As Israeli-American businessman Mordechai Kahana, whose firm Global Delivery Company (GDC) is bidding for the contract to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, said that the Israeli cabinet did not formally make a decision on the initiative on Sunday, since this was the prerogative of the country's Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the report read on Tuesday.
If GDC wins the contract, the actual aid deliveries to Gaza will be carried out by a British security firm currently operating in Iraq, the report read, adding that the British firm will need one month to deploy. The initiative reportedly envisages a pilot scheme in which supplies would be delivered through the Erez crossing on the Israel-Gaza border to a secure storage facility in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, and from there delivered to nearby distribution points.
The aid will be distributed by lightly armed teams in small armored trucks, which will have riot control equipment, including plastic bullets and water cannons, the newspaper reported. In addition, there will also be a reserve rapid reaction force that will intervene with more serious weapons if the aid distribution teams come under attack.
Earlier in October, the Israeli parliamentary committee approved a bill that would ban UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory, under the pretext of the UNRWA staff’s alleged participation in the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.