What a nasty thing it has turned out to be.  It involved subversion – Israel’s desire to ignore international tenets of humanitarian aid in favour of expediency and security – and the naked show of violent desperation.  Via the shoddy US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation company, distribution of necessaries in the Gaza Strip through the organisation’s delivery arm, Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), has been inadequate and selective.  

SRS is a disreputable outfit, one lacking a résumé in humanitarian aid.  Its prowess, rather, lies in the realm of military intelligence.  A report from Ynet News describes its functions as “operating roadblocks, processing visual data from cameras, drones and satellites and using it to identify Hamas operatives and armed individuals.”  In both practice and spirit, this seedy, cynical enterprise violates the four essential principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence.

The four sites of distribution, located in the Tel Sultan area of Rafah and the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City, have been picked for reasons of control, surveillance and forced displacement.  The official reason is that doing so ensures that no aid ends up in the eager hands of Hamas.  “The establishment of the distribution centres,” went the first official comment on the distribution points by the IDF, “took place over the last few months,........

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