US Presses UN, Aid Bodies to Accept Israel’s Aid Distribution Plan for Gaza
The UN has refused to participate in Israel’s aid distribution plan for Gaza saying it “contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles.”
The UN, aid organizations such as the World Health Organization and allies of the US, are being urged by the Trump administration “to participate in a new Israeli plan to resume distribution of limited amounts” of humanitarian aid in Gaza under Tel Aviv’s strict control, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Citing aid officials and others “familiar with internal discussions,” the paper said the effort by the US governments follows the refusal by the UN and “virtually all other organizations” to participate in the plan which they described as against “fundamental humanitarian principles.”
Source @ajplus The UN and international aid agencies have rejected Israel’s recent proposal for distributing aid in Gaza, saying it goes against humanitarian principles, is impractical and puts both Palestinian civilians and aid workers in grave danger.
One head of an… pic.twitter.com/H25KJFxnKn
— 𝐄𝐥𝐨ï𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐲 (@ChezSoryuChris) May 5, 2025
Since March 2, Israeli authorities have blocked all aid from entering Gaza, “no matter how vital to people’s survival,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in statement last week.
‘Military Strategy’
The statement stressed that Israeli officials have sought to shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the UN and its humanitarian partners “and have us agree to deliver supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military, once the government agrees to re-open crossings.”
The design of the presented plan “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies,” the Office said.
#Gaza
“We do not accept a proposal and a plan that does not live up to the core fundamental, humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and independent delivery of aid.” – @UNOCHA pic.twitter.com/HGrSmvlFOC
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) May 6, 2025
“It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy. It is dangerous, driving civilians into militarized zones to collect rations, threatening lives, including those of humanitarian workers, while further entrenching forced displacement,” it added.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Emergency Relief Coordinator “have made clear that we will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” the statement emphasized.
US’s Claims against Hamas
According to the Washington Post, the statement was slammed by Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, as a refusal by the UN to “not engage.”
He also repeated Israeli claims that Hamas has been responsible for “mass stealing of humanitarian aid,” charges widely disputed by aid organizations and US officials, the report said.
Danon also reportedly said the United Nations and Secretary General António Guterres, “chose to walk away.”
President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with members of the UN Security Council at the US mission to the UN on Wednesday, the paper said, to discuss the plan.
Aid officials told the paper that this follows several meetings with aid organizations who have been involved in Gaza relief efforts in recent days, while another group of aid organizations based in Europe “has been invited to a meeting with U.S. officials in Geneva on Thursday.”
New Umbrella Organization
Israel’s “newly formulated plan” involves “a limited amount of supplies” that “would be vetted by Israel and allowed to travel along designated corridors to Israeli-constructed distribution hubs,” the paper reported.
“Both the corridors and the hubs are to be guarded by private U.S. security contractors,” according to the report.
.@UNOCHA: “The proposed modality contradicts Israel’s obligations under [IHL] to allow and facilitate impartial humanitarian relief for civilians in need. It disregards the [ICJ]’s provisional orders requiring unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.” pic.twitter.com/a1UWcYTJiB
— Adil Haque (@AdHaque110) May 7, 2025
An umbrella organization called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, “set up by unnamed governments and entities to funnel money into the effort” in February, is to administer the plan.
The plan’s initial setup, according to a statement from the organization cited by the paper, would include four “distribution sites” to serve 300,000 people at each site and reach “1.2 million Gazans in the first phase with capacity to expand beyond 2 million.” The organization claimed Israeli army personnel would “not be present near distribution sites.”
Organization’s Aim Questioned
Aid organizations “and people familiar with the Israeli plans” however say the “scale and conditions described were far from what they have been told about the initial stages of the plan, which would vet participants and feed fewer than 200,000 people.”
The distribution plan would “only serve southern Gaza” where Israel plans to relocate most of Gaza’s population of over 2 million.
One source told the paper that “It’s not a trial run,” adding “That’s where the population is going to end up.”
Supporting the UN and other aid organizations in its position, the World Central Kitchen’s (WCK) Chief Executive Office, Erin Gore, reportedly said on Wednesday that the Israeli plan “goes against our humanitarian principles,” and does not “allow us to feed with dignity.”
Staggering Death Toll
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 52,000, wounding more than 118,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
Palestinian children gather at their friend’s grave, killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
“Who’s going to play with us now?” one of them asks. pic.twitter.com/skbOHg7flN
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 8, 2025
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
