Sawt Falasteen - Israel not involved in Gaza food distribution under US aid plan: envoy

Despite imposing a now two-month-long blockade of aid on Gaza, which it says is aimed at putting pressure on Palestinian militants Hamas, Israel has asserted there is no humanitarian crisis in the territory.

"The Israelis are going to be involved in providing necessary military security, because it is a war zone, but they will not be involved in the distribution of the food, or even in the bringing of the food into Gaza," Huckabee told reporters in Jerusalem.

The US-led initiative, which the State Department said on Thursday would be led by a new foundation to distribute aid, has been met with international criticism as it appears to sideline the United Nations and existing aid organisations, and would overhaul current humanitarian structures in Gaza.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the plan risks "militarising aid".

Huckabee called upon the United Nations, "every NGO" and "every government" to take part.

"We invite people who have been concerned about it to join in this process," he said, expressing hope that the plan could be put into action "very soon".

He offered no timetable for the aid operation or any further information about the non-governmental foundation that would be involved.

Huckabee said there were "several partners who have already agreed to be a part of the effort", without naming them.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza on March 2 amid an impasse in talks with Hamas, and resumed its military offensive on March 18, ending a two-month truce in the war triggered by the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 2023 attack.

Huckabee said that under the US plan, Israeli forces would provide security "at a distance from the distribution point to protect them from the ongoing calculus of the war", with "security... at the distribution points provided by contractors".

- 'No food' -

In Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, crowds of Palestinians jostled for position, holding cooking pots, plastic bowls and serving dishes aloft in hopes of getting a hot meal at a distribution point before it closed over a lack of supplies.

"When (our children) tell us they want to eat, what do we do? There's no flour, there's no bread, there's no food, nothing," Ilham Jargon, a resident, told AFP.

"Sometimes, we stay here waiting but end up leaving without food or water," she added.

When steaming piles of rice were doled out, the crowds surged forward. A young girl, overwhelmed in the press of bodies, cried out and broke down in tears.

"Today is the last day the charity can work, we are forced to close... so people have flocked here. Within days people will not have any food," Hani Abu al-Qasim, in charge of food distribution, said.

- 'Humanitarian crisis' -

Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid sent to Gaza. While Huckabee also blamed the Palestinian group, he said there was "obviously... a humanitarian crisis. That's why we need a humanitarian aid programme going in".

Amnesty International voiced alarm over the aid plan, saying in a statement "a foundation contributing to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory would be in violation of international law."

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, which has been criticised by Israel and the United States, said it was "very difficult" to imagine any operation to deliver humanitarian aid in Gaza without its presence.

"It is impossible to replace UNRWA in a place like Gaza. We are the largest humanitarian organisation," the agency's spokeswoman Juliette Touma told a press conference in Geneva, when asked about the proposal.

Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.

The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack has killed at least 52,787 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry, which is considered reliable by the UN.

H.Nasr--SF-PST