![Palestinian child holds an empty pot as Palestinians line up to receive hot meal, distributed by charity organizations, as Israeli embargo and attacks continue, in Jabalia Refugee Camp of Gaza City, Gaza on May 3, 2025. [Hassan Jedi - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AA-20250503-37833139-37833120-HOT_MEALS_DISTRIBUTED_TO_PALESTINIANS_AS_ISRAELI_ATTACKS_AND_AID_BLOCKADE_CONTINUE.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The United Nations Children’s Fund today criticised emerging plans to take over distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza floated by both Israel and the United States yesterday, saying that they would increase suffering for children and families, Reuters reports.
The US State Department earlier floated a solution that would allow delivery of food aid to Gaza was “steps away” and an announcement was coming shortly.
A proposal is circulating among the aid community for a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that would distribute food from four “Secure Distribution Sites”, resembling plans announced by Israel earlier this week, which drew criticism that it would effectively worsen displacement among the Gaza population.
“It appears the design of a plan presented by Israel to the humanitarian community will increase ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
Elder said his remarks also applied to the new foundation which he understood to be part of the same broad plan.
The aid community has already rejected any plans that would give occupying power Israel a role in distributing aid in Gaza.
However, US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said today that Israel would not be involved in handing out aid only in security aspects.
Still, Elder said that the use of such hubs, which the foundation says will initially serve 300,000 people each, would create risks for children and families as they go to retrieve aid and would drive further displacement.
“The use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement, especially from the north to the south will create this impossible choice: a choice between displacement and death,” said Elder, who has been on several missions to Gaza since October 2023.
“It appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic.”
He called instead for Israel to lift a more than two-month-long blockade on aid entries into the enclave, which is stoking widespread hunger and raising concerns about a spike in malnutrition-related deaths.
“There is a simple alternative, lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in to save lives,” he said.
READ: Famine looms as dozens of Gaza communal kitchens shut as supplies run out
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