Report: Israel to resume aid transfers to Gaza – even without hostage deal

IDF reportedly preparing new program to deliver food, fuel, and medicine directly to Gazans, bypassing Hamas, despite the failure to secure the release of the remaining 59 hostages.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israel is poised to resume the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, according to a Hebrew-language media report Monday morning, even in the absence of an agreement with the Hamas terror organization securing the release of the remaining 59 hostages.

Last month, Israel suspended the entry of aid trucks into Gaza, days after the January 19 hostage deal lapsed on March 2.

After failed attempts by American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators to reach a breakthrough for a continuation of the existing hostage deal, Israel halted the entry of aid into Gaza, before resuming large-scale hostilities against Hamas.

While Israel has hitherto continued the resumption of aid transfers to Gaza on Hamas releasing additional hostages, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper has reported that Israel is quietly preparing to restore aid lifelines to parts of Gaza in the coming weeks – even without a new hostage agreement.

The IDF estimates that the aid already delivered to Gaza can sustain the coastal enclave’s population for less than a month.

While the army believes Gaza’s food stores can last for 40-50 days, stocks of fuel and medication are expected to run out within the next 30 days.

Additional IDF ground operations, the army speculates, could hasten the depletion of Gaza’s supplies.

IDF officials have determined that Israel is not considered to be occupying the Gaza Strip – a finding backed by a ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court – leaving Hamas, not Israel, responsible for providing the basic needs of Gaza’s population.

Nevertheless, according to Monday’s report, army officials fear that should conditions in the Gaza Strip deteriorate significantly in the coming weeks and months, including widespread starvation, the IDF could be held accountable abroad and face intense international pressure.

To avoid such pressure, the IDF has drafted plans to resume aid transfers into Gaza, even without a new hostage deal.

A pilot program under consideration would see the IDF bypass Hamas in the distribution of the aid.

The program would likely begin with a limited number of transfers to Rafah, a city on the southwestern edge of the Gaza Strip, adjacent to the Egyptian frontier and partially isolated from the rest of Gaza.

With an expanded IDF ground operation expected in the near future in Rafah, the city will likely be completely cut off from the rest of Gaza, as Israel secures what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dubbed the new “Morag Corridor,” bisecting southern Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The IDF is also considering employing American contractors to secure aid convoys to Rafah – despite the failure of a joint venture of Egyptian soldiers and US contractors to secure the Netzarim Corridor during the six-week ceasefire.

During the ceasefire, thousands of Hamas terrorists returned to the northern Gaza Strip, despite an Egyptian-American checkpoint meant to prevent the mass movement of Hamas operatives.