UN agencies warn Israel plans for aid distribution endanger lives in Gaza

GENEVA (AP) - International aid agencies warned on Friday that plans presented by Israel to control aid distribution in Gaza, including a U.S.-backed proposal, will only increase suffering and death in the devastated Palestinian territory, which has been under a total Israeli blockade for nearly 10 weeks.

They urged Israel to lift its ban on all food, medicine and other supplies entering Gaza, which has caused a surge of malnutrition and hunger among Palestinians as supplies rapidly dwindle.

"Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in Geneva.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said that a new system for delivering humanitarian aid and food to Gaza was being launched, with deliveries set to begin "very soon."

He said that details would be announced in the coming days. He depicted it as independent from Israel, which he said wouldn’t be involved in distribution. He said that private companies would provide security, while Israel’s military would secure the perimeters of aid areas from afar.

"I will be the first to admit it will not be perfect, especially in the early days," Huckabee said.

A new U.S.-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has put forward an aid distribution plan along the lines of Israel's demands, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The group is made up of American security contractors, former government officials, ex-military officers and humanitarian officials.

It wasn’t immediately clear if this was the plan that Huckabee was referring to. But aid workers have said the creation of the group does little to assuage their concerns.

Israel has spoken for weeks of imposing a new aid system in Gaza, but has given no details publicly. The United Nations and most aid groups, which have led the aid operation in Gaza since the war began, have refused to participate, saying the details provided by Israel in private discussions violate humanitarian principles.

They say that the plans floated by Israel center on creating a limited number of distribution hubs inside Gaza to which Palestinians would have to come to receive food - armed security companies would transport the aid and guard the hubs. Israel also wants to vet recipients of the help, aid workers say.

Elder, of UNICEF, said that the plan as presented to the aid community appeared "designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic." He said that it doesn't comply with Israel's obligations to allow and facilitate impartial humanitarian relief.

He said that the plan would entrench forced displacement "for political and military purposes," as Palestinians will be forced to move to be closer to distribution hubs. The most vulnerable, including children, older people and those suffering from illness, may not be able to get to the hubs. It also endangers people by forcing them to seek aid from militarized areas.

"More children are likely to suffer and risk death and injury as a consequence of this plan," Elder said. "There is a simple alternative. Lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in, save lives."

Huckabee called on U.N. agencies and independent aid groups to join the new aid mechanism.

But Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said Friday that multiple meetings with Israeli officials haven’t assuaged U.N. concerns over the plans.

"The current shape that we have been briefed about by (Israeli officials) would not allow us to resume lifesaving activities at the scale that was possible prior to the total blockade of Gaza," he said.

Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza on March 2, then resumed bombardment of the territory, breaking a two-month ceasefire. It says the moves aim to pressure Hamas to release its remaining hostages and disarm. Rights groups have called the blockade a "starvation tactic" and possible war crime.

The government has said that aid won't resume until a new distribution mechanism is in place, accusing Hamas and other militants of siphoning off large amounts of the help. The U.N and aid workers deny that there is significant diversion, saying that the U.N. strictly monitors distribution.

Throughout the war, multiple U.N agencies and other humanitarian groups have been trucking in supplies and distributing them as close as possible to where Palestinians were located. Before the blockade, aid groups were distributing supplies at hundreds of locations around Gaza.

The operation has been led by UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Israel has banned the agency since last year, alleging that its staff have been infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA, which employs more than 10,000 staff in Gaza, said that it acts quickly to remove any staff suspected of having militant ties, and that Israel hasn’t given it evidence of its claims.

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said that it would be "impossible to replace UNRWA" to deliver aid to Gaza's 2.3 million people.

"We are the largest humanitarian organization. We have the largest reach," she said. The agency also provides shelters, runs warehouses and trucking services for aid distribution. "It is very, very difficult to imagine any humanitarian operation without UNRWA."

In its proposal, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund said that it would initially set up four distribution sites, each serving 300,000 people. That would cover about half of Gaza's population. The system would be scaled up to meet the needs of 2 million people. But the proposal doesn’t give a time frame. It said that subcontractors would use armored vehicles to transport supplies from the Gaza border to distribution sites, where they would also provide security. The aim would be to avert criminal gangs and other armed groups, it said.

Touma said that claims of aid diversion are hard to counter when there are no independent media or monitoring on the ground in Gaza. Israel has barred international media from entering the territory. When the ceasefire was in place, reports of looting significantly decreased, she added.

Laerke said that "the looting of a few trucks here and there" wasn’t the main problem for aid distribution.

"The problem is the blockage of hundreds of aid trucks that should go into the Gaza Strip every single day. That is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis there."