() Former British military officer and international journalist Andrew Fox was recently on the ground in war-torn Gaza to observe an American nonprofit aid organization distribute food to residents.
He joined “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Friday to describe the generally successful efforts of the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and to suggest ways that sorely needed food and medicine can get to residents without being intercepted by Hamas.
“It’s a very chaotic situation. I don’t think it’s how you would design an aid program if you had one from scratch and you were doing everything perfectly,” Fox said. “But the bottom line is, that food got there. It got there protected. It wasn’t intercepted by Hamas, and it did make it to the people.”
Israel has faced increasing pressure in its war with Hamas to curtail suffering as images of starving people have emerged from Gaza. Observers say much of the aid meant for the populace has been hijacked by Hamas.
Fox says GHF convoys are not meddled with because they have U.S. special forces veterans protecting the trucks.
He confirms reports that Israeli soldiers have fired guns in proximity to civilians. Fox says the military personnel he observed fired live rounds for crowd-control purposes, “which, as a former professional soldier, I’m not wholly comfortable with.”
He added that Hamas tries to draw fire from Israeli soldiers by “driving people towards their bases or firing at the Israelis from within the crowd.”
Ideally, Fox said, civilians would not have to travel long distances through Israeli forces to get to the humanitarian aid. A better system, he said, would enable “vetted, safe people who they can trust” to take supplies, under protection, to community distribution points.
