The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
Senior US official hails GHF, blasts UN for refusing to get behind aid distribution effort
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration hails the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while blasting the UN for refusing to cooperate with the group’s new aid distribution initiative, hours after thousands of Palestinians overran one of its sites in Rafah.
“Aid is getting to the people in need, and through their secure distribution system, Israel is kept safe and Hamas empty handed,” says a statement to reporters attributed to a senior administration official.
The official appears to cite GHF’s figures, stating that roughly 8,000 boxes of food have been distributed in the foundation’s first two days of operation, with each box feeding 5.5 people for 3.5 days, totaling 462,000 meals.
The Trump official says GHF is managing to operate in Gaza, despite attempts by Hamas to place blockades on aid trucks. “GHF is a threat to Hamas’s longstanding system of looting the assistance intended for the people of Gaza.”
GHF was established earlier this year in close coordination with Israeli officials who sought to advance a new method of aid distribution that could circumvent Hamas attempts at diversion.
But the UN and other international organizations have withheld much-needed backing for the GHF, arguing that its initiative violates humanitarian principles by requiring Gazans to walk long distances in order to receive heavy boxes of aid from a small number of distribution sites, likely leading to further displacement of Palestinians.
“The UN and other aid agencies were wrong to criticize,” the senior Trump administration official says, making no mention of Tuesday’s mass-looting incident in one of the two distribution sites GHF has begun to operate. “These organizations echoed Hamas talking points rather than praising those who are delivering results.”
While GHF was only registered this year, the Trump official says the project was born during the Biden administration but was dropped due to “bureaucratic incompetence.”
The Trump administration was impressed by the idea, though, and got behind it. “We support bold, out-of-the-box efforts to make life better for Gazans. GHF is doing exactly that. And we’re proud to back their incredible mission,” the official says.
US will renew push for countries to fund GHF once it demonstrates results — official
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to renew its push for countries and international organizations to fund the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation once its new aid distribution initiative proves to be a success, a US official tells The Times of Israel.
The US official acknowledges that European countries and other nations approached earlier this month about backing GHF did not respond “favorably.”
“Countries are used to doing what they have always done,” the US official says.
However, the US official is unfazed by the initial negative response from countries, who have refrained from bankrolling GHF to date.
“The United States is a leader in innovation and once GHF works, others will want to share in its success,” the official adds.
Asked about the overrun of one of GHF’s Rafah distribution sites by thousands of Palestinians on Tuesday, the US official downplays the incident, insisting that it lasted 20 minutes and that over 400,000 meals were fed as a result of the foundation’s work.
Netanyahu lauds new Gaza aid plan, says starvation policy allegations a ‘lie’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends the US and Israel-backed aid distribution plan in Gaza that began operations today, calling it a critical tool to weaken Hamas and firmly rejecting accusations that Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war, during an English-language speech at the Foreign Ministry at an international summit on combating antisemitism.
Addressing the incident in which thousands of Gazans briefly overran one of the newly opened aid distribution sites in the south of the enclave this afternoon, Netanyahu acknowledges that, “There was some loss of control momentarily.”
“Happily, we brought it back under control. We’re going to put many more of these [distribution sites],” says the premier.
According to Netanyahu, the initiative aims to make Hamas operatives “like fish without the water,” by leaving them “without the tool for governance which they use, and that’s basically…the humanitarian aid that they loot.”
Dismissing allegations that Israel is pursuing a deliberate policy of starving Gaza’s civilian population, Netanyahu calls such claims “the current fad, the current lie” that “spreads like wildfire” in the media.
“From day one, or the early days of the war, we decided on a policy: we’re going after Hamas, we’re not going after the civilian population,” says Netanyahu.
He claims that Israel stayed true to this commitment by taking actions to allow civilians to evacuate combat zones and by “supplying them with essential requirements: food, water, medicine. That’s what international law and common sense requires.”
The premier does not mention the more than two months, starting on March 2 and ending only last week, during which all deliveries to the Gaza Strip were suspended, and no food or medical supplies were allowed to enter the enclave.
He claims that there is no proof of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, and that this can be seen in photographic evidence taken from IDF security inspections of detained civilians and combatants.
“You don’t see one, not one emaciated from the beginning of the war to the present,” he says, not offering any proof to back up his claim.
According to the premier, the “best way” for Israel to combat what he says are false accusations is “winning the war quickly.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do. Win the war quickly, free our hostages, destroy Hamas. The two go hand-in-hand. Because you don’t get the release of hostages unless you apply military pressure. And then, of course, make sure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel in the future,” he says.
Netanyahu goes on to assert that false accusations against Israel inspired the murder of the two Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim in a shooting attack in the US last week.
He says that he met the “beautiful couple” while visiting Washington, and that the two were “killed only because they were Jews.”
He posits that the murder suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine” while being arrested, felt justified in his crime because he felt “Israel is doing the same” by deliberately murdering Gazan civilians.
“No we’re not. We’re not doing the same,” he declares. “We take pains to not do the same,” the premier declares. “We go out of our way to create safe zones, to give humanitarian aid, to make sure that civilians leave.”