Participating in Israeli plans to enforce a military-controlled aid system in Gaza could implicate the UN in ongoing atrocity crimes and genocide risks, and may set a precedent of “total control” likely to be copied by other countries, an internal UN briefing warns.
The fears are outlined in a briefing note circulating among aid organisations this week as Israel pushes plans to fully occupy Gaza and channel all humanitarian aid through militarised hubs. The UN and many humanitarian NGOs operating in Gaza have refused to participate, but face pressure from Israel and the United States – a lynchpin funder of the humanitarian system and the UN – to get in line.
“The UN would become implicated in delivering a system that falls short of Israel’s legal responsibilities as an occupying power,” warns the 6 May briefing note, which was drafted by the UN’s humanitarian coordination arm, OCHA.
The analysis frames the decision in light of pending cases on Israeli actions – including accusations of ongoing genocide – at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, and an advisory opinion ruling by the court from last July that found Israel’s nearly six-decade occupation of the Palestinian Territories to be unlawful.
“Such prospects need to be understood in the context of an ICJ ruling on the legality of the occupation and the ICJ provisional measures on the case brought by South Africa regarding the risk of genocide,” the UN briefing note states. “Both the ruling and the provisional measures require the UN not to contribute to take steps that would advance the occupation.”
The ICJ warned in the July 2024 advisory opinion that “international organisations, including the United Nations,” must not “render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence”. Separately, the International Criminal Court is also investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli and Hamas officials.
A pivot point for the UN
Israeli forces have killed at least 52,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 people in Israeli territory. Israel has fully blocked humanitarian aid into Gaza since early March, and essentially turned aid access on and off at will throughout its occupation. The denial of humanitarian aid forms a large part of the ICC investigation into allegations of starvation, murder, and other crimes against humanity or war crimes.
Refuse to participate, and the UN and international humanitarian system would likely be sidelined. Get involved, and become further implicated in Israel’s occupation and potentially other international crimes.
Critics say the international humanitarian system has served as a smokescreen for Western complicity in Israel’s actions – many of the sector’s biggest government funders are also Israel’s allies.
The UN briefing note underscores how the international humanitarian system faces a pivot point over Israel’s plans to enforce a military-controlled relief distribution system. Refuse to participate, and the UN and international humanitarian system would likely be sidelined. Get involved, and become further implicated in Israel’s occupation and potentially other international crimes. There are also reverberations beyond Gaza: Participating could normalise military control over aid elsewhere, the briefing note warns.
“The model of total control over aid delivery and distribution exercised by a party to the conflict would become a standard that other Member States may seek to replicate,” the UN paper states. “Involvement in this plan would hamper the ability of the UN to play a meaningful political or humanitarian role in the future in Gaza.”
Humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have largely rejected Israel’s proposal, calling it an attempt to “manipulate and militarise all aid to civilians”.
But they face pressure to get on board. The US has reportedly pressured humanitarian groups to support Israel's plan. The US is the world’s largest humanitarian donor by volume, and Trump’s cuts to US-funded aid have destabilised the sector and threatened US-dependent NGOs and UN agencies, in particular.
Israel claims Hamas is diverting aid. Like other sweeping claims Israel has made against humanitarians, it has provided little evidence of wide-spread diversion. The plan to take over aid distribution also comes as Israel has announced plans for an expanded campaign in Gaza and Israeli officials have vowed to indefinitely seize territory and potentially permanently displace the population.
Militarised hubs
Israel’s aid plans, circulated in memos and media reporting in recent days, would see the existing humanitarian distribution system dismantled and replaced by a handful of “logistics and distribution hubs” near Israeli military positions in central and southern Gaza.
The sites would be operated by private military security contractors “or select NGOs”, the UN paper noted, based on briefings with Israeli authorities.
Palestinians would be forced to walk long distances to retrieve rations, weighing 20 or more kilos, at overcrowded distribution sites where they’d be vetted by facial recognition screening, the briefing noted. Northern Gaza – where Israel officials have stated their intentions to forcibly displace the population – appears to be “deliberately excluded” from aid plans.
“After careful analysis and engagement, this mechanism appears practically unfeasible, incompatible with humanitarian principles and will create serious insecurity risks, all while failing to meet Israel's obligations under international law,” the briefing states.
Without the UN or established NGOs, the new aid distribution system would reportedly be run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly registered nonprofit with unclear humanitarian expertise. Its leaders include ex-members of the US military, a corporate advisor, and a security specialist.
Former World Food Programme boss David Beasley, appointed to head the UN agency during Trump’s first term as president, has been linked to the foundation as a potential advisor, according to a GHF briefing shared with UN officials and widely distributed. (Beasley’s involvement is listed as “to be finalised”).
The leadership team also includes Nate Mook, former CEO of World Central Kitchen, which recently announced it had shut its Gaza kitchens because there are no supplies due to Israeli blockades. Mook is listed as an advisor at the McCain Institute – where current WFP boss Cindy McCain is also listed as chairman emeritus on the board.
Edited by Eric Reidy.
