Gaza aid plan makes faltering start as airstrikes kill dozens
World
Gaza aid plan makes faltering start as airstrikes kill dozens
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) - A US-backed foundation tasked with supplying aid to Gaza made a faltering start on Monday, with no clear sign that it had distributed promised supplies, a day after its chief unexpectedly stepped down.
The aid plan, which has been endorsed by Israel but rejected by the UN, is unfolding amid fierce Israeli attacks on the enclave, including on a school building where dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside were killed.
With food still critically short after a nearly three-month blockade, Washington says it is working to restore a ceasefire more than 19 months into the war, but progress is elusive.
A Palestinian official said Hamas had agreed to a US proposal for a truce and the release of 10 Israeli hostages, but an Israeli official dismissed the proposal as unacceptable, denying it was Washington's.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff rejected reports that Hamas had agreed to his proposal, telling Reuters that what he has seen is "completely unacceptable."
Israel has faced a mounting international outcry this month, including from Western allies, as it launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment and where the population of 2 million is at risk of famine.
Close ally Germany said Israel's recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas, which ignited the war with its cross-border Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave for the first time since March. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which intends to use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
"We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead," it said in a statement.
Palestinians said they had seen no sign of any aid distribution on Monday by the new company.
The foundation's executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying it could not adhere "to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence".
The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company's aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.
The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas militants, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials.
