Responding to GHF collaboration offer, UN says it won’t work with groups that place Gazans at risk

Asked about offers from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to collaborate with the United Nations in order to distribute aid in Gaza, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says the UN welcomes cooperation with any organization that abides by humanitarian principles.

“One of them being that — don’t set up an operation that will increase the risk of people to be shot at or trampled while trying to get food,” he says, in a shot at GHF, which has been operating a small number of distribution sites in remote, militarized areas of Gaza that forced Palestinians to walk long distances, while crossing IDF lines in order to pick up aid.

For its part, GHF says it has been able to distribute over two million meals per day.

But GHF’s boxes are largely filled with dry food products that still need to be prepared elsewhere in a war-ravaged Strip with scarce clean water, cooking fuel or equipment.

Dujarric says at a press briefing that the UN has distributed 158,000 cooked meals at 64 community kitchens since Sunday, noting however, that the figure is declining due to the lack of food in the Strip.

“We have a system that works. All we’re asked is to be allowed to use that system. I don’t think we need to add another layer of for-profit organizations,” he adds.