RAFAH — Displaced people in Gaza’s southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah say that delegates accredited by international and local aid groups have demanded funds for delivering free humanitarian aid to Palestinians suffering from the war since Oct. 7.
Daraj has documented a number of cases of such demands for cash. When confronted, aid groups' representatives did not deny the practice, saying that the funds are needed to cover warehousing and transportation of the aid they deliver.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
Displaced people said aid workers demand varying amounts of money for packages, and refuse to hand over the supplies to displaced people if they don't pay.
A meal of two eggs and a package of cookies, for example, is delivered for 3 shekels (81 cents). A 1-liter of oil costs 5 shekels ($1.34); and a full package from the World Food Program is given for 29 shekels ($7.78), according to displaced people.
Those Gazans in need said they have no other option but to pay the representatives. They cite the severe shortages of food, drinking water and other necessities after nearly six months of devastating war.
Israel declared war in response to Hamas' unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others were taken hostage. Israel responded with a campaign of airstrikes and a ground offensive that have left some 33,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The war has displaced over 80% of Gaza’s population, caused widespread damage and has sparked a humanitarian crisis. The U.N. and international aid agencies say virtually the entire Gaza population is struggling to get enough food, with hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine, especially in the isolated northern half of Gaza.
The Daraj investigation was carried out before, and is unrelated to, the killing Monday of seven aid workers from the humanitarian NGO World Central Kitchen in an Israeli air strike. Israel has opened an investigation into what it says was a "tragic error" of misidentification.
“Extortion and theft”
Mohamed Abu Rizq, a displaced Palestinian, accused representatives of aid groups in a displacement camp in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, of “extortion and theft.”
Having sheltered in the Mawasi since December, Rizq said a six-member committee was formed to communicate with aid groups on behalf of 460 displaced people. Their main aim is to ensure an orderly distribution of aid to the displaced.
In the first month, he said, they distributed aid for free since there is no cost for delivery by the aid groups. “They didn’t pay anything for warehousing and transportation,” he said. Then Rizq says they began demanding money from registered families to receive their share of aid. It amounts to “theft and blackmail” of displaced people who are in dire need, he said.
There is no fixed system.
“It is unreasonable for the delegates to ask for 5 shekels in exchange for delivering one bottle of vegetable oil to one family, and two shekels in exchange for delivering two eggs,” he said. “This is clear theft and must stop and the party providing aid must review what is happening.”
Rizq estimates that the six-member committee collects 3,400 shekels ($900) a day for delivering aid to their area of responsibility.
An aid group representative, who asked to use the pseudonym Abu Ahmed, said the representatives can’t afford the necessary distribution and other costs. He said such funds are used to pay for workers who offload the aid and to cover transportation and warehousing.
He said there is no fixed system for collecting such funds. “It depends on the representatives themselves,” he said.
UNRWA Demands
In Rafah, on the southernmost corner of Gaza along the border with Egypt, a displaced person, Mohamed Moammar, gave a similar account, saying that representatives of aid groups usually demand funds at the moment that they distribute aid to displaced families.
“We are forced to pay,” he said, “because if we do not pay, we will not receive the food ration or cleaning supplies.”
Khaled Abu Odeh, another displaced from northern Gaza, said aid supplies from UNRWA or other agencies arrived at the representatives’ tent in the camp for displaced people in Rafah. “There is no cost,” he said, “but they demand families to pay.”
He said there is no oversight on those representatives. “No one knows why they collect this money,” he added.
UAE-sponsored charity
When asked, the government media office in Gaza said it did not have any details about payment for aid. In the journalists' tents next to the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, the UAE-sponsored charity provided dates and water for displaced people at the start of the holy month of Ramadan which began on March 11.
It's the responsibility of the beneficiary party.
The journalists' committee that handled the distribution demanded 5 shekels for each package of aid, said journalists Alam Al-Din Sadiq and Abdul Salam Murtaja. “Collecting money in exchange for an aid package is unacceptable,” Murtaja said,. “This aid is intended for the journalists for free."
Sherif Al-Nayrab, head of the media committee at the UAE-sponsored charity, said they are not responsible for the transportation of aid. “It’s the responsibility of the beneficiary party and we have nothing to do with it,” he said.
