Washington's ambassador to Israel said before a visit to the Middle East on Friday that a U.S.-backed mechanism to allocate aid to Gaza should take effect as soon as possible, but he provided very little details.
Gaza residents are facing an increasingly serious humanitarian crisis, with Israel placing a months-long lockdown on aid supplies in small Palestinian lands during its third year of militant grouping the Hamas War.
Ambassador Mike Huckabee said several partners had promised to participate in the aid arrangement but declined to disclose the aid and said details will be released in the coming days.
“There is a good initial response,” the former Republican governor told reporters at the Jerusalem embassy.
“There are some nonprofits that will be part of the leadership,” he said, adding that while not Israel, other organizations and governments need to be involved.
A new U.S.-backed group called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has proposed an aid allocation plan, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press. The organization is composed of U.S. security contractors, former government officials, former military officials and humanitarian officials.
It is not clear whether this is the plan Huckabee refers to. But aid workers said the formation of the group was almost useless.
Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said the plan was close to “Israel's vision for militarized aid” and said it would fail, while warning local parties not to “become a tool in the Zionist occupation plan.”
Trump seeks a landmark deal that will see diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, where he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.
A new aid program for Gaza has been established, which has been wreak havoc by Israeli military campaigns in Hamas that destroyed many infrastructure and displaced most of its 2.3 million people several times.
“It’s not perfect, especially in the early stages,” Huckabee said. “This work is a logistical challenge.”
Israel approved a plan to strengthen military operations against Hamas by seizing Gaza, establishing new bases and maintaining unspecified time. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Gaza's population would move to the south. Previous versions of this video contain incorrect hostage numbers.
The looming famine faced by the population: the United Nations
European leaders and aid groups criticized Israel's plans to demand private companies take over humanitarian distribution and expand their military movements in the enclaves.
Israel accused agencies, including the United Nations, of allowing aid to fall into Hamas’ hands, which was said to have seized supplies designed to civilians and sent them to their own troops or sold them to raise funds – a point Hamas denied.
Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza since the ceasefire with Hamas in March, prompting the UN to warn of imminent famine and population.
Islam hajjaj said her six-year-old daughter Najwa suffered from severe malnutrition due to lockdown. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Najwa has one of about tens of thousands of children who show signs of malnutrition.
Hahaji said her daughter weighed about 22 pounds before the war. Now, she weighs 15 pounds and is underage.
“She became the bone of human beings,” Hajjaj told CBC News on Friday.
“The war has made her situation worse and worse. She sleeps and wakes up hoping for milk.”
Children in Gaza show signs of acute malnutrition as Israel’s aid lockdown stretches into the third month. Israel said it plans to take over the aid allocation in the coming weeks and approved plans to capture the entire Gaza Strip for unspecified times.
Criticize the aid program
Trump laughed at a major announcement before his journey. It is not clear what Huckabee announced on Friday.
“The Israelis will be involved in providing the necessary military security because it is a war zone, but they will not be involved in the distribution of food and even bring food into Gaza,” Huckaby said in a press conference.
Asked if the aid supply on restoring the ceasefire depends on, Huckabee said: “In addition to our ability to incorporate food into Gaza, humanitarian aid will not depend on anything else.”
UNICEF on Friday criticized emerging plans to take over the allocation of aid that Israel and the United States swept across Gaza, saying it would increase suffering for children and families.
A proposal is circulating in the aid communities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which will distribute food at four “safely allocated locations”, similar to plans announced earlier this week, but criticized it for effectively displaced among Gaza’s population.
There will be a “initial” distribution center that may feed “maybe more than a million people” before it can be expanded to eventually reach 2 million, Huckaby said.
Huckabee said “Private Safety” would be responsible for the safety of workers entering distribution centers and distributing the food itself, refusing to comment on the engagement rules of security personnel.
“Everything will be done according to international law,” he said.
Mediation efforts in the United States, Qatar and Egypt have not yet successfully implemented the second phase of the ceasefire. Israel demands that Hamas be completely disarmament, which Islamic organizations reject.
Hamas said it was willing to release all remaining hostages its gunmen caught in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities and agreed to agree to a permanent ceasefire if Israel was pulled completely from Gaza.
According to the Israeli Statistics Bureau, the Hamas-led attack killed 1,200 people and 251 people were taken hostage and returned to Gaza on October 7, 2023. According to health authorities, the Israeli campaign killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians.
