US to provide Gaza aid through private companies with Israel security, sidelining UN agencies

The United States has confirmed that it is preparing a new system of providing and distributing aid to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, with a focus on private companies instead of the United Nations and its agencies.

Speaking to reporters this week, US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, revealed that Washington is set to introduce a new aid system in Gaza, with food and other supplies to be provided through “distribution centres” that will be protected by security contractors.

The distribution system – which reportedly aims to initially serve over a million people in Gaza – would reportedly not include the involvement of Israeli authorities, although occupation forces would secure the aid centres’ perimeters.

“The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary security because this is a war zone”, the American ambassador said. “But they will not be involved in the distribution of the food, or even the bringing of food into Gaza”.

One such private company is reportedly the newly-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has stated its intention of setting up four distribution sites in Gaza to give out food, water, and hygiene kits.

Huckabee stated that US president Donald Trump views aid for Gaza as an urgent issue, with his team being tasked “to do everything possible to accelerate that and to as expeditiously as possible get humanitarian aid into the people”. He added that a key concern for Washington is the allegation that aid is stolen by Hamas that was “intended for hungry people”.

The move is being shunned by UN agencies, however, as they insist it serves to further “weaponise” aid to the Strip. According to the BBC, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told it that they will participate “only in efforts that are in line with our principles”.

With regards to this new system, though, he stressed that “there is no reason to put in place a system that is at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organisation.”