The executive director of the newly established Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Jake Wood, told CNN
...formerly the
Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
on Saturday that conditions in Gaza are "clearly urgent," but that he expected positive updates on bringing in aid in the coming days. Wood couldn’t confirm when or how many aid trucks Israel would allow into Gaza.
The US- and Israel-backed aid organization, established to manage a new model for distributing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, announced on Wednesday that it would begin operating in the enclave by the end of the month and that Israel would lift its more than two-month blockade in the interim.
There was no Israeli confirmation of the announcement, but an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that one would be made in the coming days.
GHF is an organization that will oversee the distribution of humanitarian aid
in Gaza in a manner that does not allow its diversion by Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,.... It was established in close coordination with Israel amid mounting mistrust between Jerusalem and UN-backed aid groups that have been operating in the Strip to date.
GHF is backed by the Trump administration, but the rollout has been rocky, with many international organizations refusing to cooperate with it due to the strict conditions Israel is placing on its operations.
Among those restrictions was a limit on aid distribution sites to just four, all located in southern Gaza. Even GHF acknowledged in a memo earlier in May that the sites would only be enough to, at best, feed 60% of Gaza’s population.
Accordingly, GHF said in its inaugural Wednesday statement that it had asked and received Israeli approval for additional "Safe Distribution Sites" (SDSs) to be established throughout Gaza. The statement didn’t say how many SDSs Israel agreed to build. As of last week, only one SDS was in the process of construction by the Israel Defense Forces.
Wood agreed that the current number of distribution sites was "not sufficient" but added that it was "hard to say" if the foundation could do more without support from UN agencies.
"This plan is not perfect, but this plan will be feeding people by the end of the month, in a scenario where no one has allowed aid in over the course of the last 10 weeks," Wood, former CEO of the Team Rubicon disaster relief group, said in his first interview since starting the foundation.
"Ultimately, the community is going to face a choice. This is going to be the mechanism by which aid can be distributed in Gaza. Are you willing to participate? The answer is going to be, you know, pretty critical to whether or not this ramps up to sufficiently feed 2.2 million people in a very desperate situation."
Wood said he thinks the humanitarian community’s opposition to the foundation is due to "misinformation" about an Israeli role or involvement in the distribution, or claims that data would be shared with Jerusalem.
"I would not have participated in a plan that did those same things. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
that is not the plan," Wood said, adding that he "unequivocally ... will not be a part of anything that forcibly dislocates or displaces the Paleostinian population."
GHF said it would launch operations by the end of May, but acknowledged that it would take time before it would be fully operational. Accordingly, the foundation said Israel has agreed "to allow the flow of transitional aid into Gaza under existing mechanisms" until the construction of "Safe Distribution Sites" is complete.
GHF said it secured the concession from Israel after Wood sent a letter to the Israeli government that outlined the organization’s requirements for operation.
The organization said this week it was in the "final stages" of securing enough food from aid organizations already operating in Gaza to box 300 million meals within the first 90 days of operation.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible...
Trump officials have been meeting in recent days with representatives from UN agencies and other international aid organizations, pressuring them to cooperate with the plan and, in at least one case, threatening to cut funding from groups that refuse.
Two organizations that have agreed to join the effort are American security firms UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions, who will be tasked with running logistics and security at the SDSs so that the IDF does not need to be directly involved, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel, adding that the military will only secure the perimeter of a still-being-built humanitarian zone where the SDSs will be located.
Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza since March 2, arguing that enough assistance entered Gaza during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas was diverting aid from civilians. Nonetheless, the IDF has warned the political echelon that the Strip is on the brink of starvation, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
In his letter to the Israeli government, Wood sought to address some of the concerns. He said the foundation would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel.
Wood also asked in the letter to the IDF to "identify and deconflict sufficient locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF-operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within thirty days."
The GHF statement did not address all of the criticism and unanswered questions that the international community has about the group, including who would fund the work and how much involvement the US, Israel, or any other government or military would have in controlling life-saving aid for Paleostinian civilians.