UAE rejects Israeli request to fund Gaza aid plan, says it fails to address crisis
Emirati official says stance could change if initiative amended to meet dire needs, but initial refusal marks major blow to plan not yet fully off the ground
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The United Arab Emirates has rejected an Israeli request to bankroll a new initiative to resume the distribution of aid into Gaza after an over two-month embargo, a senior official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.
The rejection marks a major blow to the initiative, which hasn’t even fully gotten off the ground, as Israel hoped that Emirati support would help convince other countries and international organizations to follow suit.
Israeli officials have been deeply involved in the recent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which they want to manage the resumption of aid into Gaza in a manner that prevents its diversion by Hamas.
But a GHF memo provided to potential donors states that the initiative will only feed about 60% of Gaza’s population in an unspecified initial phase. The UN and international organizations briefed on the plan issued a statement earlier this week saying they won’t cooperate with the initiative, saying it fails to sufficiently address the humanitarian crisis and “weaponizes” aid.
Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s aide Moran Stav, visited the UAE Thursday to meet with Emirati Minister for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, hoping to convince Abu Dhabi to back the plan, the senior official said, confirming reporting by the Walla news site.
Hashimy told the Israeli officials that the UAE would not be able to provide such financial support because the GHF initiative — as it currently stands — does not properly address the humanitarian crisis, the official said.
The official stressed that Abu Dhabi’s position could change if the initiative is adapted to properly meet the moment.
A Western diplomat told The Times of Israel earlier this week that GHF was planning to go public with the roll-out of its new initiative this week, but the lack of international support appears to be delaying the announcement.
Organizers sufficed with a press conference held Friday by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, where he said the effort was already underway, but offered minimal details on how the initiative would work while calling on the international community to back the program.
In the meantime, the Trump administration is pressuring international humanitarian organizations to cooperate with the new plan, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel this week.
Amid this pushback from various groups, the Trump administration has indicated to these organizations — including the World Food Program — that their US funding could be slashed if they do not cooperate, a staffer at an international aid group, a senior Western diplomat and an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
A GHF memo obtained by The Times of Israel on Thursday acknowledges that civilians in Gaza are currently “enduring extreme deprivation,” but says the “Secure Distribution Sites” (SDS) it will establish to distribute aid will initially only serve 1.2 million people, while the population in the Strip is about 2 million people.
The memo states that the four SDSs will have the “capacity to expand past 2 million,” but it doesn’t specify how long the initial phase will last.
Moreover, GHF acknowledges that it will take time for each of the four SDSs to even meet the initial goal of serving 300,000 individuals.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel Wednesday that Israel is hoping that some countries will begin to take in Palestinians, which would help minimize the discrepancy between the aid initiative’s initial capacity and Gaza’s total population.
But no countries have volunteered to date, and while Israel touts the emigration option as “voluntary,” countries in the region are increasingly viewing it as forced, given that Israel’s military operations are ongoing and expected to significantly intensify shortly if a ceasefire and hostage deal is not reached by the end of US President Donald Trump’s trip to the region next week.
The Israeli official said that the IDF recognizes that Gazans are “nearing starvation,” given that aid has not entered the Strip since the collapse of a ceasefire with Hamas on March 1. Accordingly, the Israeli plan is to resume aid in the coming days or weeks.
Still, the goal of the new initiative with GHF is to ensure that aid is not diverted by Hamas, something Israel says it hasn’t succeeded in doing since the start of the war.
Critics have argued that the government’s refusal to stand up a viable Palestinian alternative to Hamas has allowed the terror group to remain a dominant force in Gaza, even if it has taken debilitating blows due to Israeli military activities.
The aid distribution hubs, or SDSs, will be established in a new humanitarian zone that Israel is creating in southern Gaza between the Philadelphi Corridor, along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, and the newly established Morag Corridor that is located roughly five kilometers north. The area largely constitutes the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Those entering the zone will pass through army checkpoints, in what the IDF hopes will prevent Hamas fighters from reaching the area.
Aid will be distributed from the SDSs in boxes that will contain 50 1,750-calorie meals, hygiene kits and medical supplies, according to the memo. Five to six thousand vetted representatives will be allowed to travel by foot to the aid hubs once every week or two in order to pick up a roughly 40-pound (18-kilogram) box of food for their families, said officials briefed on the plan.
“To ensure the integrity and safety of aid delivery, GHF’s logistics subcontractors will utilize armored vehicles to transport supplies to and from SDS locations,” the memo states. The subcontractors will include American security firms, such as UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions, which helped secure the Netzarim Corridor earlier this year.
The IDF will not be stationed at or near the SDSs in order to “maintain the neutral and civilian-facing nature of operations,” the memo said. Instead, they will secure the perimeter of the humanitarian zone.
An international aid group staffer briefed on the plan told The Times of Israel earlier this week that it does not take into account the current reality in the Strip, where hungry Gazans desperate for food are likely to flood the aid hubs once they are opened.
The staffer also took issue with the mechanism’s plan to only facilitate the entry of 60 trucks into Gaza each day from one crossing, saying the amount does not come close to what will be needed to feed the already-malnourished Gazan population.
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff briefed ambassadors of Security Council countries on the aid initiative on Wednesday in New York.
GHF is still working to put together its leadership, after it was established earlier this year, but Israeli and US officials have been in talks with former World Food Program executive director David Beasley about heading the foundation, a Western diplomat said.
The Axios news site cited a source close to Beasley who said the former WFP chief and Nobel laureate is negotiating the urgent reintroduction of aid in Gaza as a condition for him coming on board.
The Times of Israel Community.