Israel would not be involved in food distribution under a US-led plan for the Gaza Strip but would provide “necessary military security”, Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said on Friday (May 9).
Despite imposing a now two-month-long blockade of aid on Gaza, which it says is aimed at putting pressure on Palestinian militants Hamas, Israel has asserted there is no humanitarian crisis in the territory.
“The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary military security, because it is a war zone, but they will not be involved in the distribution of the food, or even in the bringing of the food into Gaza,” Huckabee told reporters in Jerusalem.
The US-led initiative, which the State Department said on Thursday would be led by a new foundation to distribute aid, has been met with international criticism as it appears to sideline the United Nations and existing aid organisations, and would overhaul current humanitarian structures in Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the plan risks “militarising aid”.
Huckabee called upon the United Nations, “every NGO,” and “every government” to take part.
“We invite people who have been concerned about it to join in this process,” he said, expressing hope that the plan could be put into action “very soon”.
He offered no timetable for the aid operation or any further information about the non-governmental foundation that would be involved.
Huckabee said there were “several partners who have already agreed to be a part of the effort”, without naming them.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza on March 2 amid an impasse in talks with Hamas, and resumed its military offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in the war triggered by the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack.
Huckabee said that under the US plan, Israeli forces would provide security “at a distance from the distribution point to protect them from the ongoing calculus of the war”, with “security … at the distribution points provided by contractors”.
“NO FOOD”
In Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, crowds of Palestinians jostled for position, holding cooking pots, plastic bowls and serving dishes aloft in hopes of getting a hot meal at a distribution point before it closed over a lack of supplies.
“When (our children) tell us they want to eat, what do we do? There’s no flour, there’s no bread, there’s no food, nothing,” Ilham Jargon, a resident, told AFP.
“Sometimes, we stay here waiting but end up leaving without food or water,” she added.
When steaming piles of rice were doled out, the crowds surged forward. A young girl, overwhelmed in the press of bodies, cried out and broke down in tears.
“Today is the last day the charity can work, we are forced to close … so people have flocked here. Within days people will not have any food,” Hani Abu al-Qasim, in charge of food distribution, said.