Tel Aviv, Israel
CNN
—
Israel has agreed to allow some food into Gaza before a newly approved mechanism for aid deliveries is up and running later this month, the head of the newly established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation told CNN.
Jake Wood, the foundation’s executive director, said he did not yet know when or how many aid trucks Israel would allow into Gaza, but he called conditions there “clearly urgent” and said he expects “positive updates on that in the coming days.”
The Israeli government, which has blocked aid to Gaza for nearly 11 weeks, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the matter.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will run a new, tightly controlled mechanism for Gaza aid deliveries that has been approved by Israel and the United States, which both countries say is designed to prevent Hamas from stealing aid.
The United Nations’ major aid organizations say however that there is no evidence of any significant diversion of aid in Gaza and are refusing to participate in the new aid mechanism, warning it risks displacing Palestinians and increasing the dangers they face.
In his first interview since launching the foundation, Wood addressed criticisms by the UN and other aid groups and urged them to reconsider.
“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 said.
“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.”
Without the support of the major UN agencies, Wood said it is “hard to say” whether his foundation will be able to distribute enough aid to feed Gaza’s population of 2.1 million. He said the foundation currently plans to provide 300 million meals in its first 90 days, which he acknowledged is “not sufficient.”
Wood said he believes much of the humanitarian community’s opposition to the new mechanism is based on misinformation, including what he says are false claims about the Israeli military providing direct security for aid distribution sites and biometric data being shared with the Israeli government.
“I cannot blame the humanitarian community for crying foul amid that misinformation. I would not have participated in a plan that did those same things. However, that is not the plan,” Wood said.
He added that he “unequivocally … will not be a part of anything that forcibly dislocates or displaces the Palestinian population.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will initially launch four distribution sites: three in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza, Wood said – even though much of the strip’s population is in the central and northern areas.
The UN has previously warned that focusing on these locations could be seen as encouraging Israel’s publicly stated goal of forcing “the entire Gazan population” out of northern Gaza, as Defense Minister Israel Katz put it earlier this month.
According to Wood, Israel has also agreed to allow the foundation to establish two sites in northern Gaza, which he believes can be operational within the first 30 days of the foundation’s operations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is only expected to be able to feed about 60% of Gaza’s population in its first weeks. Wood said it is not clear how long it will take to be able to cover the needs of the entire population.
Pressed on Israel’s claims that Hamas is stealing humanitarian aid – which Hamas and aid organizations deny – Wood said “it doesn’t really matter.”
“Israel controls access to Gaza, and if, if it is their belief that there is a large percentage of aid that is being interdicted by Hamas and other non-state actors … then we have no choice but to create a mechanism which operates in that construct and in that framing,” Wood said.
“I think, as with most situations, there’s three sides to every story. There’s one side, there’s the other side, and then there’s the truth somewhere in between. I’m not here to render judgment on either of those. I’m here to solve a problem and feed people.”
The foundation’s operations will be secured by a private American security contractor, UG Solutions, which also manned a vehicle checkpoint in Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year.
Wood, a US Marine Corps veteran, said the contractors will be responsible for guarding aid trucks from the Gaza border to the distribution sites and will not be involved in distributing the aid to civilians.
Wood said they would be operating “under strict rules of engagement,” which he declined to share for operational security, but said they would abide by international laws and norms.