Portside

A day before a U.S.- and Israel-backed plan to distribute aid in Gaza was set to take effect over the objections of aid agencies that have long served Palestinians in the enclave, the head of the operation announced Sunday that he was resigning over concerns that the mission would violate basic "humanitarian principles."

Jake Wood, a former U.S. marine and co-founder of the disaster relief group Team Rubicon, said in a statement that he had initially thought the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would be able to execute a "pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion [of aid], and complement the work of longstanding [nongovernmental organizations] in Gaza."

But the Israel-initiated plan would include working with private contractors, including one run by a former CIA official, to distribute food not across Gaza but in the southern part of the enclave that would be under the control of Israel.

Since the foundation's establishment was announced, humanitarian workers, including experts at the United Nations, have warned that the plan would endanger Palestinians who would be forced to travel on foot to just four distribution points and carry packages of humanitarian aid including food and hygienic supplies back to their families.

"How is a mother of four children, who has lost her husband, going to carry 20kg [44 pounds] back to her makeshift tent, sometimes several kilometers away?" said Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), earlier this month. "The most vulnerable people, including the elderly, people with disabilities, the sick and wounded, and orphans, will face huge challenges to access aid."

Wood evidently arrived at the same question as the day distribution would begin—Monday—drew near, while humanitarian groups and food insecurity experts warned that famine was spreading across Gaza due to Israel's total blockade on aid that began in March near the end of a brief cease-fire.

"It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon," said Wood in a statement announcing his resignation. "I urge Israel to significantly expand the provision of aid through all mechanisms, and I urge all stakeholders to continue to explore innovative new methods for the delivery of aid, without delay, diversion, or discrimination."

"It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon."

Having served in Afghanistan, said Hamid Bendaas of the Institute for Middle East Understanding, "I'm sure [Wood is] no stranger to diabolical missions. He had to interface with the Israelis for a month and resigned fundamentally as a conscientious objector."

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation released a statement saying the group's plan set to begin Monday would move forward, "reaching over 1 million Palestinians by the end of the week."

The foundation also suggested Wood had joined the ranks of critics "who benefit from the status quo" and who "have been more focused on tearing this apart than on getting aid in, afraid that new, creative solutions to intractable problems might actually succeed."

United Nations experts have said that in addition to putting Palestinians in harm's way, the plan inherently includes further mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza—about 90% of whom have already been displaced since Israel began bombarding the enclave in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.

Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said earlier this month that the plan is "at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organization."

Wood announced his resignation a day after World Food Program (WFP) executive director Cindy McCain rejected Israel's persistent claims that food aid is not reaching Palestinians in Gaza because Hamas is diverting and stealing deliveries.

"Listen, these people are desperate, and they see a World Food Program truck coming in, and they run for it," said McCain. "This doesn't have anything to do with Hamas or any kind of organized crime, or anything. It has simply to do with the fact these people are starving to death."

McCain repeated her call for the international community to put "pressure" on Israel to end its blockade, warning that 500,000 people in Gaza are now "extremely food insecure" and at risk of famine.

More than 9,000 children have been treated for malnutrition at Gaza's hospitals this year, even as healthcare workers struggle to provide care amid relentless bombings and a lack of medical equipment and medications. Dozens of children have starved to death in recent days, The Guardianreported.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli humanitarian unit, said Saturday that 388 trucks had entered Gaza over the past week—the first aid to arrive since March 2.

That number still falls far short of the 500-600 aid trucks that groups say must enter the enclave every day to provide people with enough food, water, and other essentials—the same amount that served people in Gaza before October 2023.

"We are on the back of 11 weeks of nothing entering the Gaza Strip, no food, no medicines for 11 weeks, nothing apart from bombs," said James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF. "And so today, a week after lifesaving aid was finally allowed into Gaza again, the scale of that aid is painfully inadequate. It looks like a token that appears more like cynical optics than any real attempt to tackle the soaring hunger crisis among children and civilians in Gaza."

Amid the man-made starvation crisis, Israel has intensified attacks on Gaza in recent days, killing at least 46 people on Monday including more than 30 in an overnight bombing of a shelter.

On Sunday, Dr. Tom Potokar, a British surgeon, issued his latest call for Western countries including the U.S. and U.K. to "stop being complicit in this ongoing slaughter and starvation."

"I want to talk about the political class," said Potokar. "They appear on the news shows, give interviews, and try to justify what is happening, sitting in offices safe and sound, well-fed, and surrounded by all the luxuries of modern life. They have no idea how dangerous their words are. They've never been here, they've never seen with their own eyes what is going on, heard the screams, smelled the rotting flesh, shuddered from the constant bombardment. Perhaps if they spent not 20 months, not even one month, but just one day here, they would have the courage and the humanity to speak the truth, to stand up, like so many of us citizens of the world, and use their power to bring this to an end."