Yair Lapid: Israel hid behind a nonexistent European country in funding Gaza aid.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid revealed on Monday that the "European country" that reportedly funded the food aid project for the Gaza Strip is none other than Israel itself.

“The government that made the decision, its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who fears his far-right base, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who paid $100 million from the state budget, and Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Minister of National Security), who turned a blind eye—they are all cowards in front of their own people, so they are hiding behind a European country that does not exist,” Lapid said in a speech to the Knesset.

He added that if a European country were funding aid to Gaza, it would not have hesitated to announce it, "because aid to Gaza today is an honorable step, because the images coming out of there are shocking and painful."

He continued, "Israel, which should have been proud of such a humanitarian step, is hiding and daring not to admit that it provided this grant, because it has filled its public with hostility and hatred. So what does it say now?"

Others saw the Israeli government's donation as evidence that it had failed to find anyone to believe in its sincere intentions, and was forced to finance the aid itself.

Some say that Israel is "sabotaging" the project by controlling it through shell or fictitious companies, established and managed by Israel but registered as American companies, headed by former American or Israeli security officers.

Analysts and experts doubt the success of these companies in distributing aid, pointing to the resignation of Jake Wood, head of the private Gaza Relief Foundation, which is supported by the United States and Israel and is tasked with distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

Wood, a former US Marine and Nobel laureate executive director of the World Kitchen Foundation, announced in a statement that he was resigning because the organization could not adhere to "the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon."

intelligence activity

The Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip said that Israel is using the planned aid distribution mechanism as a cover for security and intelligence operations in the Strip, and warned that it poses a direct threat to the work of international organizations.

The Interior Ministry stated on Monday that Israel is seeking to implement its plan to displace Palestinians through the "Gaza Relief Foundation." The statement said: "The anticipated Israeli mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza is completely unacceptable, and we call on our people in the Strip not to cooperate with it. Under the cover of the Israeli-funded "Gaza Foundation," the occupation will use aid distribution as a security and intelligence framework, and attempt to access information using modern technologies."

The ministry added, "The new aid distribution mechanism requires citizens to travel long distances to receive aid, as part of the occupation's policies to redistribute the population within the Gaza Strip, in implementation of its plans to fully control the Strip, including the displacement plan, which has so far failed to materialize."

Doubts and investigation

Two investigations published simultaneously in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the American newspaper The New York Times on Sunday cast additional doubt on the identity of the Gaza Relief Foundation, indicating that it is of Israeli origin, not American, as its founders claim. In fact, the investigations revealed that its founders are directly linked to Netanyahu's office.

Despite statements by US Ambassador to Tel Aviv Mike Huckabee two weeks ago that "it is a complete mistake to consider the project an Israeli plan," Haaretz quoted multiple sources, including Israeli officials, as saying that "the plan is essentially the product of Israeli engineering," and that Israeli companies and individuals are behind the American companies undertaking the work.

The newspaper confirmed that these companies are run by Israeli security and business figures, some of whom are close to Netanyahu.

The journalistic investigation stated that "the outlines of the distribution plan were drawn up without regard for humanitarian considerations, adherence to international law, and aid regulations. It was devised outside the reach of Israeli security agencies, through former security figures and businessmen, amid murky funding and mounting international criticism."