Israeli-backed group seeks at least $30 million from US for aid distribution in Gaza

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER WASHINGTON AP An American-led group has sought the Trump administration to step in with an initial million so it can continue its much scrutinized and Israeli-backed aid distribution in Gaza according to three U S personnel and the organization s application for the money That application obtained by The Associated Press also offers specific of the first financial details about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its work in the territory The foundation says it has provided millions of meals in southern Gaza since late May to Palestinians as Israel s blockade and military campaign have driven the Gaza to the brink of famine But the effort has seen near-daily fatal shootings of Palestinians trying to reach the distribution sites Major humanitarian groups also accuse the foundation of cooperating with Israel s objectives in the -month-old war against Hamas in a way that violates humanitarian principles The group s funding application was submitted to the U S Agency for International Growth according to the U S functionaries who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity The application was being processed this week as potentially one of the agency s last acts before the Republican administration absorbs USAID into the State Department as part of deep cuts in foreign assistance Two of the bureaucrats declared they were narrated the administration has decided to award the money They disclosed the processing was moving forward with little of the review and auditing normally required before Washington makes foreign assistance grants to an organization In a letter submitted Thursday as part of the application Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secretary Loik Henderson declared his organization was grateful for the opportunity to partner with you to sustain and scale life-saving operations in Gaza Neither the State Department nor Henderson promptly responded to requests for comment Saturday Israel says the foundation is the linchpin of a new aid system to wrest control from the United Nations which Israel alleges has been infiltrated by Hamas and other humanitarian groups The foundation s use of fixed sites in southern Gaza is in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s plan to use aid to concentrate the territory s more than million people in the south freeing Israel to fight Hamas elsewhere Aid workers fear it s a step toward another of Netanyahu s society goals removing Palestinians from Gaza in voluntary migrations that aid groups and human rights organizations say would amount to coerced departures The U N and a great number of leading nonprofit groups accuse the foundation of stepping into aid distribution with little transparency or humanitarian experience and crucially without a commitment to the principles of neutrality and operational independence in war zones Since the organization started operations several hundred Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in near-daily shootings as they tried to reach aid sites according to Gaza s Wellbeing Ministry Bystanders say Israeli troops regularly fire heavy barrages toward the crowds in an attempt to control them The Israeli military has denied firing on civilians It says it fired warning shots in several instance and fired directly at a insufficient persons of interest who ignored warnings and approached its forces It s unclear who is funding the new operation in Gaza No donor has come forward The State Department announced this past week that the United States is not funding it In documents supporting its application the group commented it received nearly million for May operations from other governing body donors but gives no details It expects million from those unspecific administration donors for June in addition to the hoped-for million from the United States The application shows no funding from private philanthropy or any other source AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this account