UN aid chief slams Israel s Gaza aid plan as cynical sideshow

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday said an Israeli plan aid distribution in the Gaza Strip was a cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement of Palestinians in the enclave.

He told the U.N. Security Council that no food, medicine, water or tents have entered the war-torn Palestinian enclave for more than 10 weeks.

We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians, said Fletcher.

No aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2. Israel has said it would not allow the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza until Palestinian militant group Hamas releases all remaining hostages.

At the end of last month the U.N. World Food Programme said it had run out of food stocks in Gaza, and U.S. President Donald Trump said that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the delivery of food and medicine.

Fletcher said the U.N. has met more than a dozen times with Israeli authorities to discuss their proposed aid distribution model to find a way to make it possible, stressing the minimum conditions needed for U.N. involvement. Those included the ability to deliver aid to all those in need wherever they are.

The Israeli-designed distribution modality is not the answer, he told the 15-member council.

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, Fletcher said.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid,