A GAZAN aid chief has claimed that Israel plans to herd Palestinians into “concentration camps” through a militarised “humanitarian” scheme.
Amjad Al-Shawa, the head of the Palestinian Network of NGOs, said that Israel was trying to lure Gazans in the north to the south of the territory with its “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” – then imprison them.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is an American organisation which has been at the centre of an international scandal where Palestinians trying to reach food at its sites have been shot at and killed.
It is backed by both the US and Israeli governments as a way of getting around the United Nations as the main distributor of food in the territory – and has been condemned by a number of humanitarian organisations, including Christian Aid and Amnesty International.
Speaking from Gaza via a video link to a press conference in London on Thursday, said that Israel planned to “starve” Palestinians in the north in a bid to move them to the south, consistent with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s (below) plans to colonise the region.
He said: “They starve Palestinians under the famine they went to catch up some aid which was distributed in these military sites, mainly in Rafah, south of Netzarim, they were shot and killed”
Al-Shawa added: “This mechanism is to serve the Israeli plan, to force displacement for the Palestinians from Gaza’s north – and this was clearly declared by Netanyahu himself.
“The first step of that is displacement and the second to have concentration camps on the south for the Palestinians under the security measures of the Israeli occupation forces.”
The Gazan humanitarian worker hit out at Israel for replacing a “humanitarian structure” with “military companies”.
The GHF announced on Thursday it would reopen two distribution centres – despite the Israeli military previously declaring that the routes leading to them were “considered combat zones”.
An open letter signed by 11 charities in May called the GHF a “sham”, while UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described it as a “cynical sideshow”.
The letter, published before people were killed trying to access GHF centres, said: “Despite branding itself as 'independent' and 'transparent', the GHF would be wholly dependent on Israeli coordination and operates via Israeli-controlled entry points, primarily the Port of Ashdod and the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing.
“This entrenches and legitimises the very structures of control that are responsible for cutting Gaza off from food, fuel, and medicine.”
Amnesty International has accused the organisation of “inhumane and politically motivated methods of aid delivery”.
The US and Israeli governments were approached for comment.
