US-backed Gaza aid model ‘distraction from atrocities’, UNRWA chief says

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has condemned the new United States-backed aid model in Gaza, saying it is a “distraction from atrocities” taking place there, as a second day of chaotic, deadly scenes unfolded as desperate Palestinians tried to access aid.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Wednesday that 10 Palestinians have been killed and 62 injured in the last two days while trying to reach an aid distribution point west of Rafah in the south of the besieged enclave under the US and Israeli mechanism.Israeli forces “opened direct fire on hungry Palestinian civilians who had gathered to receive aid”, it said in a statement. “This heinous crime occurred during peaceful gatherings of citizens driven by desperate need and extreme hunger to head to locations supposedly providing aid”, it added

Thousands of Palestinians clambered over fences on Tuesday to reach the humanitarian supplies at a distribution site run by the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in Rafah. The Israeli military said of that deadly scene that its forces had fired warning shots nearby.

“We have seen yesterday the shocking images of hungry people pushing against fences, desperate for food. It was chaotic, undignified and unsafe,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo.

“I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities,” Lazzarini continued. “We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose.”“The clock is ticking towards famine, so [the] humanitarian [system] must be allowed to do its life-saving work now,” Lazzarini said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later acknowledged a “loss of control momentarily” at the distribution centre, but a senior military official said the distribution was nonetheless “a success”.Bypassing the UN
Israel has facilitated the GHF’s efforts and said the model keeps supplies out of Hamas’s hands.

The GHF has faced accusations of helping Israel fulfil its military objectives while excluding Palestinians, bypassing the UN system and failing to adhere to humanitarian principles.

The GHF said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to 462,000 meals, since Israel eased an 11-week blockade of the war-shattered Palestinian enclave last week.

The UN and other international aid groups have boycotted the foundation, which they said undermines the principle that humanitarian aid should be distributed independently of the parties to a conflict and based on need.