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HEAD OF US-BACKED GAZA AID FOUNDATION RESIGNS, SAYING MISSION
VIOLATES ‘HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES’
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Julia Conley
May 26, 2025
Common Dreams [[link removed]]
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_ "I urge Israel to significantly expand the provision of aid through
all mechanisms," said Jake Wood. _
Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution
point in the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, in the central Gaza
Strip, on May 22, 2025., Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A day before a U.S.- and Israel-backed plan to distribute aid in Gaza
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the objections of aid agencies that have long served Palestinians in
the enclave, the head of the operation announced Sunday that he was
resigning over concerns that the mission would violate basic
"humanitarian principles."
Jake Wood, a former U.S. marine and co-founder of the disaster relief
group Team Rubicon, said
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in a statement that he had initially thought the Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation would be able to execute a "pragmatic plan that could feed
hungry people, address security concerns about diversion [of aid], and
complement the work of longstanding [nongovernmental organizations] in
Gaza."
But the Israel-initiated plan would include working with private
contractors, including one run by a former CIA official, to distribute
food not across Gaza but in the southern part of the enclave that
would be under the control of Israel
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Since the foundation's establishment was announced, humanitarian
workers, including experts at the United Nations, have warned
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that the plan would endanger Palestinians who would be forced to
travel on foot to just four distribution points and carry packages of
humanitarian aid including food and hygienic supplies back to their
families.
"How is a mother of four children, who has lost her husband, going to
carry 20kg [44 pounds] back to her makeshift tent, sometimes several
kilometers away?" said
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Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication for the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), earlier this month. "The most vulnerable
people, including the elderly, people with disabilities, the sick and
wounded, and orphans, will face huge challenges to access aid."
Wood evidently arrived at the same question as the day distribution
would begin—Monday—drew near, while humanitarian groups and food
insecurity experts warned that famine was spreading across Gaza due to
Israel's total blockade on aid that began in March near the end of a
brief cease-fire.
"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,"
said Wood in a statement announcing his resignation. "I urge Israel to
significantly expand the provision of aid through all mechanisms, and
I urge all stakeholders to continue to explore innovative new methods
for the delivery of aid, without delay, diversion, or discrimination."
"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."
Having served in Afghanistan, said
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the Institute for Middle East Understanding, "I'm sure [Wood is] no
stranger to diabolical missions. He had to interface with the Israelis
for a month and resigned fundamentally as a conscientious objector."
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation released a statement
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group's plan set to begin Monday would move forward, "reaching over 1
million Palestinians by the end of the week."
The foundation also suggested Wood had joined the ranks of critics
"who benefit from the status quo" and who "have been more focused on
tearing this apart than on getting aid in, afraid that new, creative
solutions to intractable problems might actually succeed."
United Nations experts have said that in addition to putting
Palestinians in harm's way, the plan inherently includes further mass
displacement of Palestinians in Gaza—about 90% of whom have already
been displaced since Israel began bombarding the enclave in October
2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, said
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earlier this month that the plan is "at odds with the DNA of any
principled humanitarian organization."
Wood announced his resignation a day after World Food Program (WFP)
executive director Cindy McCain rejected Israel's persistent claims
that food aid is not reaching Palestinians in Gaza because Hamas is
diverting and stealing deliveries.
"Listen, these people are desperate, and they see a World Food Program
truck coming in, and they run for it," said
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McCain. "This doesn't have anything to do with Hamas or any kind of
organized crime, or anything. It has simply to do with the fact these
people are starving to death."
McCain repeated her call for the international community to put
"pressure" on Israel to end its blockade, warning that 500,000 people
in Gaza are now "extremely food insecure" and at risk of famine.
More than 9,000 children have been treated for malnutrition at Gaza's
hospitals this year, even as healthcare workers struggle to provide
care amid relentless bombings and a lack of medical equipment and
medications. Dozens of children have starved to death in recent days,
_The Guardian_reported
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The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT),
the Israeli humanitarian unit, said Saturday that 388 trucks had
entered Gaza over the past week—the first aid to arrive since March
2.
That number still falls far short of the 500-600 aid trucks that
groups say must enter the enclave every day to provide people with
enough food, water, and other essentials—the same amount that served
people in Gaza before October 2023.
"We are on the back of 11 weeks of nothing entering the Gaza Strip, no
food, no medicines for 11 weeks, nothing apart from bombs," said
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spokesperson for UNICEF. "And so today, a week after lifesaving aid
was finally allowed into Gaza again, the scale of that aid is
painfully inadequate. It looks like a token that appears more like
cynical optics than any real attempt to tackle the soaring hunger
crisis among children and civilians in Gaza."
Amid the man-made starvation crisis, Israel has intensified attacks on
Gaza in recent days, killing at least 46 people on Monday including
more than 30 in an overnight bombing of a shelter.
On Sunday, Dr. Tom Potokar, a British surgeon, issued his latest call
for Western countries including the U.S. and U.K. to "stop being
complicit in this ongoing slaughter and starvation."
"I want to talk about the political class," said Potokar. "They appear
on the news shows, give interviews, and try to justify what is
happening, sitting in offices safe and sound, well-fed, and surrounded
by all the luxuries of modern life. They have no idea how dangerous
their words are. They've never been here, they've never seen with
their own eyes what is going on, heard the screams, smelled the
rotting flesh, shuddered from the constant bombardment. Perhaps if
they spent not 20 months, not even one month, but just one day here,
they would have the courage and the humanity to speak the truth, to
stand up, like so many of us citizens of the world, and use their
power to bring this to an end."
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Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
* Gaza Humanitarian Foundation; Jake Wood; Starvation in Gaza;
Palestine;
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