Israel plans to use private companies to distribute humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip as part of an attempt to remove a key element of Hamas’s civilian power, an Israeli official told the Times of Israel.
Israeli companies will not be used – but Israel plans to use an American security company, around which the Israeli army would establish a security perimeter, the official said.
The hope is to obtain the support of Arab countries for the distribution of humanitarian aid, he continued.
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The UN Security Council, including the United States, warned Israel on October 9 against passing a law that would ban the controversial agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, the day after the same warning launched by the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. UNWRA is supposed to help deliver aid.
“We are also concerned about recent measures taken by the Israeli government to limit the delivery of goods to Gaza. Combined with new bureaucratic limits on humanitarian goods coming from Jordan and the closure of most crossing points in recent weeks, these restrictions would only intensify the suffering in Gaza,” he said. US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Regarding the Knesset’s recent advancement of legislation to ban UNRWA operations in Israel and prevent Israeli authorities from contacting officials of the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, in a rare move, warned that she was following “with great concern the proposed Israeli law which could modify the legal status of UNRWA”.
She addressed allegations about UNRWA and claimed that only “a small percentage” of its staff have links to terrorist groups and participated in the October 7 massacre.
His Israeli counterpart Danny Danon, for his part, judged it “infiltrated into Gaza by Hamas” and “irreparable”.
Israel estimates that about 10 percent of UNRWA personnel in Gaza are linked to terrorism and that educational institutions under the organization’s auspices incite hatred of Israel and glorify terrorism.
At the beginning of October, the Reuters news agency had in fact mentioned these “new bureaucratic limits” which had led to a de facto drop in food aid deliveries to Gaza.
These brand new customs regulations apply to convoys chartered by the UN to transport humanitarian aid from Jordan via Israel, seven sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Under these regulations, members of humanitarian organizations transporting aid must fill out a form indicating their passport number and take responsibility for any false information regarding a shipment, the sources add.
These sources specify that humanitarian agencies contest the principle of this new requirement, announced in mid-August, and fear that signing the form would expose its staff to legal problems if the aid were to fall into the hands of Hamas. or other enemies of Israel.
As a result, since mid-September, aid has no longer passed through Jordan, a key player in supplying Gaza. The conflict does not affect the aid delivered via Cyprus or Egypt, the sources added.
Also in his speech to the UN at the end of September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against the fact that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was profiting from aid by selling it to the Palestinians.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, even though Hamas’s military capabilities are now significantly reduced, terrorists continue to exercise some power in Gaza, stealing the food that humanitarian agencies bring into Gaza with our permission. Hamas steals the food, then raises the prices. Its members feed themselves before filling their coffers with the money they extort from the population. They sell this stolen food at exorbitant prices and this is how the terrorist group stays in power. This too must stop, and we are working to put an end to it,” Netanyahu explained.
In mid-September, Israeli channel N12 broadcast recordings that appeared to indicate elements of the Palestinian terror group Hamas discussing how to get rid of the overflowing aid they had seized in the enclave.
In recordings of radio conversations, a terrorist says: “We have trucks overflowing with goods.” The second terrorist declines the offer, saying: “We have everything. In the meantime, we have no more space in the stores.” He then suggests sending the goods to Khan Younes.
According to the television report, these recordings demonstrate the difficulties of putting pressure on Hamas, which makes millions by taking control of the hundreds of international aid trucks that entered the Gaza Strip every day.
The report also said that the Israeli military was considering reviewing efforts to allow private traders to import goods into the Gaza Strip because Hamas took 20 percent of all profits from these transactions.