Defense minister: Aid will enter Gaza only once civilian mechanism built to bypass Hamas
An earlier statement by Katz, read as signaling transfer of goods will be resumed soon, was met with intense coalition backlash; Hostage Families Forum decries his ’empty words’
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel has no intention of allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip until a “civilian” mechanism is established to bypass Hamas’s control of supplies.
The minister was forced to clarify his position after his initial statement on the matter sparked uproar in the coalition for asserting that Israel would resume aid to the enclave through private firms, without clarifying that there was no immediate plan to do this.
In his first statement made in the morning, Katz said Israel would eventually resume humanitarian aid, but only through “civilian companies,” to keep food and equipment from falling into the hands of Hamas.
He said Israel’s policy in Gaza includes “stopping humanitarian aid, which undermines Hamas’s control over the population, and creating an infrastructure for the distribution [of aid] through civilian companies later on.”
But even signaling a general intention to resume aid was met with a furious response from members of the coalition.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hit out at Katz, vowing to do everything in his power to stop the “historic mistake” of allowing aid into Gaza.
“It’s a shame we don’t learn from our mistakes. As long as our hostages are dying in the tunnels, there is no reason for a gram of food or aid to enter Gaza,” Ben Gvir wrote on X.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar tweeted that the “despicable murderers in Gaza deserve no humanitarian aid” regardless of how it is transferred. “Only hellfire for the perpetrators of terror until the last of our hostage brothers and sisters return home safely,” he said.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, whose party is in the opposition, derided the prospective resumption of aid as “surrender.”
In a clarifying statement, Katz said: “Israel’s policy is clear and no humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza. In the current reality, no one is going to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and no one is preparing to bring in any such aid.”
The minister then explained that he had been referring to the more distant future when discussing the prospect of aid distribution via private firms.
“It is a shame that there are those who are trying to mislead,” Katz continued.
In his earlier statement, Katz also emphasized Israel had ramped up military pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal “within the Witkoff framework,” referring to the proposal of US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The pressure on Hamas to reach a deal is heavy, and the tension between it and the local population is increasing,” he said, asserting that Egypt had for the first time set “the disarming of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza” as a condition for a deal.
He also touted Israel’s recent seizure of territory in the Strip, saying that “hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated and tens of percent of the territory have been added to the security zones,” referring to Israel’s expanding buffer zone on the Gaza border, which now includes some 30% of the enclave.
But Katz’s insistence on continuing the war prompted criticism from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which lamented that Israel “is choosing to seize territory over hostages.”
“They promised to open ‘the gates of hell.’ In reality, they are quietly preparing the renewal of humanitarian aid,” the Forum said, criticizing Katz’s “empty words.”
“The time has come to stop the false promises and slogans. It is impossible to continue the war and at the same time release all the hostages,” the Forum stated, adding that the only way to free the captives was an agreement that releases them all in one go, in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.
The Times of Israel Community.