An Israeli-backed system meant to deliver aid and food into Gaza launched last week to scenes of chaos and violence. WSJ's Anat Peled breaks down the new system, and explains why getting aid to the region is difficult and dangerous. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - A Fragile Cease-Fire Deal in Gaza - The UN Agency Accused of Links to Hamas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the current state of the Israel-Hamas war?
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is now in month 20, with no end in sight.
The war is grinding on, and negotiations for a ceasefire for hostage exchange are officially ongoing, but we haven't seen any breakthrough yet.
Chapter 2: What challenges are faced in delivering aid to Gaza?
That's our colleague Anat Pellid. She's been covering the conflict in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding there. A crisis that's been getting worse. Last week, a controversial new plan was put in place to help distribute aid. It's backed by Israel and the U.S., and it promises to deliver food to Palestinians in Gaza. But implementation has been mired in chaos and disorder.
— So you have Gazans who are very hungry and desperate, and all of them trying to make their way to these centers and get food, get boxes of food. — And what we've seen, you know, on the first day, the very first day of the launch, we saw large crowds break into one of the, you know, distribution sites. And there was looting, and there was chaos, and the American staff had to retreat.
And we know that the Israeli military fired warning shots.
— Violence has broken out twice this week, as Palestinians made their way to a distribution center. More than 40 Gazans have been killed trying to get aid, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, rescue services, and witnesses. The Israeli military says some people approached its troops on their way to the distribution site.
Chapter 3: How severe is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza?
The military fired warning shots, as well as shots near individuals who failed to retreat. The military added it was reviewing reports of casualties. Delivering aid to people in Gaza has become one of the biggest challenges in the war, a conflict where the separation between combatants and civilians is blurred and no solution has worked. In the meantime, people are facing starvation.
How bad is it? How bad is the humanitarian situation in Gaza right now?
The situation is pretty bad. A lot of people are living in tents. There's very little food. So we're seeing kind of a state of chaos as Hamas kind of also loses some sort of grip on the strip or, you know, it's weakened. There's just kind of a breakdown.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Wednesday, June 4th. Coming up on the show, deaths, disorder, and a controversial humanitarian aid plan in Gaza. Humanitarian aid has been a flashpoint in Gaza since the start of the war.
And the humanitarian toll on its population has been devastating. According to the United Nations, 90% of Gazans are displaced.
The aid and the food and all of this is at the center of the debate about this conflict. I mean, we had statements from Israeli officials at the start of this war, after October 7th, 2023, when, you know, Israel was in shock and, you know, it was a very bloody day. And basically people were making statements like no aid should enter Gaza and American officials have tried to push for more aid.
But it's been a constant back and forth.
For much of the conflict, the United Nations has been responsible for distributing aid at hundreds of sites across Gaza.
What the UN would do is it has trucks of aid and it would basically get it in the Strip and then it would get it to around 400 distribution sites, so all across the Strip, and it would get to Gazans. The problem is that Israel has said that a lot of that aid was stolen by Hamas and that that's a big issue because it's trying to destroy Hamas.
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Chapter 4: What is the new aid distribution plan in Gaza?
That's next. As part of its new aid system, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plans to open four distribution centers in Gaza. The UN and other humanitarian groups previously had hundreds of sites all over the Strip. Last week, GHF opened its first distribution site in Rafah, where the group planned to hand out food directly to Gazan families.
Thousands of Palestinians lined up to receive their first boxes of aid from the GHF. Could you walk us through just like what that process looks like on the ground? What do we know about how that all actually works?
Chapter 5: Who is behind the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
Yeah, so from what our understanding, the centers are actually open for very limited hours. And Gazans are claiming that the supplies runs out quite fast. So, you know, there are boxes, but there's no screening. So what happens is, you know, each person comes and it's not necessarily a situation where, you know, you get a full box or you even get a box.
So what's been happening is that Gazans have been waking up really early. We spoke to someone who even went at midnight to try to go camp out there. People are desperate because sometimes people leave empty-handed. They wait and it's chaotic and they don't get anything.
A person briefed on the issue said that Safe Reach Solutions, the security company mentioned earlier, has run into coordination problems and has tried to apply lessons from their experience in Iraq and Afghanistan that don't necessarily translate to Gaza. For example, SRS assumed that crowds collecting aid would be orderly.
But with many Gazans facing severe food insecurity, massive and chaotic crowds have converged at distribution sites. The chaos also turned into violence on Sunday, as Palestinians gathered to receive aid and fought over boxes of food.
On Sunday, we had an incident where basically, you know, large, large crowds were making their way again to the one distribution center that's open in Rafah. And what happened is a lot of people, you know, made their way early.
And about what the Israeli military says is a kilometer away from the distribution center, the Israeli military fired warning shots at the crowd who, you know, posed a threat to the troops, they say. And... You know, we don't know exactly what happened.
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Chapter 6: How does the aid distribution differ from previous methods?
We spoke to several witnesses, but we do know from Palestinian health officials and medics that, you know, there were injured people, there were killed people over 20.
GHF says that no shooting took place at its distribution center. That violence continued into this week. On Tuesday, a similar situation took place near the same distribution center.
This time we had very large crowds again making their way to the one open distribution center, which was set to open at 5 a.m. So GHF on its social media said to Gazans, don't come before. It's not allowed. Come on the designated routes. But, you know, we spoke to Gazans who said that one person had camped out, you know, came starting at midnight.
Other people came at 2.30 a.m., you know, just trying to get food. And around the same area, about half a kilometer away, From the distribution center, according to the military, the military said that it fired warning shots again at, you know, crowds that were getting too close. And then when they didn't listen, it continued to fire and they deviated, it said, from the designated routes.
So now we're just seeing a really dangerous situation where this has happened several days in a row. The Israeli military also says it's important to note that, you know, it claims that Palestinian gunmen have also been opening fire.
To get a better understanding of what's happening at the aid centers, Anat and our colleagues have been talking to eyewitnesses who were there.
So the first person we spoke to was Mohamed Nahal. He's 44, and he's from Khan Yunis. And he left his tent at 2.30 a.m. And he went with his cousin, Mahmoud. And basically, they started, you know, going early. And they were waiting for 5 a.m. when the center would open.
But then about, you know, 100 meters from a roundabout called Al-Alam Roundabout, they said that they suddenly got fired upon from all directions. He saw dead people around him, including his cousin, who was shot, and he says was killed. The second person that we spoke to was Ayman al-Gharib from Rafah, and he's living in a tent with his three children, 42.
So today I went to the prison, and I said to myself, there are a lot of people, and all of them are fighting at the same time. There is no system. The rest of the fighters, there was a system. I was the first one.
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Chapter 7: What concerns have been raised about the new aid plan?
I had to go. I went. And I was walking at night on the beach.
And then basically he said that they began to be fired at around 3 a.m. And, you know, it was coming from all directions.
Wow.
Yeah. And he also saw a person next to him, we said, was killed. And yeah, that is what we have from Ayman.
Did the witnesses say anything about sort of the situation in which they were fired on? I mean, you know, the Israeli military seems to be saying that these crowds are overwhelming them. They're getting too close. Did these eyewitnesses say anything about that at all? Did they dispute it?
So Ayman said that he did not deviate from the routes and that they didn't pose a danger. So that's what I know. Generally, I just, you know, it's just been very confusing.
What has GHF said about the violence?
GHF in general has presented the whole endeavor, the whole kind of launch of the aid plan as a success. It's talked about how many boxes it's been able to deliver. They count by meals during the past week. And they have also said that no shooting has taken place at their distribution sites, which to our understanding is true. To our understanding, the shooting has actually taken place
near the distribution sites where GHF says that it's not responsible for securing that area. We know that from witnesses that the Americans who are kind of securing the actual compound itself have used at times riot prevention methods like, you know, smoke grenades, things like that, but no deaths or injuries.
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