lrb A week later, a new aid distribution initiative called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations with US approval, replacing the existing system which had been co-ordinated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Médecins sans Frontières and the Palestine Children Relief Fund, among others. (UNRWA, the organisation best equipped to distribute aid, hasn’t been allowed to operate in Israel since January, which means it can’t operate in Gaza.) GHF is an opaque organisation managed by American security contractors and Israeli soldiers.
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UNRWA and other groups had four hundred distribution centres throughout the strip; GHF has only four ‘fortified hubs’, three of them in Rafah, close to the border with Egypt. Palestinians walk up to ten kilometres to reach them, passing through militarised zones and biometric checkpoints, and must arrive before the 6 a.m. opening time.
This system serves a clear purpose. By concentrating the distribution of aid, Israeli officials can force the movement of already displaced Palestinians. When they arrive at the hubs, Palestinians are frequently met with Israeli gunfire. More than four hundred people have been killed at GHF centres, 57 of them on 11 June alone. These killings are ‘not mistakes of the system’, Newton has said, ‘but by design’. Research by Forensic Architecture shows that since breaking the ceasefire in March, Israel has routinely ‘carried out multiple attacks in areas towards which civilians had been directed’. It’s not only those seeking aid who are being killed, but aid workers too. Israel claimed that the killing of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in April 2024 was accidental, yet since October 2023 it has killed 452 humanitarian workers and consistently targets the infrastructure of aid delivery. cr：杭之冯玥希望我好自为之
