Israel endorses Trump food plan for Gaza but details are scarce

Dan Williams, Bloomberg News on May 11, 2025

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Israel embraced a plan by U.S. President Donald Trump for a phased resumption of food distribution to Gaza’s civilians that would prevent it being seized by Hamas. It was unclear, though, when the program would start, or who would fund or implement it.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee went public with the plan on Friday, saying the aim was at first to feed half the enclave’s 2.3 million Palestinians and then the rest, without direct involvement in the handouts of Israeli troops who’ve been waging a 19-month-old war against Hamas.

Since a ceasefire ended on March 1, Israel has imposed an unprecedented aid blockade on the Gaza Strip in a so-far fruitless bid to pressure the Iran-backed Islamist group to free hostages. Relief agencies warn that famine is imminent, and the crisis may cloud Trump’s trip to the Gulf this week to drum up U.S. deal-making.

Israel “fully endorses” the Trump aid plan, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told a news conference on Sunday.

“It will enable aid to go directly to the people. Hamas must not be allowed to get their hands on it,” he said. “IDF soldiers will not allocate aid. They will secure the perimeter.”

Sa’ar said Israel “would like to cooperate with as many countries and NGOs as possible on the matter” — language that suggested the plan was a work in progress.

Huckabee also said the plan would “require the partnership not only of governments, but of NGOs, charitable organizations, nonprofits from around the world.”

“We are not prepared to name them yet,” he said. “As to when it will start, we all would hope the answer to that is very soon.”

Funding, he said, “will come from every source that we can receive,” adding that donors lined up so far had asked not to be identified.

Bloomberg has reported an Israeli plan to set up a handful of distribution points in a buffer zone in south Gaza to which heads of Palestinian families would be admitted for rations while the army excluded anyone deemed a Hamas member.

The U.S. and many other governments list Hamas as a terrorist group.

Huckabee sought to distance the Israeli plan from the Trump plan: “This is not an IDF or an Israeli operation that would cause some potential partners to say ‘We don’t want to be involved.’”

U.N. agencies have voiced concern that a limited resumption of aid distribution would be insufficient for Gazans’ needs, push civilians into small areas and politicize aid. Huckabee said the Trump plan was designed to be scaled up quickly.

“Let’s be clear what the danger is,” he said. “The danger is not doing anything. Something is being done. So we invite people who have been concerned about it to join in the process.”

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