TEL AVIV, Israel — On the eve of President Trump's visit to Arab allies in the Gulf, the U.S. and Israel have announced a plan to allow food and essential supplies back into Gaza after a ten-week Israeli ban that aid workers say is driving rampant hunger in the territory.
It is the result of pressure by the Trump administration on Israel to allow aid back into Gaza, according to a person familiar with the details who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal diplomacy.
The proposed solution would only provide food and aid to around 60 percent of Gaza's civilians initially, according to a copy of the proposal reviewed by NPR. Key details remain unresolved, like who would run it or pay for it.
The program is an about-face from Israel's earlier policy to withhold aid to pressure Hamas to free Israeli hostages. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israel is fully on board with the new proposal.
"President Trump has made very clear that one of the most urgent things that needs to happen is humanitarian aid into Gaza, and he has tasked all of his team to do everything possible to accelerate that and to as expeditiously as possible get humanitarian aid in, to the people," said Huckabee in a press conference Friday.
What the new aid plan would look like
Gaza's population would be forced to move south in order to receive aid in a new zone cordoned off by Israel's military, to prevent Hamas members from access, an Israeli defense official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity to divulge details.
According to a 14-page proposal reviewed by NPR, a private charity recently registered in Switzerland called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would establish four aid distribution sites and hand out pre-packaged food, hygiene kits and medical supplies.
Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, publicly endorsed the U.S. plan Sunday and called on countries and aid groups to cooperate.
"It will enable aid to go directly to the people. Hamas must not be allowed to get their hands on it," Saar said. Israeli soldiers "will not allocate aid. They will secure the perimeter."
Israel says Hamas has taken advantage of aid deliveries, seizing supplies, profiting from black market sales, and using aid distribution to assert its control of Gaza. U.N. officials say there is no large-scale diversion of aid in Gaza.
"The aid we coordinate goes to the people for whom it's intended," said Olga Cherevko of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "We have mechanisms in place that help mitigate this, including monitoring during and after distribution, hotlines to report incidents and our accountability to donors."
Israel says it will first wait for Trump to finish his trip this week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to allow the chance for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
If no deal emerges by then, Israel vows to begin to roll out this plan, combined with intensified military ground operations and the seizure of more territory in Gaza.
Many of the plan's details are still unresolved
According to the written proposal, the four initial aid distribution sites would serve a combined total of 1.2 million Palestinians. That is only about 60 percent of the estimated 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. Huckabee said the aid distribution would be scaled up to serve larger populations.
The main aid organizations working in Gaza are refusing to cooperate with the proposal, as presented by Israeli officials to the U.N. and its aid partners. Humanitarian groups say they cannot work with a program that refuses aid to anyone seeking it, even belligerents.
"It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic — as part of a military strategy," the United Nations and its aid partners in Gaza said in a joint statement. "We will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality."
The U.S. says it is still in talks with aid professionals to finalize who would run the program. Huckabee said he did not have the details on who would fund the program, but cited some contributors who wish to remain unnamed.
Why humanitarian aid groups oppose the program
The proposed U.S. aid program for Gaza would be a significant departure from the established U.N.-led system that has long been the cornerstone of humanitarian response in conflict zones, aid experts say.
It would skirt the already-existing system for aid delivery, replacing around 400 U.N. distribution points across Gaza with just around four distribution points, which experts say would overwhelm the system and make it hard to ensure fair distribution to hundreds of thousands of people.
It would advance Israel's plans to coerce Palestinians to move from north to south Gaza on Egypt's border, with eventual plans for the migration of Palestinians out of Gaza. Those are Israeli military strategies that humanitarian organizations do not want to endorse.
In the Iraq war, private security groups provided aid to civilians within the parameters of the Iraqi military, leading to ethical concerns, aid experts say.
"The idea of getting aid is very important, but how aid is delivered is equally important. And there are massive red flags all over the place for this plan," said Paul Spiegel, director of the center for humanitarian health at Johns Hopkins University.
NPR's Fatma Tanis reported from Washington, D.C.
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