Yossi Schwartz (The ISL Branch of RCIT in Israel / Occupied Palestine) 27.05.2025
The so-called new aid plan that Israel and the United States are promoting for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, whose real goal is ethnic cleansing, is facing last-minute delays, and the four food distribution sites that are planned to operate under it – under American security and remote protection by IDF soldiers – will not open today (Saturday) as planned, but in a week’s time. In the background of this is the great criticism of international aid organizations, many of which refuse to cooperate with the new method ostensibly designed to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Hamas, and now the Washington Post is reporting new details about how the plan was born, when its initiators were already concerned about the lack of cooperation of the aid organizations.
An extensive investigative report, based on interviews with a number of Israeli and other security officials, as well as an examination of “hundreds of pages” of classified documents, claimed that the aim was to conceal Israel’s connection to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the United States and will manage the distribution of aid using the new method. The newspaper also reports on a “deep disagreement” within the Zionist army and the Israeli security establishment regarding this method. Former Israeli military official The report was even quoted as claiming that there are IDF officers who “want the plan to fail” and prefer to maintain the current system, in which aid is delivered by the UN and other international organizations.
The question of aid to Gaza, it should be noted, has been a major point of contention in Israel and abroad throughout the war. With the collapse of the ceasefire and the hostage deal in early March, the government announced the cessation of all aid to Gaza, in an attempt to pressure Hamas, but in recent weeks international pressure – including from the United States – on Israel itself has increased, following reports of mass starvation in Gaza. The pressure has turned into a diplomatic tsunami in recent days, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced, after 11 weeks of what has been described around the world as a total “blockade,” to resume aid immediately.
As part of the new system, the GHF will manage the distribution under the direct security of Americans, including those who previously served in the US military. Initially, four distribution centers will operate – three south of the Morag Axis, which separates Khan Yunis from Rafah, and another near the Netzarim Axis and the central camps – each of which is supposed to provide aid to 300,000 people. Propaganda suggests that additional centers will be established later to provide food to all 2.1 million Gazans in the Gaza Strip.
The propaganda is that the focus of the new plan is that the food will be delivered directly to the Gazans, who will each receive a food package for an entire family, instead of a more chaotic division in which it is claimed that a lot of aid falls into the hands of Hamas, which then sells it at exorbitant prices in order to support the ability of the terrorist organization to pay its operatives, govern the Gaza Strip and fight the IDF. This method will encourage Gazans to go south to the humanitarian areas – where they will be able to obtain food.
On May 9, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee officially unveiled the plan – presenting it as an American initiative without Israeli involvement, which is only supposed to provide remote protection for those compounds. A report in the Post now noted, according to one of the sources who spoke to the newspaper, that in recent days it had been agreed that IDF soldiers would be stationed up to 300 meters away from the distribution centers.
The announcement of the establishment of the GHF, which is registered as a non-profit organization in Switzerland, was made on May 14 – but according to the report, the initiative was born much earlier. Although this was not explicitly stated in the investigation, it is clear that the newspaper hints that the source of the plan is in Israel, and in an emphatic report that already at the end of 2023, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the only IDF responsible for coordinating the transfer of aid to Gaza, began initiating the “humanitarian bubbles” program promoted by former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the time. The plan promoted the idea of delimiting Gazan civilians to safe areas outside the fighting zones.
According to six Israeli and American sources, although the preliminary planning was led by the IDF, two Israeli businessmen from the high-tech sector took a central part in the discussions. One of them is Liran Tankman, an entrepreneur and intelligence officer in the reserves. According to the report, he promoted a proposal to develop biometric identification systems outside the distribution centers, as part of the screening of Palestinians who come to them. The second entrepreneur, according to the report, is Israeli-American businessman Michael Eisenberg: “He claimed that the UN’s existing aid distribution networks feed Hamas and require a comprehensive change,” the report said. According to the Post, neither Eisenberg nor Tankman responded to the paper’s requests for comment.
The investigation said that in mid-2024, Israeli officials shared their plans with a group of Americans from private consulting firms led by Phil Riley, a former CIA officer who served as the head of the intelligence agency’s branch in Afghanistan. Five Israeli and American officials told The Post that Riley’s company took responsibility for planning the initiative and determined that a new company led by Riley, Safe Reach Solutions, is the one that will provide the assistance and logistics to the distribution sites. Tankman, it is claimed, often served as a mediator between the Americans and Israeli officials.
The Post exposes a secret 189-page document that they claim was written by the plan’s initiators as early as November last year, in which they warned of opposition from the United Nations and the various international organizations that currently provide the aid. According to the newspaper, the document states, among other things, that despite a “strong partnership” with Israeli security officials, the new aid fund must avoid a situation in which it will be seen in the world as a “puppet of the Israeli government.” The document states that it must be prepared to provide convincing answers to the question of “how a nonprofit that no one has heard of received special permits from the Israeli government.” The document also states that an image of Israeli control of the fund will “prevent” cooperation with it.
The Post claims that the documents obtained by the newspaper also prepared a “message sheet” aimed at answering accusations against the GHF, such as a possible comparison between the aid distribution sites and the humanitarian centers to which Gazans would be referred to “concentration camps” (the answer to this claim was not included in the report). The planners wrote in the documents that it was important to assure the Gazans that they would be able to return to their homes when it was safe. They have even compiled a list of Arab influencers on Instagram andNetwork X (formerly Twitter), with which the GHF can promote a campaign in support of the networks.
To garner diplomatic support, the plan suggested that the GHF woo Western countries such as Germany and “persuade France not to intervene politically in Gaza and the GHF’s activities next year.” But international support did not come. On the contrary, the UN and aid organizations did not join the new initiative, condemning what they claimed was a violation of the principle of independence of humanitarian aid workers. They also accused the initiative of advancing Israel’s “weaponization” of aid in the war against Hamas. The UN claims Moreover, the plan is insufficient and will not solve the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, there was also opposition to the proposed “military model” among the plan’s initiators, with five sources involved in formulating the plan claiming that they were uncomfortable with the proposal for biometric screening of Gazans and the fact that the distribution sites would initially be established only in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. This will require citizens to walk for hours to reach them. “You have to ask: Is the very involvement [in the plan] allowing Israel to push the population south?” asked one of the sources. He said many humanitarian organizations were interested in helping distribute food, but feared that the new method violated their principles: “Getting humanitarian organizations to agree to private security with guns – of course that’s hard to sell.”
The investigation quoted sources who claimed that “behind the scenes” there was a lot of confusion and “chaos” in the establishment of the fund. According to them, the GHFexaggerated its announcements about the support it received from various parties, and as an example, the Post writes that Israeli officials and sources close to the GHF “spread a rumor” that organizations such as the Central World Kitchen and the United Nations itself had joined the initiative – but they were quick to deny this. Last month, according to the newspaper, meetings were held with aid agencies around the world to address their concerns. And a UN official said that at a meeting in Tel Aviv on May 14, two senior officials involved in the initiative — including Aryeh Lightstone, an aide to U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff — admitted that “they don’t have a plan” and that they are under “pressure from the president (Trump) to deliver something.”
The Post also writes that there are questions regarding the funding of the Relief Fund: The United Arab Emirates, according to the report, was mentioned in the fund’s formulation documents as a major donor to the GHF, but it has so far refused to help it. In addition, last week, a series of countries from Europe and Asia, including potential donors such as the United Kingdom and the European Union, published a statement criticizing the GHF program. In response, A GHF spokesperson told The Post that the foundation had already raised $100 million from a secret donor, and that it was a “significant achievement” for what the spokesperson described as an effort to “bring food to the mouths of hungry people.”
The Post’s investigation also claimed that there was a dispute within the Israeli defense establishment regarding the new system. IDF sources told the newspaper that since last year there has been a “deep disagreement” within the military regarding the proper course of action in Gaza, with the public debate also in the political echelon on the question of whether to occupy the Gaza Strip in a way that would require the imposition of martial law and the provision of the needs of the civilians by IDF soldiers, or to find another solution in which Israel can continue to control the territory, while the responsibility for the civilians will be transferred to another party.
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