Netanyahu’s government has secretly diverted NIS 700 million (approximately £150 million) to fund the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the new aid mechanism in the Gaza Strip, according to a report released by Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan.
The report, which cites unnamed officials, claims the large sum of money was diverted to an unclear source obliquely referred to as “the defence establishment.”
Furthermore, it is claimed that the government tried to keep the transfer of funds a secret due to the fact it would be highly unpopular with the Israeli public, particularly the government’s hard-right base.
Questions about the funding of GHF have been asked since it was first announced that the Israeli and US-backed organisation would be taking over aid distribution in Gaza. GHF claimed to have received more than $100 million in commitments from a foreign government donor, but did would not reveal who.
The report comes just one week after Israeli opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused the government of secretly funding humanitarian aid for Gaza through two foreign “shell companies.”
Speaking in the Knesset, he said: “Our job is to ask the government tough questions, and with such a question I take the podium today: Is the State of Israel behind two shell companies established in Switzerland and the United States, GHF and SRS, to organise and finance humanitarian aid in Gaza?”
Responding to the accusation, Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri said: “Israel does not fund the humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. Israel and the United States are working in full coordination and through various channels to cut off aid from reaching Hamas.”
GHF began distributing aid in Gaza at the end of May, taking over aid distribution from UN agencies and NGOs in an aim to stop supplies falling into the hands of Hamas.
Announcing the recommencement of aid to the strip – following a blockade of more than two months, during which no supplies of food, water or medicine were allowed in – Netanyahu said: "Israel will act to deny Hamas's ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.
"On the recommendation of the IDF and based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip. Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation Gideon's Chariots to defeat Hamas.”
