Hope and doubt surround US relief plan for Gaza

Israel will not be involved in the distribution of aid, US ambassador to Tel Aviv says

Gaza's children are suffering from malnutrition due to a desperate lack of food arriving in the strip. AP

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In Gaza, where Palestinians are going for entire days without eating due to lack of food, uncertainty casts a long shadow over any promise of aid or relief.

As families run out of supplies, prices in the few markets that remain open have skyrocketed and few can afford what little is available.

News has emerged that bakeries across the besieged strip might reopen soon, but for many, these remain just words, not yet bread.

“Until now there is no confirmation of reopening the bakery shops as the borders are still closed,” says Abdulnasser Al Ajrami, head of the Bakeries Committee in Gaza.

“As long as the borders are closed, the bakeries will remain closed. People are grinding macaroni into powder to bake bread. That’s how desperate things have become. ”

Twelve-year-old Gazan girl faces starvation amid Israel's blockade

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New proposals

Israel had proposed a plan that would create aid “hubs” controlling who gets what. But the UN and other groups have said they would not participate in a plan that compromises humanitarian principles.

“A plan where the humanitarian aid is being handled by one party to the conflict contravenes any humanitarian principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality,” Unicef's communications chief in Palestine, Jonathan Crickx, previously told The National.

On Friday, US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said Washington's plan for Gaza would not involve Israel distributing aid but merely providing military security.

At the centre of this initiative is David Beasley, a former governor of South Carolina and ex-executive director of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). A Republican with a humanitarian profile, he is reportedly being positioned to lead an American-administered aid effort in Gaza.

Former South Carolina governor David Beasley is reportedly being lined up to oversee a new aid programme for Gaza. EPA

Dhu Al Fiqar Suwayrjo, a political analyst, believes Mr Beasley’s potential selection signals a shift in American strategy.

“Beasley is not a military figure. He presents a softer image, a humanitarian face for the United States, a soft power,” he told The National. He believes the US is trying to convert Gaza into an operating base to manage its interests in the region.

But for others, this plan is more than just a strategy – it’s a threat.

Rawhi Fattouh, Speaker of the Palestinian National Council, condemned the US-Israeli aid initiative, calling it a “racist project” that aims to isolate Palestinians in controlled zones.

“This is not humanitarianism. This is humiliation and control,” Mr Fattouh said in a statement.

“They want to strip Palestinians of the basic necessities of life, humiliate them, and drive them towards forced displacement, all part of a broader scheme to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”

As competing narratives unfold, ordinary Palestinians remain trapped in limbo, caught between hunger and a complex geopolitical chessboard. Dozens of people have died of malnutrition-related conditions, the ministry of health has said.

Back in Gaza’s shuttered streets, the scent of baked bread has long faded. Until plans turn into action, Gazans wait hungry, wary and watching – trying to survive.