Israeli plan for local aid effort run by Palestinians runs into opposition

Palestinians crowd to receive food supplies at an UNRWA school, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The head of COGAT, an Israeli body managing civilian affairs in Judea and Samaria, aims to create a new system for distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza through a local Gazan initiative. This approach seeks to establish an alternative to Hamas, potentially paving the way for a new Palestinian-led government in the Gaza Strip, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Officials from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have been engaged in talks with a top Israeli defense official to create support in the region for the effort that would seek to recruit Palestinian leaders and businessmen with no Hamas affiliation to distribute aid, Israeli and Arab officials told WSJ.

The head of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian sees the aid effort “as an important part of Israel’s plan to evacuate the city of Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold, before an offensive on the border city. The aid-distribution network would feed 750,000 to a million people in displacement camps that Israel has planned for absorbing Rafah’s population,” according to officials who spoke to WSJ.

According to one official, Alian’s vision is that anti-Hamas Palestinians would form “a local administrative authority” to distribute aid that is currently stolen by Hamas operatives instead of being distributed to Gazans, as intended.

The plan outlines a process where Israel would oversee the inspection of aid arriving in Gaza via land and sea. The aid would then be transported to large warehouses in central Gaza for distribution by a newly established Palestinian entity. After the war, the same individuals involved in this distribution effort would form the governing body in the Strip, backed by Arab-funded security forces.

The proposal, however, does not have the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as it is expected that at least some of those involved would be affiliated with the Palestinian Fatah party.

Fatah runs the Palestinian Authority (PA) government under its leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has not condemned the Oct. 7 massacre but instead rewarded the families of the 1,500 dead terrorists with a whopping $2.8 million for the rape and slaughter of men, women and children in Israel on the day of the attack.

“Gaza will be run by those who do not seek to kill Israelis,” said a senior Israeli official from the prime minister’s office.

Hamas is strongly opposed to any such proposal and has stated that anyone who cooperates with Israel regarding the distribution of aid is a “traitor” and will be killed. Several Palestinian families who appeared open to the idea of participating in the new distribution channel have withdrawn in recent days.

“Accepting communication with the occupation forces by heads of families and tribes for work in the Gaza Strip is considered national betrayal, which we will not allow,” a Hamas security official said in a public statement on March 10, shortly after the Israeli efforts began.

“We will strike with an iron hand against anyone who tampers with the internal front in the Gaza Strip and will not permit the imposition of new rules,” he added.

Last week, Hamas executed the chief of the powerful Doghmush clan in Gaza City over allegations that he was in contact and cooperated with Israel, Arab media reported.

“Hamas militias executed the mukhtar [chief] of the Doghmush family in the Family Court building,” human rights activist Hassan al-Sharafi said, according to Ynet News.

A Hamas-affiliated news outlet later confirmed that Hamas had executed the unnamed Doghmush leader, as well as the clan chief of the Kafarna family.

Hamas suspected both clans of cooperating with Israel to provide security for humanitarian aid convoys entering the Gaza Strip.

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