial construction of the centers. The centers include berms and types of barriers that enable people to walk from Mawasi in Gaza, an area near the sea, and access the centers that are closer to Tal al-Sultan, a suburb of Rafah. This is also near the Morag corridor, which the IDF captured back in March.
Much of the area near the centers has been leveled, so these are open areas. People walk up to several miles to get the aid. Images on Telegram and other social media show long lines of people, mostly men, walking.
The Al-Arabiya report did note that “most of the Gaza Strip’s population is currently located in northern Gaza – where there is currently no operational center – or in the center of the Strip.”
MORE HURDLES continue to exist. The GHF and the contractors will need to ramp up aid distribution quickly. Even if several thousand people got aid on Tuesday, that’s only enough for some 10,000-20,000 people. Each person takes aid for a family. That means to help 300,000 in one area, one would need to give out 30,000 boxes in several days. Reports said that the goal was 300 million meals in a 90-day period. That would seem to mean that some 800,000 “meals” would need to be distributed at each of the four centers per day. If each box contains some 20-30 meals, then one would still need to be giving out tens of thousands of boxes a day.
The report at Al-Arabiya also noted that “the United Nations and several nongovernmental organizations have said they will not participate in the operations of this institution, which is accused of working with Israel.”
Al-Quds al-Arabi also wrote an article about the new initiative. It presented the new aid centers as aiming to perpetuate starvation and it appeared to cheer what it thinks are initial difficulties the GHF has faced. That report went on to say that the “Palestinian national authorities,” apparently meaning the Palestinian Authority, had been concerned about the Israelis being involved in the “establishment of a mechanism to circumvent aid distribution that bypasses UN agencies, most notably the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and in terms of obstructing the work of all international institutions in this regard.
“This is in addition to the fact that the occupation army was able to control the few distribution centers in the southern Gaza Strip, crowd the population there, and control the selection of families who would receive aid rations, thus violating the fundamental rules required by international law.”
Aid centers established in close coordination with the United States
However, the IDF says that the centers were established “with the directive of the political echelon and in close coordination with the United States. The centers are operated by international aid organizations and secured by an American civilian security company in the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF said that the centers were also established with the cooperation of the IDF’s Southern Command and COGAT. They work with the GHF and the company that employs the private security contractors. “The IDF will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, while making every possible effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF said.
UN opposes the distribution of aid at the new centers
Meanwhile, the UN continues to appear to oppose the distribution of aid at the new centers. The National in the UAE noted that an “alternative aid delivery operation in Gaza is distracting attention from the need to reopen border crossings after nearly three months of Israel’s blockade, a UN official said on Tuesday. Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations’ humanitarian office, OCHA, made the comments after a US-Israeli foundation said it had started distributing relief under a plan that sidelines the UN and established aid groups.”
Arab News in Saudi Arabia reported on the new aid centers, but relied on Reuters for its report.
“CAIRO: Palestinians voiced wariness on Tuesday toward a US-backed foundation set to bring aid to Gaza amid signs of famine, with Hamas warnings about biometric screening procedures keeping many away from distribution points,” it noted.
What matters now is seeing if the aid centers continue to function as expected and expand. Gazans are watching closely. Hamas is also watching closely, trying to deter people from trusting the new initiative.
At the same time, Hamas is concerned that Gazans may want to work with the new initiative, rumors in Gaza that some people or local clans may be seeking to work with the emerging order, concern Hamas.
However, Arab states that prefer to see Hamas sidelined will be watching this development also. It’s plausible to assume that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain would like to see Hamas sidelined.
However, they are taking a wait-and-see approach so far.