EXPLAINER: The new US-backed Gaza aid plan and why the UN does not like it

UNITED NATIONS – A US-backed organization aims to start work in the Gaza Strip by the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave, but the United Nations says the plan is not impartial or neutral, and it will not be involved.

What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?

Aid deliveries in Gaza will be overseen by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established in February in Switzerland, according to the Geneva commercial registry.

The foundation intends to work with private US security and logistics firms — UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions — according to a source familiar with the plan. A second source said the GHF has already received more than $100 million in commitments. It was not immediately clear where the money was coming from.

Senior US officials were working with Israel to enable the GHF to start work, acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council this month, urging the UN and aid groups to cooperate. Israel said it will facilitate the GHF’s work without being involved in aid deliveries.

How would the new plan work?

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said initially there will be four secure distribution sites — three in the south and one in central Gaza — and that “within the next month, additional sites will be opened, including in northern Gaza.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, May 22, that construction of the first distribution zones would be complete in the coming days and that Israel intends “to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza.”

“The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones,” Netanyahu said.

The GHF said it would “never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians” and that there was no limit on the number of sites it could open, or where.

“The GHF will use security contractors to transport aid from border crossings to the secure distribution sites,” it said in a statement. “Once the aid is at the sites, it will be distributed directly to the people of Gaza by civilian humanitarian teams.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon has said a few aid groups have agreed to work with the GHF. The names of those groups are not yet known.

The foundation said it is finalizing mechanisms to get aid to those who cannot access the distribution sites.

GHF also said it would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel and that the Israeli military “will not have a presence within the immediate vicinity of the distribution sites.”

Why won’t the UN work with the new distribution model?

The United Nations says the US-backed distribution plan does not meet its long-held principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher has said time should not be wasted on the alternative proposal.

In a briefing to the Security Council, he explained what was wrong with the Israel-initiated plan: “It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm…. It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza, while leaving other dire needs unmet. It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip.”

The UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA has been described by the UN as the backbone of the aid operation in Gaza. However, Israel has accused the agency of anti-Israel incitement and its staff of being “involved in terrorist activities.” The UN has vowed to investigate all accusations.

The GHF says working with Israel to develop “a workable solution is not a violation of humanitarian principles.”

Why is an alternative aid distribution plan being proposed?

Israel stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 after accusing Hamas of stealing aid, which the Palestinian militants deny, and demanding the release of all remaining hostages taken during an October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. That assault triggered the war, which Gaza authorities say has killed 53,000 people in the enclave.

In early April, Israel proposed what it described as “a structured monitoring and aid entry mechanism” for Gaza. It was swiftly rejected by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said it risked “further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour.”

Since then pressure had been growing on Israel to allow aid deliveries to resume. A global hunger monitor last week warned that half a million people face starvation — about a quarter of the population in the enclave — and US President Donald Trump acknowledged that “a lot of people are starving in Gaza.”

Amid the stalemate over Israel’s plan, Washington backed the newly-created GHF to oversee aid distribution.

The GHF announced last week that it aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May. In the meantime, Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week under the existing distribution model.

What was the existing aid delivery plan?

Throughout the conflict, the United Nations has described its humanitarian operation in Gaza as opportunistic — facing problems with Israel’s military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza, and looting by armed gangs.

But the UN has said its aid distribution system works, and that was particularly proven during a two-month ceasefire, which was abandoned by Israel in mid-March. Israel first inspects and approves aid. It is then dropped off on the Gaza side of the border, where it was picked up by the UN and distributed.

“We do not need to reinvent yet another wheel,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday. “We don’t need a newly minted humanitarian partner to tell us how to do our work in Gaza.”

Fletcher on Monday listed what the UN needs from Israel to scale up aid: at least two open crossings into Gaza – one in the north and one in the south; simplified, expedited procedures; no quotas; no access impediments in Gaza and no attacks when aid is being delivered; and being allowed to meet a range of needs, including food, water, hygiene, shelter, health, fuel and gas. – Rappler.com