The U.S.-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) just unveiled a new pilot program, implemented for the first time in Rafah last Sunday, Aug. 17, billed as a vast improvement in the cruel food distribution program which has been aptly described as “killing fields” in which starving Palestinians have been gunned down by IDF or other mercenary soldiers as they sought food. The new plan, according to the Times of Israel on Aug. 18, will supposedly make food more available by having people sign up online to reserve boxes of food ahead of time, to avoid “the rush” at GHF sites, where desperate people grab whatever boxes or bags of food they can while avoiding bullets.
This will reportedly benefit older people who can’t compete with younger, more fit individuals, in scrambling for food or who may not be able to make the “dangerous trek” to GHF sites, of which there are currently four, mostly in southern Gaza.
Sign up online, when electricity and internet services are non-existent? People are being offered the chance to set up an online profile, put in their personal information, including details on household size and family members and get a photo ID. GHF promises that all information is secure and won’t be shared with the Israelis—not exactly believable.
Given that much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble—houses, tents, clinics and other places of refuge bombed daily—and now with the invasion of Gaza City and people ordered to evacuate, how is this “innovative” food distribution plan supposed to work? This scheme is of course voluntary—otherwise people stick with the existing first-come first-served system. The ultimate goal is to exercise more control over who gets the food, as the current chaotic system sees thousands of people frantically grabbing boxes at aid sites and the GHF suspects that Hamas members are lurking there among the crowd. With greater control over who gets the food, the idea is to weed out undesirables, whether Hamas or other human beings.
