Israel will allow the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza from next month, the new organisation set up to deliver it has confirmed.
Jake Wood, the executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), confirmed that staff would “launch operations” in the territory “before the end of the month”.
Gaza is currently under Israeli blockade, with no supplies of food, water or medicine having been allowed in for more than two months.
The policy has led to widespread criticism, with the UK government calling the situation “intolerable” and urging Israel to allow aid to cross into the Strip.
Condemnation has also come from the UN and the EU, though Washington has not joined in calling publicly for the resumption of aid.
For its part, Israel denies that there is any famine in Gaza and claims that any shortages are caused by the theft of supplies by Hamas. Official figures from the Israeli government state that 447,538 tonnes of aid entered Gaza during the ceasefire period, which ended in March.
Now, though, it appears that aid deliveries will restart within weeks under Jerusalem’s new distribution plan, which is designed to bypass Hamas and separate terrorists from the civilian population.
Under the scheme, the IDF will look to seize both the Philadelphi Corrdor along Gaza’s southern border and the Morag Corridor between Khan Younis and Rafah, allowing Israeli forces to regulate the flow of people into southern Gaza.
The idea is to isolate Hamas in the northern half of the Strip, with civilians going through a vetting procedure before being allowed into the south, which will be redesignated as a humanitarian zone.
Aid will be distributed in the area around Rafah by the GHF, a private entity set up with the backing of the Israeli and US governments.
A statement from the foundation said: “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) today announced that it will launch operations in the Gaza Strip before the end of the month.
"This follows discussions with Israeli officials to allow the flow of transitional aid into Gaza under existing mechanisms while construction of GHF's Secure Distribution Sites (SDS) is completed.”
Wood added: “There is no time to wait for ideal conditions. We have a responsibility to act and to do it without compromising our values. Today we are one step closer to doing just that.”
BBC News has reported that the GHF has asked Israeli officials to allow the UN to restart its own deliveries in the intervening weeks. However, Israel has enforced a ban against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), one of the main distributors of aid, as officials claim it has been infiltrated by Hamas.
According to BBC Verify, construction has already begun at a number of sites in Gaza to establish SDS, with new roads and staging areas already built in many cases. Most are reported to be located close to existing IDF forward operating bases.
However, the UN has rejected the plan and said it will not cooperate with Israel under the current framework, accusing it of using “food and fuel as leverage, as part of a military strategy”.
