What is the new US-backed Gaza aid plan and why doesn't the UN like it?

WHAT IS THE GAZA HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION?

Aid deliveries in Gaza will be overseen by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established in February in Switzerland, according to the Geneva commercial registry.

The foundation intends to work with private U.S. security and logistics firms - UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions - according to a source familiar with the plan. A second source familiar with the plan said the GHF has already received more than $100 million in commitments. It was not immediately clear where the money was coming from.

Senior U.S. officials were working with Israel to enable the GHF to start work, acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the Security Council earlier this month, urging the U.N. and aid groups to cooperate. Israel has said it will allow the foundation's work without being involved in aid deliveries.

HOW WOULD THE NEW PLAN WORK?

According to a GHF document circulating among the aid community earlier this month, the foundation would initially operate from four "secure distribution sites" that could each serve 300,000 people with food, water and hygiene kits. Israeli officials have said those hubs would be in Gaza's south.

The private U.S. companies would transport the aid into Gaza to the hubs where it would be then distributed by aid groups - not the private companies, the first source said. Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon has said a few aid groups have agreed to work with the GHF. The names of those groups are not yet known.

Israel has agreed to expand the number of distribution sites and find ways for aid to get to civilians who are unable to reach a distribution site, the foundation has said.

The foundation has asked Israel's military to identify "locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within 30 days." GHF has also said it would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel.

WHY WON'T THE U.N. WORK WITH THE NEW DISTRIBUTION MODEL?

The United Nations says the U.S.-backed distribution plan does not meet its long-held principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has said time should not be wasted on the alternative proposal.

In a briefing to the Security Council, he explained what was wrong with the Israel-initiated plan: "It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm ... It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza, while leaving other dire needs unmet. It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip."

WHY HAS AN ALTERNATIVE AID DISTRIBUTION PLAN BEEN PROPOSED?

Israel stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 after accusing Hamas of stealing aid, which the Palestinian fighters deny, and demanding the release of all remaining hostages taken during an October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. That assault triggered the war, which Gaza authorities say has killed 53,000 people.

In early April, Israel proposed what it described as "a structured monitoring and aid entry mechanism" for Gaza. It was swiftly rejected by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said it risked "further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour."

Since then pressure had been growing on Israel to allow aid deliveries to resume. A global hunger monitor last week warned that half a million people face starvation - about a quarter of the population in the enclave - and U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving in Gaza."

Amid the stalemate over Israel's plan, Washington backed the newly-created GHF to oversee aid distribution. The GHF then announced last week that it aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May.

In the meantime, Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume under the existing distribution model - with five trucks entering Gaza on Monday, which Fletcher described as "a drop in the ocean." The U.N. said on Tuesday it has received Israeli approval for about 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza.

WHAT WAS THE EXISTING AID DELIVERY PLAN?

Throughout the conflict, the United Nations has described its humanitarian operation in Gaza as opportunistic - facing problems with Israel's military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza and looting by armed gangs.

But the U.N. has said its aid distribution system works and that was particularly proven during a two-month ceasefire, which was abandoned by Israel in mid-March. Israel would first inspect and approve aid. It was then dropped off on the Gaza side of the border, where it was picked up by the U.N. and distributed.

While the foundation has faced criticism from humanitarian groups for its limited reach and nature of the supplies it is set to provide, it is still "better than nothing," said Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University.

The strategy behind the new plan appears to be aimed at providing just enough aid to Gaza's civilian population in an attempt to more precisely target Hamas and its operatives with starvation, said de Waal in a Reuters interview on Wednesday (May 21).

He said this approach mirrors counterinsurgency strategies previously used by the British in Malaya and the Americans in Vietnam, which sought to isolate insurgents from the civilian population.

"The Israelis are doing it in a more systematic and much more sophisticated manner than has ever been done before. It remains to be seen whether it will actually work," said de Waal.

A global hunger monitor warned last week that half a million people face starvation - about a quarter of the population in the enclave - and U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving in Gaza."

The stories from the ground in Gaza are "harrowing", said the head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children International, Alexandra Saieh, on Wednesday (May 21).

"Families are being forced to feed their children everything from animal feed, flour, flour ground up in sand, leaves, grass, whatever they can find just to keep their children alive," said Saieh.

The reduction of aid distribution sites could effectively exclude the most vulnerable, including the elderly, orphaned children and the disabled, from accessing aid, added Saieh.

She highlighted the significant challenges that these vulnerable groups in Gaza would face in having to travel long distances to receive aid, especially in areas that could potentially be militarised.

Israel has agreed to expand the number of distribution sites and find ways for aid to get to civilians who are unable to reach a distribution site, the foundation has said.