Aid is to be – if deemed "necessary" – delivered to war-torn Gaza via private security companies, according to a decision by the Israeli security cabinet. The distribution will be controlled by the military.
In this way, Israel wants to prevent the deliveries from being handled or stolen by Hamas, writes the Israeli media. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas embezzles food and other goods intended for civilians, which the extremist movement denies.
The UN criticizes the plan and states that it violates fundamental principles, according to reports. So do several international aid organizations.
Egeland critical
The plan goes completely against humanitarian principles, rages Norwegian NRC's Secretary-General Jan Egeland.
We cannot – and we will not – do anything that goes so fundamentally against humanitarian principles, he says to the news agency AFP.
According to Egeland, all UN agencies and international aid organizations have said no to participating in the Israeli plan.
When aid can begin to arrive to those in need, according to the Israeli plan, is unclear.
"They have enough"
Israel claims that there is currently enough food in Gaza. This is a statement that has been contradicted for weeks by a long list of organizations and UN agencies, which have warned of impending famine among Palestinians in Gaza.
I do not understand why we must give them anything at all – they have enough food there. We should bomb Hamas' food warehouses, says the far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in the cabinet, according to the newspaper Haaretz.
Hamas condemns Israel's plan.
"We reject the use of aid as political blackmail and support the UN's stance against all arrangements that violate humanitarian principles", says the terrorist-listed movement in a statement and claims that Israel bears full responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
