The American- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has launched a new system to ensure greater civilian access to aid. Families in Gaza can now reserve aid boxes in advance.
The new system launched Sunday and is designed to further safe and efficient aid delivery and reduce much of the rush for food at distribution sites, according to the group. There have been multiple violent incidents near aid distribution sites that have resulted in civilian deaths.
“It has always been our plan to offer a way for families to reserve aid in advance and guarantee access, just as other aid organizations do,” John Acree, executive director of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said.
Acree said conditions in Gaza had made implementation of the reservation system impossible, but now that more aid is entering Gaza and the foundation’s deliveries are helping to stabilize the aid situation, “conditions are improving.”
“We are proud to take this step to deliver on the requests of the community and make distributions easier and more reliable for the people we serve,” he said.
Local Gazans can choose to participate in the new aid reservation system when a foundation worker invites a family to participate. Those who do join the program will have their photo taken and will receive an ID card with a unique number so they can create an online profile. An aid package will be set aside specifically for that family on specific days, “eliminating the need to partake in the rush” at food distribution sites, according to the foundation. The system allows humanitarian workers to communicate directly with aid recipients.
Aid will still be available at distribution sites on a first-come, first-served basis for those who do not want to take part in the reservation system.
Acree calls the system “real progress,” adding that it “demonstrates that [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s] model is working and reflects our commitment to adapting to the needs of those we serve and delivering on President [Donald] Trump’s call for innovation to get more humanitarian aid into the hands of the people who need it most in Gaza.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which first launched in May, has faced sharp criticism from the U.N. following multiple violent incidents near aid distribution sites that resulted in civilian deaths.
The U.N. has expressed “grave” concern over the foundation’s work, arguing that “Palestinians are paying the ultimate price of the international community’s legal, political, and moral failure.”
The U.N. claimed that “Israeli forces and foreign military contractors continue to open indiscriminate [gun]fire on people seeking aid at so-called ‘distribution sites’ operated by [the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation].”
The U.N. reported that since the end of May, over 1,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza while seeking aid. The Israel Defense Forces has acknowledged firing warning shots near some aid sites and that some Palestinian civilians have been killed by gunfire near aid distribution sites. The military says it is investigating each incident but also asserts that Hamas is inflating the number of deaths in Gaza.
Rev. Johnnie Moore, the foundation’s executive chairman, previously told The Daily Signal that the group contests some of the claims the U.N. has made and notes that the aid group “can’t control outside the perimeter of our sites.”
“This is a hot war,” Moore said, “we’re not operating in a ceasefire, we are operating in the middle of a war.”
To date, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has delivered nearly 125 million meals to the people of Gaza.
The post US-Led Gaza Humanitarian Group Launches New System to Ensure Aid Gets to Civilians appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Virginia Allen
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://dailysignal.com/ and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
