On Monday morning, the Gaza Relief Foundation, a private organization supported by the United States and Israel and tasked with distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza, announced that it would begin delivering aid to the besieged enclave today.
"We plan to expand rapidly to serve all residents of the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks," the organization added in a statement, after its director resigned, citing the organization's lack of independence.
The Israeli army radio reported that "the new humanitarian aid mechanism in the Gaza Strip will begin operating on Monday, after a one-day delay, in cooperation with private American companies."
However, she revealed that the new mechanism "suffers from major gaps and will not be able to meet the needs of all Gaza residents," without providing further details.
The radio station claimed that "the new aid distribution mechanism includes the establishment of four distribution centers: three in Rafah (south) and one in the central Gaza Strip," without specifying the governorate. It added that "these centers will cover the needs of only 1.2 million people, meaning the residents of the southern and central Gaza Strip, while nearly one million people in the north will remain without coverage."
According to the Hebrew source, "contrary to what was planned, civilians will not pass through checkpoints before entering the distribution centers, which means that Hamas members can enter these centers and receive aid as well."
In this context, a total of 107 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday, according to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli authority for Palestinian affairs.
The Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in a statement that the aid included flour for bakeries and food supplies.
The statement added: "The Israeli military will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, while doing its utmost to ensure that aid does not reach the hands of Hamas."
Israel has not allowed any aid shipments into the Gaza Strip since the beginning of March, alleging that Hamas is reselling aid supplies to fund its fighters and weapons.
"A systematic policy to starve civilians"
Meanwhile, Hamas on Sunday considered Israel's obstruction of the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, after "very limited" quantities had been brought in days earlier, a systematic policy to starve civilians amid the ongoing genocide and the comprehensive closure of crossings.
During the 84 days of the siege and complete closure, at least 46,200 trucks loaded with aid were supposed to enter the Gaza Strip. However, Israel is promoting a misleading narrative claiming it is allowing the entry of "aid," while the reality shows that only about 100 trucks actually entered, representing less than 1% of the population's basic needs, according to the government media office in Gaza.
Hamas added: "The occupation is attempting to orchestrate the crime of starvation in Gaza, using it as a tool to establish a political and field reality, under the cover of misleading relief projects that the United Nations and international organizations have rejected, affirming their lack of transparency and even the most basic humanitarian standards."
She affirmed her commitment to the role of the United Nations and its humanitarian institutions in distributing and supervising aid.
Hamas considered any attempt to bypass or marginalize this role to be "dangerous behavior that calls into question the mechanisms the occupation is trying to impose and paves the way for dubious management of humanitarian work that contravenes international law."
Israel and the United States have recently been promoting a plan to distribute aid at specific points in southern Gaza, through a newly registered nonprofit organization in Switzerland called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Hebrew media reports indicate that its founder is US Presidential Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
Israeli Army Radio confirmed that this plan aims to accelerate the evacuation of Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip to the southern Gaza Strip, in preparation for their displacement in accordance with US President Donald Trump's plan, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared to be one of the war's objectives.
The company was scheduled to begin distributing aid in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Sunday. However, the privately owned newspaper Israel Hayom, citing unnamed Israeli political officials, revealed that "the new mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza will begin (Monday)."
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with full American support, has been waging a war of extermination in Gaza, leaving more than 176,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.
