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Gaza Aid Worker: Israel’s New Shadowy Humanitarian Aid Scheme Is “Tool to Increase Suffering”

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A massacre of dozens of starving Palestinians waiting for aid occurred at a site operated by the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over the weekend. It is exactly what many observers warned about when they expressed skepticism over the U.S.- and Israel-backed aid scheme. “It’s not a real organization,” says Eyad Amawi, a coordinator for local NGOs based in Gaza who accuses the Israeli military of using the slow trickle of aid it allows into southern Gaza “as a tool to increase suffering.”

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This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: And we’re staying in Gaza with Eyad Amawi, coordinator for local — 

DR. VICTORIA ROSE: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: — NGOs there. Please be safe, Dr. Rose. His new piece for The Guardian is headlined “I’ve seen the reality of the new Israel-backed 'aid' for Gaza. It’s nothing more than a deadly PR stunt.”

I wanted to thank you for being with us and ask you, Eyad Amawi, if you can start off by talking about — I mean, the aid organization that has been — this shadowy group, Israeli-U.S., not clear who the mercenaries are, often with their faces covered, have several sites in Gaza. Explain what this is, what you wrote in The Guardian.

EYAD AMAWI: Yeah. Firstly, thank you for hosting me. Appreciate your attendance in covering the reality and reflecting the ongoing suffering here.

As you mentioned and I mentioned in my piece in The Guardian, the GHF organization is not a real organization, from my observation as an expert in the NGOs and coordination fields. They made chaos, created chaos, that they use it as a tool to increase the suffering.

What I have seen yesterday and the casualties that come from the Rafah and Netzarim access point also, a lot of casualties. They have starved for more than 90 days. And they went there to seek foods, and they are surprised by the airplanes and the drones and the bombing of smoking. That’s a horrible time. As I witnessed here with a lot of peoples, the testimonies, it’s horrible. Look, they use — nothing exists over the ground. When we compare their works with another U.N. organizations that are related to international community, nothing here exists over the ground. From my observation, this is — they use this as a tool to increase suffering.

You can imagine, when the elderly people and the child here cannot achieve that long, far bases and with the danger and threaten their life to go to get some food from there, a lot of thousands of people here will not get a chance to achieve any amount of foods, even though it was they announced in the media and the fake Facebook pages. Our people here have recognized real reality, and there’s no choice without the U.N. organization have to intervene directly with the unconditional aid to come into the Gaza.

We haven’t time. From my experts, from my statistics, I have the indication that more 60,000 children will die by this increase in suffering and by famine. There is no sweet waters here, so there is no time to accept the claimings for the GHF or other parties that they will distribute food for 2 million-and-a-half people here in Gaza. The time is maybe ended at any time. Our children here come to the ER, as Dr. Victoria mentioned, with emaciated bodies. They haven’t any ability to walk in the street. Look, from my testimonies, I swear, our children here haven’t ability to walk just a few meters. So, my observation here, we haven’t time to still waiting the GHF to establish another warehouses, and all of our NGOs community refuse to deal with them.

I also think they haven’t any database. They have no system, no rules. Randomizing the distribution systems cause the chaos that is still happening at their station. You can imagine, when the GHF put their warehouses especially in Rafah and Netzarim access, this is close to the military bases that’s related to the Israeli occupation forces, and they protect them. What’s happening yesterday, it’s a massacre, adding to the previous massacres. This situation must stop now. The ceasefire must be implemented to enable us to save our children’s lives and to our people’s lives.

AMY GOODMAN: Eyad Amawi, I want to thank you so much for being with us, coordinator for local NGOs, based in Gaza. We’ll link to your piece for The Guardian headlined “I’ve seen the reality of the new Israel-backed 'aid' for Gaza. It’s nothing more than a deadly PR stunt.”

Next up, we go to commencement ceremonies in the United States, where those who are graduating, commencement speakers, are speaking out around Palestine. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Black Waters” by Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman in our Democracy Now! studio soon after they had performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where they had unfurled banners protesting President Trump’s takeover of the renowned national cultural institution.

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