Jerusalem
CNN
—
The embattled Israeli-backed aid group that began operating in Gaza earlier this week is not screening Palestinians at aid distribution sites, despite Israeli officials saying that additional security measures were a core reason for the creation of the new program.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is operating in the strip with US and Israeli approval, was established amid Israeli accusations that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza and profiting off its sale. Humanitarian organizations have said there is no evidence tying significant diversion of aid to Hamas, and Israel has presented none publicly. But it is those claims that have prompted Israel to seek to replace traditional humanitarian organizations with GHF, which they said would prevent Hamas from obtaining the aid.
Yet GHF appears to have fewer safeguards in place to ensure aid reaches those in need than United Nations aid organizations, like UNRWA, which typically does check identification and relies on a database of registered families when distributing aid.
A journalist working with CNN who entered one distribution site and multiple Palestinians who collected aid at several sites said they faced no security or identification screenings before entering. Several eyewitnesses said criminal gangs and merchants were taking advantage of the situation, paying people to make trips into the distribution sites to collect aid boxes they could then resell.
CNN video filmed outside the aid site shows several groups of young men hauling away aid boxes on donkey carts, while hiding their faces with their shirts and asking not to be filmed.
“There is not enough aid distributed in Gaza yet … so our focus is on feeding hungry people, not checking IDs,” a GHF spokesperson told CNN. “We have no knowledge nor have witnessed any criminal behavior.”
When asked if GHF would check identification in the future, the spokesperson called the situation “fluid” and said GHF would continuously “reassess the situation.”
GHF’s operations do include more militarized security around their distribution sites and truck convoys entering Gaza. Armed American security contractors have secured GHF aid trucks entering Gaza, reducing the risk of those trucks being seized or looted while en route.
The lack of screenings raises questions about how GHF will be more effective at preventing the diversion of aid than the UN agencies which have supplied the overwhelming majority of aid to Gaza during the war and which have refused to participate in the new GHF-run mechanism due to concerns about a lack of independence and heightened risks for Palestinians.
GHF said in a recent statement that it would establish a “secure, transparent system to deliver aid directly and effectively – without diversion or delay.”
But Palestinians at the site said diversion of aid is already underway.
“The Americans opened the doors for us and whoever wants can get in and take what they need,” Bilal Hawadri said, referring to American security contractors. “Some stood in the line, but then people started stealing.”
Another man, Yousef Shallouf, said he saw “gangsters” pay individuals to “go get aid boxes,” which they would then resell.
Such actions would be more difficult under the UN-administered systems. During much of the war, UNRWA – the primary provider of aid in Gaza – has distributed aid based on its database of families in Gaza.
Recipients are asked to bring identification and once a family representative has collected aid, they are ticked off a list, according to an UNRWA spokesperson.
Israeli officials have recently forced the UN to alter that system, requiring recent distributions to take place at bakeries and kitchens where mass distribution, rather than a per-household system, takes place.
The UN’s aid agencies have refused to participate in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid mechanism, saying it violates humanitarian principles and raises the risks for Palestinians. UN officials have only ramped up their criticism this week, amid chaotic scenes near the distribution points and killings near the sites.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said that 11 Palestinians were killed this week near the GHF distribution points, amid Israeli gunfire directed at crowds of people near the sites.
Earlier in the week, thousands of hungry Palestinians overran one of the distribution points, prompting American security contractors to withdraw from the site.
GHF says it has distributed more than 23,000 boxes of food aid this week, totaling more than 2 million meals.
“Despite the emergency intensity and kinetic environment surrounding our operations, the fact is our assistance efforts are helping Gazans,” GHF’s interim executive director John Acree said in a statement Friday. “But this is just the beginning. Our commitment to safely and effectively supplying food directly to a large, hungry population is unwavering, and we look forward to continuing to scale and strengthen on our initial undertakings to help meet the basic food security needs of the people in Gaza.”
