Controversial new Gaza aid group isn’t screening recipients — despite being established to keep supplies from Hamas

The embattled Israeli-backed aid group that began operating in Gaza earlier this week is not screening Palestinians at aid distribution sites, despite Israeli officials saying that additional security measures were a core reason for the creation of the new program.

The embattled Israeli-backed aid group that began operating in Gaza earlier this week is not screening Palestinians at aid distribution sites, despite Israeli officials saying that additional security measures were a core reason for the creation of the new program. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is operating in the strip with US and Israeli approval, was established amid Israeli accusations that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza and profiting off its sale. Humanitarian organizations have said there is no evidence tying significant diversion of aid to Hamas, and Israel has presented none publicly. But it is those claims that have prompted Israel to seek to replace traditional humanitarian organizations with GHF, which they said would prevent Hamas from obtaining the aid. Yet GHF appears to have fewer safeguards in place to ensure aid reaches those in need than United Nations aid organizations, like UNRWA, which typically does check identification and relies on a database of registered families when distributing aid. A journalist working with CNN who entered one distribution site and multiple Palestinians who collected aid at several sites said they faced no security or identification screenings before entering. Several eyewitnesses said criminal gangs and merchants were taking advantage of the situation, paying people to make trips into the distribution sites to collect aid boxes they could then resell. CNN video filmed outside the aid site shows several groups of young men hauling away aid boxes on donkey carts, while hiding their faces with their shirts and asking not to be filmed. “There is not enough aid distributed in Gaza yet … so our focus is on feeding hungry people, not checking IDs,” a GHF spokesperson told CNN. “We have no knowledge nor have witnessed any criminal behavior.”