The early success of the American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation-run aid centers has the ability to significantly dent Hamas’s control over food distribution in the coastal enclave, The Jerusalem Post learned Friday.
However, distribution of aid through the GHF has become a tumultuous point in current ceasefire negotiations and has raised many questions.
IDF sources have confirmed that at least four food distribution centers have already begun partial operations – three in the south and one in central Gaza – providing over 1.2 million meals through an estimated 3,550 to 5,000 boxes. Each package can feed a family of five for five to seven days.
This initiative, carried out largely through convoys of more than 30 trucks each carrying at least 1,000 packages, is seen by some as a potential blow to Hamas’s longstanding control over food supplies. Analysts suggest that while the terrorist group remains the dominant armed presence in Gaza, its political grip, especially in controlling vital resources, could be significantly undermined.
A source said the IDF currently inspects around 60,000 aid packages every day to ensure proper distribution. It is expected to take about two weeks before all four centers reach full operational capacity. Plans are also underway for at least four more centers to open in the future.
A US-backed hostage deal is currently in limbo as Israel has agreed to the terms, while Hamas has currently rejected them without fully walking away from negotiations. The current deal proposal includes returning the distribution of the humanitarian aid in Gaza to the UN.
Analysts believe that the fact that Hamas included a stipulation of removing aid distribution from the GHF further shows that the terror group fears that the initiative will undermine its control in Gaza.
Organized crime and local gangs hijacking food shipments
Meanwhile, organized crime and local gangs, separate from Hamas, have reportedly hijacked food shipments. “Sometimes it’s Hamas, sometimes it’s just desperate people,” one official explained. “Sometimes it’s local gangs not connected to Hamas at all.”
The humanitarian crisis has been worsened by the movement of nearly 900,000 Palestinians from northern Gaza into the densely populated Gaza City following the latest wave of fighting.
This concentration of displaced residents is placing enormous strain on aid efforts, with only a single food center currently operating in the central region.
Adding to the tension are strong accusations from defense sources that the UN has acted as if it lacks the capacity to move food to northern Gaza, thereby stalling hundreds of aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing point.
Israeli defense officials accused the United Nations on Friday of undermining efforts to supply food to Gazan civilians, adding to the existing tensions between the international body and the Jewish state.
The UN had acted as if it lacked the capacity to move food to northern Gaza, thereby stalling hundreds of aid trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, the officials claimed.
Earlier this week, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that the UN is reducing cooperation with Israel’s food initiative, complicating the distribution of aid and effectively playing into Hamas’s hands.
On Monday, Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said there are 10,000 aid trucks on the Gaza border, cleared and ready to go.
“We’ve got 10,000 trucks on the border right now, cleared [and] ready to go, and we’ll do everything to get them in and save lives,” Fletcher told CNN’s Christine Amanpour on Monday.
When she repeated the number back to him incredulously, Fletcher nodded and replied, “Full of food.”
COGAT posted a clip of the interview on X/Twitter, saying, “Look, it’s @UNReliefChief with another libelous lie.”
“There are no 10,000 trucks waiting to go into Gaza. What there are, are hundreds of trucks’ worth of aid the UN hasn’t picked up from the Gazan side over the last few days, after we gave you plenty of routes you can use to safely distribute the aid throughout Gaza,” the Israeli military aid coordination agency said.
On Thursday, COGAT accused UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric of lying about Fletcher’s recent visits to Gaza and the UN’s framing of the Gaza humanitarian aid issue.
The coordinator noted that while Dujarric claimed Fletcher had seen Gaza “with his own eyes a few weeks ago,” the UN official had actually not visited the enclave since February.
“Let’s stop focusing on aid that might be in the pipeline, and start collecting the content of the 550 trucks already waiting for you inside Gaza,” COGAT wrote. “For a full week now, we’ve been offering you alternative routes to facilitate pickup. These are areas with active military activities, and coordination is for your own safety.
Opposition leaders in Israel expressed uncertainty over the funding for the distribution of aid in Gaza through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Post learned Friday.
Although no information has been released regarding Israel’s and possibly the United States’ involvement, there has been speculation over direct Israeli involvement in the funding, notably from opposition leaders.
The United Nations said on Friday that the situation in Gaza is the worst since the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists began 19 months ago.
Under growing global pressure, Israel ended an 11-week-long blockade on Gaza 12 days ago, allowing limited UN-led operations to resume. Then on Monday, a controversial new avenue for aid distribution was also launched – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the United States and Israel.
“Any aid that gets into the hands of people who need it is good,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. But, he added, the aid deliveries so far overall have had “very, very little impact.”
“The catastrophic situation in Gaza is the worst since the war began,” he said.
The UN and international aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say it is not neutral and has a distribution model that forces the displacement of Palestinians.
The world body said that in the past 12 days, it has only managed to transport some 200 truckloads of aid into Gaza, hindered by insecurity and Israeli access restrictions. It was not immediately clear how much of that aid reached those in need. It said some trucks and a World Food Programme warehouse have also been looted by desperate, hungry people.
UN officials have also criticized Israeli limitations on what kind of aid they can provide.
“Israeli authorities have not allowed us to bring in a single ready-to-eat meal. The only food permitted has been flour for bakeries. Even if allowed in unlimited quantities, which it hasn’t been, it wouldn’t amount to a complete diet for anyone,” said Eri Kaneko, UN humanitarian affairs spokesperson.
Some recipients of GHF aid said the packages include some rice, flour, canned beans, pasta, olive oil, biscuits, and sugar.
Under a complex process, Israel inspects and clears aid shipments, which are then transported to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. There, the aid is offloaded and then reloaded onto other trucks for transport to warehouses in Gaza.
Several hundred more truckloads of aid currently await UN collection from the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom.
“More aid would actually get to the people if you would collect the aid waiting for you by the crossings,” COGAT said to the UN in a Friday posting on X.
However, the UN said that on Tuesday, the Israeli military denied all its requests to access Kerem Shalom to pick up the aid. And on Thursday, when 65 trucks of aid managed to leave the crossing, all but five turned back due to intense fighting.
Five trucks of medical aid managed to reach the warehouses of a field hospital, but “a group of armed individuals stormed the warehouses... looting large quantities of medical equipment, supplies, medicines, and nutritional supplements that was intended for malnourished children,” Dujarric said.
Reuters contributed to this report.