An NGO backed by Israel and the United States has announced that it is set to start distributing aid in besieged Gaza, despite its chief walking out, citing concerns over its independence.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement on Monday that it is set to launch direct aid delivery in the battered enclave, hours after its executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation.
GHF, which has been tapped to distribute food, medicine and other vital supplies that have been blocked by the Israeli military for two months, said that it aims to deliver aid to 1 million Palestinians in the territory by the end of the week.
The NGO said it then plans to “scale rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead”.
Israel said last week it would allow “minimal” aid deliveries into Gaza, where aid agencies warn of widespread famine and multiple deaths from starvation, but reports suggest that the few supplies that have entered the enclave have reached Gaza’s starving population of 2.3 million.
The United Nations and other aid agencies have refused to work with GHF, warning that the conditions under which it will work, including requiring Palestinians to gather at centralised aid points, will put people at risk and undermine other aid efforts.
Wood announced his resignation on Sunday, citing concerns over GHF’s independence.
The organisation could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said in a statement, and called for Israel to allow the entry of more aid.
The GHF board, in a statement, said it was “disappointed” by the resignation but remained committed to expanding aid efforts across the Strip.
A spokesperson for the US State Department also said it remained supportive of the NGO.
Wood’s departure follows growing criticism of GHF’s operational structure and independence.
The NGO, which claims it has been based in Geneva since February, emerged from “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government”, according to The New York Times.
The UN and major humanitarian organisations have raised concerns that the GHF’s operations could undermine existing relief efforts, as well as restrict food access to limited areas of Gaza, which would force civilians to walk long distances to access aid and cross Israeli military lines.
There is also a worry that the GHF’s distribution plans, which the US and Israel say are designed to prevent Hamas from controlling aid, could be used to advance an Israeli objective of depopulating northern Gaza by concentrating aid in the south.
‘Weapon of war’
The controversy over the GHF unfolds against a backdrop of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, 1.95 million people – 93 percent of Gaza’s population – are facing acute levels of food insecurity, or not having enough to eat.
Aid agencies have described the crisis as a man-made famine, and have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Robert Patman, a professor of international relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told Al Jazeera that Wood’s resignation reflected the lack of support from established humanitarian bodies for GHF.
“It’s no secret that major aid donors had not been convinced by this proposal, which is essentially a start-up,” he said.
Patman also noted that many humanitarian actors argue that there is “no need for a new humanitarian organisation”, stressing that the international community should instead focus on lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
