Cogat, the Israeli army link with Palestinians and the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond to requests for comments on Wood’s resignation and about GHF’s declared plan to launch operations on Monday.
In a separate statement, the GHF Board said it was “disappointed” by Wood’s departure, but would advance with its plan and begin to distribute help in Gaza starting from Monday.
“Our trucks are loaded and ready to function,” he added, according to Reuters.
Wood’s resignation occurred when Israel continues to allow only a drip of very necessary help to Gaza and at the same time presses with his last military offensive, which has killed hundreds, including children, in the period of weeks.
Before the renewed attacks, Israel’s blockade on food and medicine stopped vital entry supplies for more than two months, and stimulated a new humanitarian crisis in the enclave marked by warnings of a generalized extension.
Plan backed by Israelis
The questions have revolved around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Since its launch.
Nate Mook, the former World Central Kitchen CEO who had previously been reported as a member of the Board, told NBC News that he had never been involved with the initiative.
Netanyahu said last week that, according to the plan, the aid will be delivered to the Palestinian civilians in “safe” designated areas, with already displaced families that are expected to eventually move once again south of Gaza “for their own security.”
Help groups have warned that, in addition to undermining a long -standing humanitarian framework in the enclave, which the plan will once again force the generalized displacement in Gaza, while concentrating the distribution in areas to which they cannot be accessible to all. The civilians, already exhausted and hungry after 18 months of war, displacement and hunger, who do not move to the south would have a higher risk under Israel’s military assault, warning the groups.
Netanyahu has said that the effort was aimed at allowing civilians to receive humanitarian aid “without Hamas interference”, repeating the statement that the militant group was diverting help. The humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have denied that the militant group was deviating the supplies.
Joseph Belliveau, executive director of Medogobal, a non -profit humanitarian organization based in Illinois that provides medical help in Gaza, accused Israel of using a “non -existent problem” to justify its decision to review the distribution of help in Gaza in what it described as an attempt to obtain greater control over the enclava.
Aid review occurs after Israel prohibited the The agency of relief and works of the UN for Palestinian refugees, or Unrwa, to operate in Gaza, claiming that Hamas members had infiltrated the agency and that several staff members had participated in the attacks on October 7, 2023.
Last August, an independent investigation commissioned by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, found that nine employees who worked for Unrwa, who had thousands of workers in the enclave, could have been involved in the attacks.
The prohibition, which entered into force in January, caused alarm among the help groups, with the Director General of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, warning of “disastrous” consequences.
The Biden Administration arrested the funds to UNRWA last year, a measure that the Trump administration has supported.
Aid
The humanitarian groups have condemned Israel for dripping only a small amount of help in Gaza in the week since he lifted his blockade.
As of early Monday, just under 500 trucks that transported help and goods had entered the enclave in the week since Israel announced on May 18 that he was lifting his blockade, according to a data account shared by COGAT.
According to help groups, that is approximately the same number of trucks that entered Gaza before the war began.
Almost 54,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave, which has been administered by Hamas since 2007.
Israel launched its offensive after the terrorist attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli counts, where just under 60 remain captive, both dead and lively.
