UAE: No support for Trump aid plan "as it stands"

The UAE, a key provider of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, said that it refuses to work with the Trump administration's plan for providing aid separate from Hamas "as it stands," according to a report today (Friday) by Axios.

The Trump administration has been working to form a Gaza Humanitarian Fund or GHF which would provide aid to 1.2 million Palestinians at four key stations, indirectly protected by the IDF. This would prevent Hamas from being able to steal the aid for its own members or to resell the free aid to the public to remain financially solvent.

Israel has already reportedly signed a contract with an American company to provide the aid, but the United States wants buy-in from the UN and important countries to ensure it does not pay the tab entirely by itself.

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir made it unequivocally clear to the government that he refuses to allow the IDF to provide aid directly, saying he would not endanger his soldiers in the face of an "incited, hungry mob."