US defends Gaza aid plan as hungry crowds overrun food hub

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration defended a controversial Israeli-backed group whose aid distribution hub in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday was overrun by throngs of hungry Palestinians.

Chaotic scenes unfolded at a distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in southern Gaza’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood. Video shows desperate Palestinians climbing over sandbags and tearing down fences as Israeli troops outside the compound fired warning shots to disperse the crowds. Al-Monitor could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene witnessed at least three injured Palestinians, one of them bleeding from the leg. The vast majority of those who queued for food left empty-handed, the AP reported.

The GHF aims to circumvent the United Nations’ system for aid delivery in Gaza amid a nearly three-month-long Israeli blockade that was recently eased. Aid agencies warn its coordination with the Israeli military risks weaponizing relief efforts.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday “the real story” is that food and other forms of aid are now entering Gaza “at a massive scale.”

“I’m not going to address either gossip or complaints or people who knew or weren’t included or would do it a different way, or who’s shooting at whom,” Bruce said.

The GHF said in a statement that about 8,000 boxes of food had been distributed by Tuesday afternoon, totaling 462,000 meals. Its goal is to deliver food to 1.2 million people, roughly 60% of Gaza’s population, by the end of the week.

A United Nations spokesperson called the humanitarian operation a “distraction from what is actually needed” in the impoverished Palestinian territory. The UN and international aid agencies say the plan encourages forced displacement of the population from northern Gaza by concentrating the aid distribution sites in the territory’s south.

They have also expressed alarm over the use of biometric screening to vet aid recipients, as well as the dangers involved in requiring Palestinians to cross Israeli military-controlled zones to reach distribution sites.

Citing its inability to uphold neutrality and other humanitarian principles, GHF founder and executive director Jake Wood resigned on Monday.

Before Israel ended its ceasefire, more than 600 truckloads of aid entered Gaza daily during the truce. Israel halted the flow of food, fuel and medical supplies into Gaza on March 2 and resumed its bombing campaign in what it said was an attempt to pressure Hamas into accepting its terms for the release of the remaining hostages.

Fifty-eight people are still held captive by the militants, dozens of whom Israel believes are dead. More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel insists the privately run distribution system is necessary for preventing Hamas from stealing aid. But aid officials, including World Food Program director Cindy McCain, deny there is any significant looting of deliveries by the Palestinian militant group.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with Hamas or any kind of organized crime, or anything,” McCain told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It has simply to do with the fact these people are starving to death.”

Asked about a plan B if the distribution challenges continue, Bruce told reporters to “contact the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”