COGAT, the Israeli military’s liaison with Palestinians and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, did not respond to requests for comment on Wood’s resignation and on GHF’s stated plan to launch operations Monday.
In a separate statement, GHF’s board said it was “disappointed” by Wood’s departure, but would push forward with its plan and begin distributing aid in Gaza starting Monday.
“Our trucks are loaded and ready to go,” it added, according to Reuters.
Wood’s resignation came as Israel continues to allow only a trickle of much-needed aid into Gaza while also pressing on with its latest military offensive, which has killed hundreds, including children, in the span of weeks.
Before the renewed attacks, Israel’s blockade on food and medicine halted entry vital supplies for more than two months, and spurred a fresh humanitarian crisis in the enclave marked by warnings of widespread starvation.
Israeli-backed plan
Questions have swirled around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since its launch.
Nate Mook, the former CEO of World Central Kitchen who had previously been reported as a member of the board, told NBC News he had never been involved with the initiative.
Netanyahu said last week that under the plan, aid will be delivered to Palestinian civilians in designated “safe zones,” with already displaced families expected to eventually move once again to southern Gaza “for their own safety.”
Aid groups have warned that in addition to undermining a long-held humanitarian framework in the enclave, that the plan will once again force widespread displacement in Gaza, while also concentrating distribution in areas that may not be accessible to everyone. Civilians, already exhausted and hungry after 18 months of war, displacement and hunger, who do not move south would be at greater risk under Israel’s military assault, the groups warn.
Netanyahu has said the effort was aimed at allowing civilians to receive humanitarian aid “without Hamas interference,” repeating the assertion that the militant group was diverting aid. Humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have denied that the militant group was siphoning off supplies.
Joseph Belliveau, executive director of MedGlobal, an Illinois-based humanitarian nonprofit providing medical aid in Gaza, accused Israel of using a “non-existent problem” to justify its decision to overhaul aid distribution in Gaza in what he described as a bid to gain further control over the enclave.
The aid overhaul comes after Israel banned the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, from operating in Gaza, alleging that Hamas members had infiltrated the agency and that a number of staff members had taken part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
Last August, an independent investigation commissioned by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres found that nine staff working for UNRWA, which had thousands of workers in the enclave, may have been involved in the attacks.
The ban, which came into effect in January, sparked alarm among aid groups, with UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini warning of “disastrous” consequences.
The Biden administration halted funding to UNRWA last year, a measure the Trump administration has supported.
Scarce aid
Humanitarian groups have condemned Israel for trickling only a small amount of aid into Gaza in the week since lifting its blockade.
As of early Monday, just under 500 trucks carrying aid and goods had entered the enclave in the week since Israel announced May 18 that it was lifting its blockade, according to a tally of data shared by COGAT.
That’s roughly the same number of trucks that would entered Gaza daily before the war began, according to aid groups.
Nearly 54,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave, which has been run by Hamas since 2007.
Israel launched its offensive following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli counts, where just under 60 remain captive, both dead and alive.
