This is essentially a continuation of last week’s blog, with points that I omitted due to my haste to get it finished and a few more that have come to my attention since.
It fails as a PR exercise, allowing a minimal amount of aid may appease the faux outrage of Israel’s friends but nobody else is taken in. It’s notonly is it totally inadequate but it’s not what it purports to be. It is limited to food only, not medicine or fuel, and much of it is useless without means to prepare it.
According to one report I’ve seen, half of the contents of one convoy were funeral shrouds! I’ve also seen a video of Israelis holding a lavish barbecue in full view of people who are starving. If these reports are true it’s more than a sick joke, it’s psychotic 😠.
The aid distribution effort is being run by a “charity” called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation which is composed of US mercenaries and IDF soldiers with no experience in delivering aid. The UN refuse to work with them, and the American head of the GHF, Jake Woods, resigned in disgust when he realised that he would be unable to do his job ethically.
“I am proud of the work I oversaw, including developing a pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion, and complement the work of longstanding NGOs in Gaza. However, it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”
Jake Woods
Fifteen UN bodies and over 200 NGOs denounced the plan in a joint statement. UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said the plan not only runs “counter to humanitarian principles” but also it is “logistically unworkable.” They have correctly identified this plan as a weaponisation of aid.
This plan seems designed to reinforce Israeli control over life-saving supplies and it’s a plan that will force people into military zones—completely putting them at risk in order for them to collect aid.
Tamara Alrifai
There can be no doubt that this appraisal is correct when Palestinians are forced to walk several miles to queue up for for barely enough to sustain them, after undergoing humiliating security checks. They’re herded into holding pens like cattle to be shot if, out of sheer desperation, they swarm the trucks to grab what they can of the food that’s being doled out discriminately. It’s looking more than a well-baited trap!
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is a two-faced liar – he reached an understanding with Hamas and then blamed them for Israel’s refusal. The US and Israel are not negotiating in good faith, Witkoff denounced Hamas’s draft proposal which requires a guarantee that adequate supplies are distributed by UN agencies, that Israel cease their bombardment of the enclave, and that both sides should adhere to the terms of agreement for negotiations to extend beyond 60 days. t!
It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week. That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days… and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.
Steve Witkoff
It’s patently untrue that Hamas are stealing whatever aid is allowed in, it’s a lie to justify US/Israeli and control over the distribution of aid. Any looting that is happening is done by criminal families under the protection of the IDF, they’re not Hamas but Israeli collaborators!
You can’t negotiate with anyone who says “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine also”. Netenyahu, with Trumps support, continues to offer terms that he knows Hamas cannot accept and then blames them for the breakdown in “negotiations”! The miniscule amount of aid that is getting through to where it’s needed is dwarfed by the amount destroyed by the bombing of UNWRA depots.
The faux outrage of David Lammy and his ilk are despicable when he’s doing bugger all to stop the atrocities 😠
thephilosophicalmuse 
Thank you Mike, I think it was purely a PR exercise and no one was fooled. They have to walk miles to receive meagre rations of pasta and rice, with no means of cooking it. For this they are corralled like cattle and shot at. I am fed up with the excuses that it is not all Israelis killing and torturing the Palestinians, they can all see this. They travel abroad and wonder why they are hated. Solidarity Mike.
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An excellent summary of what I’m saying Vam 😊👍✊
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