The Political Motives Behind the Gaza Aid Catastrophe
There are currently four main sites in Gaza where Palestinians can receive humanitarian aid. The sites, open two months ago, are led by a non-profit organization called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and supported by the governments of Israel and the United States. Previously, the United Nations and other groups have distributed aid to hundreds of locations; This system, which has been frequently blocked by Israel, preventing the aid from entering Gaza, has been largely replaced by the four GHF sites. More than seven hundred and fifty people looking for assistance on the sites were killed. The vast majority of deaths are attributable to soldiers of the Israeli defense forces, although US security entrepreneurs, who help operate the sites, have also dismissed on the Palestinians. (In a declaration at The New YorkerThe GHF said that, with the exception of an incident last week, when Hamas “invoked a jostling” which killed twenty people, no one died on or near the sites.) The GHF says that it has distributed more than eighty-five million meals, and some non-GHF aid trucks also enter Gaza. But the Palestinians continue to die of malnutrition-there were eighteen of these deaths in twenty-four hours last weekend, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Before the opening of GHF sites, the United Nations and a variety of NGOs warned Israeli officials that they were likely to be dangerous and ineffective; Despite the number of deaths, the Israeli government and the GHF have made no effort to modify their approach.
To understand how the GHF formed and what are its intentions, I recently talked by phone with Michael Mshshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the University of Tel Aviv. Milshtein was previously the head of the Palestinian Affairs Department in the Military-Intelligence of Tsahal, and principal advisor to the commander of Cogatwhich oversees civil policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During our conversation, which was published for duration and clarity, we explained why the GHF was such a disaster for the Palestinians, the reasons for the Israeli government for its creation and how the war of the objectives of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, changed.
How do you understand what we see almost daily on these GHF sites? What really happens?
In Israeli speech, I am known as a critical voice, someone who was against the idea of GHF even before the official establishment of this organization. And at the moment, I consider that all this project is a total failure. The basic objectives, or the basic expectations, for this project were to create a stamp between the Palestinian public and Hamas, and to make the power of Hamas much more limited. But it was a total failure. And it’s not surprising, because from the first day you could see the seeds of failure. To start, the number of people in this organization is very low. I think it’s less than a thousand. [The G.H.F. told The New Yorker that it would not confirm how many employees it has “for security reasons.”] And these are only four sites, or four stations, for the distribution of food and water. I speak with people in Gaza, and they describe the situation to me. It’s chaos. Almost every day, there are shootings, both of Tsahal and American entrepreneurs. [The G.H.F. denied this, saying that some of the violence has occurred when Gazans “have taken dangerous short cuts or gotten lost.”]
What was the idea of GHF at the start? And who is exactly behind? I still do not feel like I have an adequate answer to one or the other of these questions. Do you?
We are talking about a fairly weird group of people. The most important thing is the Roman Gofman, the military secretary of Netanyahu. There were also several businessmen and analysts who were involved here in Israel. But it was a group of people who don’t really know Gaza. When I read this project, it was exactly like the American idea to change hearts and minds before the 2003 war in Iraq. The idea was to conceive of people’s minds by modifying the situation, controlling food and controlling water. From my point of view, it is a reflection of the fact that they do not really understand the Palestinian people, and they do not really understand how things happen in Gaza, because even if people can get food from the GHF, they will not become affiliated with Israel. This will not change the loyalty that some people have for Hamas. So, unfortunately, it was a waste of time, a waste of energy and a waste of the life of many Palestinians. I am very disappointed that here in Israel, people are not willing to clearly declare that this project is a failure.
Do you say that the goal for people around Netanyahu was to break the dependence of Palestinians or loyalty to Hamas? I find it a little difficult to believe.
Yeah, it was very naive.
But you think it was sincerely the goal?
Of course. Absolutely. I have read several arguments put forward by the people who were part of this initiative.
When?
Yotam Hacohen, one of the analysts behind this, published an article a year ago which in fact described the current project. All hypotheses are based on the conviction that you can really change the minds of people, and it’s all about deradicalization. They wanted to make Hamas lower, they wanted to erase the government’s capabilities of Hamas, but you really have to better understand Gaza and the Palestinians.
So, it seems that you say that it was fundamentally an Israeli idea, which came to somehow involving a bunch of Americans with a link with the Trump administration. How did it happen? Why were the Americans brought?
I don’t know all the details. I know that there are American citizens who are currently in Gaza and responsible for this project, but I really do not know how it was created behind the scenes. There was money for this project, and there were several reports here in Israel on the sums of money invested. And it’s Israeli money. But it seems that even the government wants to keep many secrets and keep the situation as a whole very vague. [Israeli officials have denied that the government funds the G.H.F.] There is a big gap between the image that is presented, a very successful project, and the truth, it is that it is a total failure. A month ago, you could convince many Israelis that it was fine. But it seems to me that today, there are more and more Israelis who are exposed to international media and understand that it is not a successful project.
Even if you don’t know the details, why do you think Netanyahu would like to put part of the Americans from it?
It’s very clear. This is the result of political considerations. Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir are the government’s hawks. They repeatedly announced that they did not want a help to enter Gaza. And they cannot be considered responsible publicly to authorize aid. Netanyahu therefore found a very delicate way to establish this project. But the above title will not be Israeli. And that is why, two or three weeks ago, when there have been several reports that Israel really finances this project, it really disrupted the government. It is very clear that American involvement is linked to political considerations. It is a question of image.
This would also explain why the old aid system, which was partially exploited by the United Nations, could not continue to continue as before – because Netanyahu has essentially had political considerations to maintain its coalition with Smotrich and Ben -Gvir together?
Yes, but the old system still continues partially. And, in fact, a large part of the food and supplies that enter Gaza today come by the old manners, not by GHF, it seems that it is a kind of theater. And, of course, the Palestinians know that GHF is a failure. They know these sites as places where you may be able to get a box of food, but you can also be killed. When I spoke with people from Gaza City, they told me, listen, if I wanted to arrive on the site, which is in the southern part of the city, the driver would charge a thousand shekels [approximately three hundred dollars]. It is very risky to make the reader. You can be attacked by helicopters, by drones, by anything. Second, they told me that, in the place itself, it’s very risky. There are shots. The Americans are very nervous and the FDI is also very nervous. Some of them said they had seen Hamas members shoot in these areas. One of them told me that it was the death valley. You can enter and take whatever you want, but you will not always come out. Thus, the image of this project and the perception of the four sites are very, very negative.
Do you think the government is likely to change course?
In Israel, we prefer fantasies instead of a realistic strategy. And the GHF is one of the four fantasies. There is also the encouragement of Gaza clans. There is the “humanitarian city”. And there is the belief that you can really implement Trump’s vision. [Trump has said that he wants to turn the Gaza Strip into “the Riviera of the Middle East” and fill it with “the world’s people,” as Gazans are moved elsewhere.]
This “humanitarian city” is the government’s project. Netanyahu has a crazy idea to take the Palestinians and concentrate them in a very small place between Khan Younis and Rafah, and to establish a kind of “humanitarian city”. He called it thus, but, in fact, it would be tents without civil infrastructure. And, therefore, you can isolate them from Hamas, and maybe you can even create deradicalization schools. It is a total illusion. And Eyal Zamir, the head of the Tsahal staff, really opposes this idea. There have been many difficult clashes between political decision -makers and generals because the army maintains that it is not a main mission for soldiers. As for political decision -makers, they, as I mentioned earlier, mentioned real believers. They believe in this vision. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir do not care about diplomatic results. They believe that they can rethink the land between the river and the sea, to create a new situation.
