Report: Israel drafting new plan to deliver aid directly to Gaza families

IDF poised to resume entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza later this month, report claims, with new plan to circumvent Hamas by handing goods directly over to Gaza civilians – with the help of international aid groups.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israel is reportedly preparing to resume the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza in the coming weeks under a new plan aimed at preventing Hamas from seizing the incoming goods.

According to an Israeli official and an Arab official familiar with the plans, who were cited on Friday in an Axios report, the IDF is poised to facilitate the resumption of aid transfers later this month, ending two-and-a-half months of siege during which the entry of aid trucks was suspended, following the collapse of the January 19 ceasefire.

For weeks, Israel’s security establishment has mulled paths for resuming aid transfers amid concerns that key goods – including food, fuel, and medical supplies – will begin to run out by late May.

Thus far, however, senior defense officials and government ministers have yet to reach a consensus on how to resume the distribution of aid while barring Hamas terrorists from taking control of the flow of goods as they reach the Strip.

In late April, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud) told the security cabinet that his ministry was drafting plans to resume aid transfers to Gaza by using a combination of IDF forces and private American contractors to secure the distribution of the aid and prevent its theft by Hamas terrorists.

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir objected, stating that the army would not risk soldiers to guard aid transfers. He also intimated that the army would ensure the entry of aid, even if it would be seized by Hamas, saying that allowing a famine in Gaza was not an option.

The security cabinet failed to reach an agreement on the issue, but according to the officials cited by Axios, the U.S. and Israel are close to reaching a deal on the matter. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume aid transfers to Gaza, saying “we’ve got to be good to Gaza.”

Under the new plan being hammered out by the U.S. and Israel, incoming humanitarian aid will be dropped off at depots set to be constructed inside the Gaza Strip in areas inside the IDF security perimeter.

While IDF troops will not directly secure the warehouses used to distribute aid, Israeli forces will provide security over the general area, while armed private contractors will guard the compounds themselves.

International aid groups, secured by private contractors, will carry out the actual aid distribution, the report said, adding that it will be transferred directly to Gazan families. The aid packages, handed over at regular intervals to designated family members from each household in the Strip, will include enough food to last for several days.

According to a report in The Times of Israel, the aid distribution centers will be established in the Israeli security zone in southern Gaza, with Gazans from across the Strip required to travel regularly to the south to take the aid packages.

This arrangement has raised concerns that the family representatives will be vulnerable while en route to and from the aid warehouses. “They’ll be like sitting ducks,” an Arab official told the Times.

To reduce the risk of Hamas stealing large quantities of incoming aid – which the terror group had done in the past to help fund its operations in Gaza – the plan calls for limiting the size of the packages, requiring additional pickups every few days.