Humanitarian Aid Given

As promised humanitarian aid was distributed in Gaza with few issues as reported on Telegram by Amir Tsarfati and his Behold Israel channel:

8,000 food packages were distributed to Gazans in the Strip during the day. Each package is enough for 5 people for 3-4 days. In total, 462,000 meals were distributed today.

And we read this from the Israel Defense Force (IDF) Telegram account that gives even more details about the aid distribution:

As Part of the American Initiative: Aid Distribution Centers Established in the Gaza Strip, Operated by International Aid Organizations, and Secured by an American Civilian Security Company

The operation is a cooperative effort between international and an American non-profit organizations (NGO) and US help:

As part of the ongoing efforts to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, four aid distribution centers were established in recent weeks, in accordance with the directive of the political echelon and in close coordination with the United States.

The centers are operated by international aid organizations and secured by an American civilian security company in the Gaza Strip.

The centers were planned for months:

As part of the gradual opening of the distribution centers, two of the centers, located in Tel al-Sultan and the Morag Corridor in the Rafah area, began operating today (Tuesday) and are distributing food packages to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip.

The establishment of the distribution centers took place over the last few months, facilitated by the Israeli political echelon and in coordination with the US government. This process coincided with an ongoing dialogue and cooperation with the IDF, through the Southern Command and COGAT, as well as international aid organizations, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the American civilian security company. As part of this process, four centers were established across the Gaza Strip by the American civilian security company, alongside operational preparations on the ground, in cooperation with the aid organizations, and the international community.

Not Everyone Was Happy

Notably absent from the process is Hamas:

The IDF will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, while making every possible effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organization.

They certainly can’t be happy about this and even tried to block Gazans from getting to the aid centers but they didn’t prevail as we see in this post from the Telegram channel Behold Israel:

The incident begins when Hamas sets up a checkpoint to prevent Gazans from crossing. The checkpoint holds for about an hour, after which the Gazans break through the checkpoints and shout “F… Hamas!"

So Hamas didn’t want its own people to get the aid they are complaining on not getting. It should be abundantly clear that they want to control it more than they want it to help Gazans. There were some agitator but they were quickly dealt with:

During the day, 8,000 family packages were distributed. Towards the end of the day, about 100 people broke in. According to a source familiar with the details: This is a scenario that was rehearsed by the Americans, as a reasonable possibility that we knew would happen.

Upon the breakthrough - the Americans moved back as part of the exercise, fired into the air to disperse them, and let the Gazans take the rest of the aid.

According to sources responsible for the assistance - there was no loss of control, we will start again tomorrow morning.

And we also see from Tsarfati’s account the international community complained about the aid because they weren’t the one’s in charge:

Food distribution in Gaza by GHF: "Competitors are worried "

First the UN called it a “distraction:”

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: The distribution of food by the GHF fund, which is supported by Israel and the US, is nothing more than a distraction from the situation in the Gaza Strip: the crossings must be opened and aid must be brought in (as in the past - UAE).

Another UN agency whined because it wasn’t done by them either:

UNRWA : More than 3,000 aid trucks with food and medicine are waiting for the crossings to open. Some of the food and medicine is about to expire.

Food distribution should be carried out through the United Nations and international organizations.

Then an Arab NGO wasn’t happy that the path to get there wasn’t correct:

Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network : Israel is trying to mislead global public opinion. He forced the Gazans to come by a different route to get food. The food distribution mechanism does not meet the criteria of humanitarian work. All Palestinian elements reject the activities of the new mechanism.

This account then summarized the griping this way:

It's like opening a new, fancy coffee shop that takes the work of all the other coffee shops, so everyone slanders it and claims that its coffee doesn't taste good and doesn't meet standards.

Absolutely right, but it leaves out one important piece of information: The Arab world supports Hamas and is against anything that weakens them. As we learned yesterday Hamas uses humanitarian aid as a money raising mechanism. Now you can see why the complaining is happening. But the good news is that the Gazans are getting aid directly and they couldn’t care less where it’s coming from. And they clearly don’t want Hamas to get in the way. Now all we need is the hostages to be rescued and this war will be over in a hurry.