Why Israel’s Gaza aid plan is failing amid chaos
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Welcome to The World in 10. In an increasingly uncertain world, this is The Times' daily podcast dedicated to global security. Today with me, Stuart Willey and Toby Seeley. There have been chaotic scenes in Gaza as an Israeli-backed foundation began distributing food, with reports at least one person died and dozens more injured as Israeli troops fired what they say were warning shots. In the

Even before that chaos, the aid plan was under fire from many, including the big aid agencies and the UN. Today, the head of the UN Agency for Palestinians says the plan is wasteful, describing it as a distraction from atrocities. To talk us through Israel's aid plan, we're joined by Mark Seddon. He's director of the Center for UN Studies at the University of Buckingham and worked at the UN with former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Mark, what do you make of these chaotic scenes? Well, if you recall, UNRWA, the main relief organisation which has been delivering aid to Palestinians throughout historic Palestine, if you like, since 1948, warned of exactly this scenario. So did the World Food Programme.

and many, many other agencies, all, by the way, are refusing to cooperate with this new system. I mean, they said that essentially it allows the Israeli government to weaponize aid because they control who gets it. But also, of course, what we saw is that aid is being, under this new system, people being corralled in places

Well, in cages, essentially, where they might be handed, if they were lucky, a box of food. The whole area was completely overrun with huge numbers of desperate people. The system didn't work. What UNRWA and the other agencies were saying is that they know how to get aid to people. They did it in the last ceasefire highly successfully to over 2 million people. This is pinprick aid, and they can't even get this right.

But as far as the UN is concerned, it weaponises aid. It doesn't get it to... And of course, you know, if you're disabled or you're wounded or you're elderly or you're a child, you have to somehow get to these distribution points. So it's only the able-bodied who can get there and fight. And having witnessed some of this sort of thing happening before in Haiti, when aid was thrown out in bags out of backs of lorries, I can see what's happening.

Why would Israel want to create a parallel humanitarian aid distribution system to the one that has been around for decades? Well, it's this long-wanted UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians, out of the occupied Palestinian territories. I mean, this has been a long-standing aim.

If you call, Israel did claim that UNRWA had been involved, that people who worked for UNRWA had been involved with Hamas and the attacks.

There was an independent investigation. I seem to recall that 12 people were dismissed. But I mean, the idea that an organization that employs over 30,000 people is some kind of Hamas front is for the birds. Israel does not want the UN in Gaza. It doesn't want the UN anywhere in the occupied Palestinian territories, East Jerusalem, the West Bank.

It doesn't want journalists either. It doesn't actually want us to know what it's doing. That's the bottom line. Israel's argument may be bypassing the UN and the major NGOs isn't a problem as long as food and medical aid is getting through after that long blockade. Well, of course, yeah, you said it yourself. I mean, 12 weeks and nothing going in. I mean, that is actually a whole series of crimes against humanity in itself.

But what they're saying in this is nonsensical because, of course, they're not providing the aid. Don't forget, Israel's not providing any of it. It's outsourced it to some organisation. Essentially, it seems to be a bunch of Americans coming over on flights, you know, with revolvers in their belts. It's not even serious. It's not even serious. And, of course...

I think what the West has to realise now increasingly that, I mean, each time the agencies tell us it's getting worse, it is getting worse and it's going to get worse and worse and worse. They can't provide enough food and humanitarian aid to people in Gaza, the Israelis, through this new system. It's not going to work. They know it's not going to work because we know, unfortunately, because we've heard reports

From some of the ministers in Netanyahu's government, their aim is actually to clear Palestinians out of Gaza altogether. And they've killed already 50-odd thousand of them. Some Palestinians are also staying away despite UN warnings that they're facing critical famine because they say they're worried about compulsory biometric data collection, things like facial scans at these aid points. Is that a fair concern?

Well, I don't know. I'm not there. But when we have seen the march of technology in this, what has been described as a war for much of the past 19 months, but to many of us hasn't really looked like a war at all. It's a direct assault and primarily affecting civilians and all sorts of new technologies have been used.

including the use of drones and AI. We understand that, you know, it's very often it's an individual who finally makes the decision to press the button to blow up a tent or blow up a building. But AI seems to suggest it's OK if you if you might hit somebody from Hamas and their 20 odd civilian casualties. Well, that's part and parcel of it. So we have seen

We do know that technology is being used in this way. And I would say that, you know, we are in this country complicit in

Because we are allowing these flights to go from RAF Akrotiri to gather material, surveillance material, which we have told the Israelis is essentially to help them find the hostages. Of course, they've been singly not very good at doing all of that. Much better when they've negotiated, they've released lots of hostages. But we've been providing them a lot of intelligence, but the same intelligence is not being made available to those hostages.

For instance, who lost their relatives from World Kitchens, British people who've lost their relatives. This material, we're providing them with information ourselves. So we're caught up with this intelligence war. We're complicit in all of this.

As we record this conversation, the UN Security Council is about to meet and the issue of Gaza aid is right at the top of their agenda. Is there anything the Security Council can do? I always fall back on this, but I feel increasingly bad about it because I do think that the current Secretary General has said

really not been as strong as he should have been and should be. And I know that his term is beginning to come to an end. But frankly, I mean, I would be surprised to learn that he's even had a conversation with President Trump yet.

And my own view is that he should have been much, much more forceful. He actually should have moved himself and his office to Egypt for this duration. I mean, this is such a vitally important issue for the United Nations, for the international law, for all countries who believe in a rights-based world. But, I mean, you recall the Security Council has had some four attempts –

to pass a resolution on a ceasefire, the last one being in November, each one vetoed by the United States, by the Biden administration.

So it all does boil down in the end to what the permanent members will do. We keep on hearing that President Trump is appalled by seeing these images. It's be good to Gaza. But we haven't really seen anything concrete from him. And by the way, it's not just him, but the Arab League. I mean, the Arab world is sitting by, has failed the Palestinians. The EU has sat by. Other countries, ours included, have been very active in supporting Israel. So

So we all are complicit in a way, and we all really do need to be putting maximum pressure on our governments to make sure that if there are votes in the Security Council, they do not veto them. If we look at Gaza more widely, we hear plenty of voices, especially in Arab nations, in the Global South, critical.

of what they see as UN inaction over the humanitarian toll. Can the UN come back from this? Or is the reputation of the institution cratered, perhaps for a generation?

I think the UN is in a very, very difficult situation, and I think its reputation has suffered very heavily. But, you know, in this, whether it's a weakness of the leadership, that's partly it, but also, you know, we're seeing threatened cuts to all the UN budgets, so that when that happens, the United States hasn't paid its budget for this year, so they're all scurrying around making cutbacks and looking at their own situations. So the institution itself is in deep, deep trouble. But I think that many countries in the global south are

Yes, they'll be saying the UN this and the UN that, but they can still see that it's a parliament. You can go to the General Assembly and get votes through. You do have international institutions like the International Court of Justice, which South Africa and Brazil and other countries have worked with very carefully and what have you. I think that what we need to think about in this country is our reputation. We think about our reputation with other European countries and the West.

We need also to be thinking about the Global South, because the Global South has been taking lectures from us for generations on human rights, quite rightly so very often.

But the global south looking at us now is really a bunch of hypocrites. And our reputation is really, really sullied by all of this. And, you know, what's particularly embarrassing, as far as people like me are concerned, I think, is that, you know, a country like Britain, which has had a major role, essentially, you know, we were supposed under a mandate supposed to safeguard the rights of all people who lived in historic Palestine, whether they be Jewish, Muslim, Christian or whatever. And we failed.

Our historic imprint in that area would suggest that we should be playing a much more prominent and progressive and humanitarian role. And I think we've failed so far badly. Mark, thank you. Mark Seddon, Director of the Centre for UN Studies at the University of Buckingham. That's it from us. Thank you for taking 10 minutes to stay on top of the world with the help of The Times. See you tomorrow.

Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price to the tune of $5,000 a year.

Thank you.

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