Humanitarian aid and colonial violence

As scrutiny of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) increases, the Israeli military has tried to rally support for the agency’s operations, saying it provides “Palestinians with an opportunity to eat from another hand that isn’t the terrorist group,” with reference to Hamas. The military also stated it does not intentionally shoot at Palestinian civilians, but focuses on “maintaining order in a chaotic situation.”

The US, meanwhile, has approved $30 million in funds for the GHF and said it will call on other countries to support the agency financially. The international community, still displaying apathy towards the genocide in Gaza and relying on statements that fail to truly oppose Israeli and US actions in Gaza, is unlikely to comply. However, without aid alternatives to the distribution sites set up by the GHF, Palestinians are still set up for death traps.

Aljazeera reported that 583 Palestinians have been killed at the distribution sites since May 27, and 4,186 have been injured. In response to the recent killings of Palestinians near the distribution centres, the Israeli military admitted to shooting at civilians while the GHF said it was not aware of Palestinians killed near its sites.

The Israeli military said it “reorganised the access routes.” Israel cannot provide humanitarian aid in a humanitarian setting. The militarisation and weaponisation of humanitarian aid only serves to further the narrative on eliminating Hamas and, more broadly, eliminating Palestinians from Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Minister posted a statement on X accusing the UN of “aligning itself with Hamas” and stating that the military “never targets civilians”. The absurdity of these statements do not only make up the bulk of diplomatic spats; they also determine the narrative on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“The UN must now decide: Does it prefer to preserve its monopoly and a system that benefits Hamas – thereby prolonging the war – or is it interested in delivering humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza?” Israel’s Foreign Ministry concluded.

The statement was in response to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s criticism of the GHF,  stating, “The search for food must never be a death sentence.”

The UN has always been interested in delivering aid to Palestinian civilians. It is both meagre atonement for its role in legitimising Israel’s colonial presence in Gaza, as well as complicity with settler-colonialism, that humanitarian aid became a major part of the UN’s identity in terns of Palestinians. There was never a choice, unless the choice was between colonisation and decolonisation.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) could not do more than deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians. It had no power to further Palestinian political rights. By eliminating UNRWA’s operations, however, humanitarian aid became completely aligned with Israel’s colonial interests. The international community, complicit as it is in Israel’s genocide, refuses to act beyond issuing statements of condemnation. Looking at Guterres’s statement, how humanitarian is it to “search for food”? Not even a statement purportedly seeking the Palestinian people’s interests can come to their defence without approval of food deprivation.

Between genocide and international compliance with the current atrocities and earlier colonial foundations, how are Palestinians expected to survive? Humanitarian aid and colonial violence have always been allies; the former a tool to secure the permanence of colonialism.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.