The head of a new aid distribution program for Gaza, backed by the US and Israel, has resigned after weeks of controversy, citing concerns over impartiality and urging Israel to allow more aid into the blockaded enclave. <\/p>\n
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is meant to run a new, tightly controlled, mechanism for aid deliveries into Gaza, but it has been criticized by the United Nations and others, who warn it risks further displacing Palestinians and endangering civilians. <\/p>\n
US military veteran Jake Wood has quit as GHF\u2019s executive director after just a matter of weeks at the organization, publicly launched by the US in early May. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am proud of the work I oversaw, including developing a pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion, and complement the work of longstanding NGOs in Gaza,\u201d said Wood in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The GHF\u2019s plan for delivering aid has been approved by Israel and the US, which both countries say is designed to prevent Hamas from \u201cstealing\u201d aid. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s supposed to start operating four distribution sites before the end of May, all located in southern and central Gaza \u2013 but it has come under heavy criticism from top humanitarian officials, with the UN and other organizations refusing to work with the new group. <\/p>\n
The UN warned that the fact the initial sites were only in southern and central Gaza <\/em>could be seen as encouraging Israel\u2019s publicly stated goal of forcing \u201cthe entire Gazan population\u201d out of northern Gaza, as Defense Minister Israel Katz put it earlier this month. <\/p>\n The US and the GHF have both been at pains to say that it is not an Israeli initiative \u2013 despite Israel\u2019s support for it, and its role in designating and securing the distribution sites. <\/p>\n He added in May that he \u201cunequivocally\u2026 will not be a part of anything that forcibly dislocates or displaces the Palestinian population.\u201d <\/p>\n In his resignation statement on Sunday, he said he had sought to establish the foundation \u201cas a truly independent humanitarian entity\u201d during his time as its executive director. <\/p>\n Wood said he was \u201chorrified and heartbroken at the hunger crisis in Gaza\u201d and was \u201ccompelled to do whatever I could to help alleviate the suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI urge Israel to significantly expand the provision of aid into Gaza through all mechanisms, and I urge all stakeholders to continue to explore innovative new methods for the delivery of aid, without delay, diversion, or discrimination,\u201d Wood said. <\/p>\n The GHF is only expected to be able to feed about 60% of Gaza\u2019s population in its first weeks. A private American security contractor will be responsible for guarding its aid trucks from the Gaza border to the distribution sites and will not be involved in distributing the aid to civilians, Wood had previously said. <\/p>\n His resignation comes as Gaza faces widespread starvation amid a severe shortage of essential humanitarian aid. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has recorded 58 deaths from malnutrition and 242 deaths from shortages of food and medicine since Israel\u2019s blockade on aid began in March, it said. <\/p>\n Last week, Israel said it would allow a \u201cbasic amount of food\u201d to enter Gaza due to an \u201coperational need\u201d as the military pushes ahead with its offensive, dubbed \u201cGideon\u2019s Chariots.\u201d The Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office has said a hunger crisis in Gaza could jeopardize the operation, which Israel says aims to defeat Hamas. <\/p>\n \u201cGaza is exhausted,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are starving people in the streets.\u201d <\/p>\n Another resident, Um Jamal Musleh, said she and her two children relied on the local charity-run kitchen. \u201cToday, we were shocked to see a sign saying it\u2019s the last day for the kitchen. That means we\u2019ll go hungry,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Asmaa Al-Kafarneh, who was waiting at the kitchen on Sunday, said she had not eaten bread in two months. \u201cIf we don\u2019t die from Israeli airstrikes, we\u2019ll die of hunger,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Israel said it allowed 107 aid trucks into the territory on Sunday \u2013 but the UN has said that\u2019s not nearly enough. <\/p>\n The enclave needs at least 500 to 600 trucks daily to avert a deepening humanitarian catastrophe, as civilians face a severe shortage of supplies like food and medicine, said UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The UN has also complained that Israel has insisted on humanitarian aid traveling along insecure routes, preventing many aid trucks from safely arriving at their destinations. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The head of a new aid distribution program for Gaza, backed by the US and Israel, has resigned after weeks of controversy, citing concerns over impartiality and urging Israel to allow more aid into the blockaded enclave. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is meant to run a new, tightly controlled, mechanism for aid deliveries into <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Starvation in Gaza<\/h2>\n