US confirms plan for private firms to deliver Gaza aid despite UN alarm

[Twiglets1]

The US has confirmed that a new system for providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza through private companies is being prepared, as Israel's blockade continues for a third month.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said "distribution centres" protected by security contractors would provide food and other supplies to over a million people initially, as part of an effort to prevent Hamas stealing aid.

He denied Israel would take part in aid delivery or distribution, but said its forces would secure the centres' perimeters.

It comes as details emerged about the controversial plan, which UN agencies have reiterated they will not co-operate with because it appears to "weaponize" aid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp92rlm300mo

They were proposing that the UAE pay.

Lots of info in this article.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/uae-rejects-israeli-request-to-fund-gaza-aid-plan-says-it-fails-to-address-crisis/amp/

The kind of news about the US that makes me want to roll up in a blanket for the next 4 years. “Amid this pushback from various groups, the Trump administration has indicated to these organizations — including the World Food Program — that their US funding could be slashed if they do not cooperate.”

Also

“An Israeli official told The Times of Israel Wednesday that Israel is hoping that some countries will begin to take in Palestinians, which would help minimize the discrepancy between the aid initiative’s initial capacity and Gaza’s total population.”

Also this whole thing reminds me of a new story that was all over the place back in November. The Washington post basically published a memo from the UN that they supp looters were stealing aid in Israeli controlled areas while Israeli soldiers looked on.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/18/gaza-looting-aid-convoys-israel-famine/

Thid makes this plan even more suspicious now.

I too remember reports from a few months back describing how in some instances the looters were basically criminal gangs and black marketeers seizing the aid. The reports went on to say that the IDF whistled and looked away. I guess that this criminality contributes just a little bit more to the mayhem and destabilises a little more ( if that's possible) the situation in Gaza.

Thank you for that @Odras . That casts a lot of doubt on the scheme unfortunately. If there is no one even agreed to pay for it how long will it take for food to get onto tables.

Quite frightening all this tooing and froing considering the food is now gone and the need is immediate. I saw a video from WCK warehouses that are now empty .

Israel had the brass neck to ask the UAE to pay for their incompetent plans, the UAE told Israel they can stick their request where the sun doesn't shine (worded it more diplomatically)

I thought it was going to be discussed further as Trump was supposed to visit Israel whilst visiting other countries in the middle east, however I have just seen reports he won't be visiting Israel anymore.

The use of highly centralised distribution is very poor practice. You will have hundreds of thousands of malnourished people converging on only four sites - as well as the risk of violence as people fight for food, there will be a massive risk of communicable diseases spreading like wildfire. We should have learnt this lesson in Sudan, Somalia and other famine situations in the '80s and '90s.

Well according to 'UK lawyers for Israel' Israel are doing Palestinians a favour by starving them. I'm sure they would have some lovely arguments as to why only 60 trucks a day is actually a postive thing for Palestinians.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/10/uk-lawyers-for-israel-condemned-over-claim-war-may-reduce-obesity-in-gaza

What a vile bunch those "lawyers" are! The article also states how Chelsea and Westminster hospital bowed down to these nasty fuckers and removed artwork done by Palestinian children!! 😡 Shame on you Chelsea and Westminster!!

There are other options.

Why do we have to accept this because the current situation is also bad?

Israel and the US should not be calling the shots on how and when Palestinians eat. It's disgusting!

It’s poor practice in humanitarian terms which is why they aren’t using NGOs to distribute aid.

It’s an excellent way to deliver aid if you want to use aid to control a population. People will warm to leaving Gaza when they kept hungry and without seeing a future. Once a decent proportion want to leave the rest can be forced out without too much bother.

Construction sites appear in Gaza ahead of Israeli-US aid plan rejected by UN, images show

BBC today: Israel is preparing a series of sites in Gaza that could be used as distribution centres for humanitarian aid in a controversial new plan, satellite images show.

The Israeli government suspended food and medicine deliveries into Gaza in March.

Ministers said the move, which has been condemned by UN, European and Middle Eastern leaders, was intended to put pressure on Hamas to release its remaining hostages. Israel also accused Hamas of stealing aid – an allegation the group has denied.

The UN has said the blockade has caused severe shortages of food, medicines and fuel, and an assessment on Monday warned that Gaza's population of around 2.1 million people was at "critical risk" of famine.

The US confirmed last week that it was preparing a new system for providing aid from a series of hubs inside Gaza, which would be run by private companies and protected by security contractors and Israeli forces.

Images analysed by BBC Verify show that land has already been cleared, with new roads and staging areas constructed at a number of locations in southern and central Gaza in recent weeks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce82ene10p0o

From the same article: Large Staging Areas Under Construction

Stu Ray - a senior imagery analyst with McKenzie Intelligence - agreed the sites were likely to be secure distribution centres. He noted that some of the facilities are in "close proximity to IDF Forward Operating Bases which ties in with the IDF wishing to have some control over the sites".

Analysts with another intelligence firm, Maiar, said the facilities appeared to be designed with separate entrances for trucks to move in and out, and with other gaps in the berms that would be suitable for pedestrian entrances.

The IDF did not comment on the potential aid centres when approached by BBC Verify, but said that its operations in Gaza were carried out "in accordance with international law". Cogat - the Israeli body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza - did not respond to a request for comment.

Three of the four sites located by BBC Verify are south of the IDF's newly created Morag Corridor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce82ene10p0o

Some reports are saying that the aid will be going only to certain hubs in south Gaza (but not as far as Rafah as that is a new “security buffer zone” cutting off Gaza from Egypt). Palestinians will have to be displaced into very small, areas of high population concentrations in order to receive aid.

(short video)
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20250516-un-rejects-israeli-plan-to-use-gaza-aid-as-bait

It is also rumoured that receiving aid will require passing biometric screening- facial recognition,

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/05/16/748022/Israel-facial-recognition-screen-Palestinians-aid

That is worrying, and it is all confusing.

Hamas must be getting food aid as Israel says. But there are also out of control looters, such as those Israel was turning a blind eye according to the Washington Post article you posted. Hamas have been known to kill looters.

According to the Times of Israel article the GHF plan says families would walk with their aid packs.

Five to six thousand vetted representatives will be allowed to travel by foot to the aid hubs once every week or two in order to pick up a roughly 40-pound (18-kilogram) box of food for their families, said officials briefed on the plan.

Won’t it be difficult for these poor people on foot we have seen dragging their belongings on ropes or carrying them in bin bags to carry and walk along with 18 kilo boxes? And wouldn’t they be targets (for looters or Hamas)?

The whole thing is concerning. Who in their right mind would think it is ok for people to be penned in by their rapists and abusers and have to go cap in hand to them weekly for food rations so that they can survive.

The Commission documented a pattern of sexual violence, including cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and other inhumane acts that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Specific forms of sexual and gender-based violence such as forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault, de facto form part of the ISF standard operating procedures towards Palestinians. The Commission concludes that these and other forms of sexualized torture, including rape and violence targeting the genitals, are committed with either explicit orders or an implicit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership. The Commission found that all its documented incidents of sexual and gender-based violence committed by members of the ISF were met with impunity.Under these circumstances, the civilian and military leaders are as responsible for these crimes, as are the direct perpetrators

It's absurd that anyone could think that having these people in charge of food will be anything but a disaster for Palestinians. Forcing people to march past people who use sexual violence as a standard part of their operating procedures so they can feed their children? What about the families where dad is dead and mum is an amputee for instance, how can she send her children to get food knowing that they are at risk of being forced to stop down naked and worse to get food but what choice does she have? It's sick. There is no other way to desribe it

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/report-of-the-commission-of-inquiry-israel-gender-based-violence-13march2025/

Feels dystopian. If you don’t want to starve to death or get shot/bombed as a presumed hostile terrorist by staying put, you must go on foot south to a crowded camp and register your biometrics. Presuming they will stop bombing these new ‘humanitarian camps.’

Meanwhile the US and Israel are talking to Libya about taking in 1 million forcibly deported Palestinians.

The plan may be to call up the 1million to be ethnically cleansed from Gaza based on having registered their biometrics for food aid. Told to report to a place with one bag of belongings and a promise of relocation to a place where they can make a new life.

I wonder how they will manage the food and medical supplies for Gaza hospitals and their patients?

This reminds me more and more of the holocaust and the ghettos desperate people were forced into.
Its just horrific.

Totally agree 😢

It really does.

"vetted representative" this is frightening when Israel has a tendency to label anyone and everyone as Hamas

And if your cousins father was a member are your whole family going to starve?

Plus how long will this take considering most of the population have probably lost their identification documents in the repeated displacement..food is needed now not in 6 months

Will food be with held if they decide you have committed a crime /thrown a stone

This is dystopian.

All the while Israeli soldiers are filming themselves having a jolly old bbq in Rafah which they have decimated.

Wonder where they got the food for that, considering hamas had stolen it all??

I wish they had bloody choked on their meat 😡

The suicide rate amongst the IDF is at the highest ever.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250103-suicide-rate-in-israeli-army-hits-thirteen-year-high-amid-ongoing-war