Head of US-backed Gaza aid foundation quits as further Israeli airstrikes kill dozens
- Last updated: May 26, 2025 | 20:11
The head of a US-backed foundation set to begin aid deliveries in Gaza resigned unexpectedly, saying it could not uphold humanitarian principles amidst war, as an Israeli airstrike on a school building killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering inside.
Reflecting growing international pressure on Israel, close ally Germany said its recent attacks in Gaza were inflicting a toll on civilians that could no longer be justified.
Israel has faced a mounting Western outcry this month as its military launched a new offensive in Gaza, already largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment during 19 months of conflict and where the population of 2 million is at risk of famine.
After nearly three months of blockade, Israeli authorities last week allowed a trickle of aid into the Palestinian enclave. But the few hundred trucks carried only a tiny fraction of the food needed.
Jake Wood, executive director of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for the past two months, said he resigned as it could not adhere "to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence."
Wood's exit on Sunday underscores the confusion surrounding the foundation, which has been boycotted by the United Nations and the aid groups supplying aid to Gaza before Israel imposed a total blockade on the enclave in March.
The groups say the new system will undermine the principle that aid should be overseen by a neutral party. Israel, which floated a similar plan earlier this year, says it will not be involved in distributing aid but it had endorsed the plan and would provide security for it.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which would use private contractors working under a broad Israeli security umbrella, said it would begin deliveries on Monday, with the aim of reaching one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
"We plan to scale up rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead," it said in a statement.
The Switzerland-registered foundation has been heavily criticised by the United Nations, whose officials have said the private company's aid distribution plans are insufficient for reaching the more than two million Gazans.
The new operation will rely on four major distribution centres in southern Gaza that will screen families for involvement with Hamas, potentially using facial recognition or biometric technology, according to aid officials. But many details of how the operation will work remain unexplained, and it was not immediately clear whether aid groups that have refused to cooperate with the foundation would still be able to send in trucks.
Hamas condemned the new system, saying it would "replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime."
CONTINUED AIRSTRIKES
While the aid system is worked out, Israel has continued to carry out strikes across densely populated Gaza, killing at least 45 people on Monday, local health authorities said. In Gaza City, medics said, 30 Palestinians, including displaced women and children who were seeking shelter in a Gaza City school, were killed in an airstrike.
Images shared widely on social media showed what appeared to be badly burned bodies being pulled from the rubble. Israel's military confirmed that it had targeted the school.
It said that the building was being used as a centre by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants to plan and organise attacks.
Farah Nussair, a survivor of the attack, said "just the tired ones" who needed food and water were in the school. She added, a child in her lap: "We fled to the south, they bombed us in the south. We returned to the north, they bombed us in the north. We came to schools .... There is no security or safety, neither at schools, nor hospitals — not anywhere."
Another strike on a house in Jabalia, adjacent to Gaza City, killed at least 15 other people, medics said.
Reuters