Aid Trucks Enter Gaza For First Time In Months As Trump’s Distribution Plan Heats Up

Aid trucks entered Gaza for the first time in nearly three months on Monday as President Donald Trump prepares to implement the American-backed aid distribution plan.

The last wave of aid trucks entered Gaza on March 2, before Israel ceased deliveries in an effort to prevent Hamas from taking advantage of the aid and prolonging the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the resumption of aid following the Trump administration announcing a plan to have American contractors pass out aid in secure zones to attempt to prevent Hamas from stealing it.

“On the recommendation of the IDF and based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

He added that any such crisis would endanger the new Israeli offensive to defeat Hamas, “Operation Gideon’s Chariots.” The offensive so far has included an increase in ground forces, air strikes, and evacuation orders for Gaza civilians in an effort to combat Hamas.

Hundreds of Hamas targets have been struck since Friday, including anti-tank missile launch posts, weapons storage facilities, booby-trapped structures, tunnels, and more, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

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“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists,” the prime minister’s office statement said.

The American-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is expected to begin distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza by the end of the month, but requested that international aid groups be allowed to resume deliveries immediately, Jewish News Syndicate reported.

“Through the GHF, we are building a secure, transparent system to deliver aid directly and effectively—without diversion or delay and in strict adherence to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence,” GHF executive director Jake Wood said in a statement.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced Trump’s aid plan earlier this month.

“President Trump has made very clear that one of the most urgent things that needs to happen is humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Huckabee said. “President Trump wants food distributed in Gaza safely and efficiently.”

Under the plan, Israel will be involved in providing military security but will not be tasked with bringing the food into Gaza or distributing it, Huckabee said.

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The companies expected to pass out the aid are Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions. Both companies helped Egyptians with supervising the checking of vehicles passing through southern to northern Gaza in January when the ceasefire went into effect, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“Their role will remain on the perimeter as is necessary to make sure that those who are bringing the food in and distributing the food are kept safe and out of harm’s way in the midst of a war zone,” the ambassador said.

The plan so far includes delivering food in a way that attempts to keep Hamas from taking control of it by creating distribution centers that could initially feed “perhaps over a million people” before being beefed up to feed the entire population.

“The next factor is that all of this be done in a way where Hamas cannot get its hands on it,” Huckabee said. “Nobody is interested in helping Hamas because Hamas has taken food that was intended to help very desperate citizens and stolen it from them, sold it on the black market, and then took the money to buy weaponry to murder more people.”

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The announcement drew criticism from Israelis who say the move undermines Israel’s bid to stop Hamas from stealing and profiting from the goods, and to pressure the terror group to release the 59 remaining hostages.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir denounced the American plan, claiming that the hostages have no humanitarian aid and that “any humanitarian aid that enters the Strip, certainly all of it, will fuel Hamas and give it oxygen.”