TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's Cabinet approved a plan to seize more land in Gaza and move Palestinians to a designated zone with food and supplies provided by U.S. security contractors using facial recognition screening.
The aid proposal would be a major shift in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which the United Nations rejects as inhumane. The plan would shutter hundreds of soup kitchens and aid centers across the territory, restricting food supply to an Israeli military-guarded area in southern Gaza.
A senior defense official said the new military maneuver and aid plan, titled Operation Gideon's Chariots, would be put on hold until President Trump completes his visit to Gulf Arab countries next week to allow the chance for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
Details of Israel's proposal were shared with NPR by six people, including current and former U.S. and Israeli officials, with knowledge of Israel's aid plans. They spoke on condition of anonymity to divulge elements of the aid plan that have not been formally announced.
Israel says the plan would isolate Hamas from aid distribution and weaken the group, which continues to hold 59 living and dead hostages taken in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, according to Israeli government figures. Israel's retaliation has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say.
The United Nations and major groups currently running aid operations in Gaza, briefed by Israel on the plans, said they would not cooperate with the plans.
"It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic — as part of a military strategy," the United Nations and its aid partners in Gaza said in a joint statement. "We will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality."
Israel's plan to resume limited food to Gaza
Israel has been banning food and supplies for more than two months, in the longest complete blockade it has ever imposed on Gaza. Bakeries and food kitchens have shut down, hunger is widespread and children have suffered malnourishment, the U.N. says.
The U.N. said half of Gaza's population, about a million people, ate just one meal a day from charity kitchens before they ran out of supplies and shut down.
Israel says the new plan is the only way it will permit food back into Gaza, three of the people who spoke to NPR said.
The new aid zone would include around four to ten aid distribution hubs, located in between two Israeli-held strips of land in southern Gaza, the Morag and Netzarim corridors, according to people briefed on the plans.
Israeli soldiers would guard the periphery but not take part in handing out aid. An American security contractor, Safe Reach Solutions, would run logistics in cooperation with a newly established foundation in Switzerland, three people familiar with the plans told NPR. Neither of the groups has commented on its expected role.
The limited aid distribution zones would not be accessible to large populations of Palestinians spread throughout Gaza, the U.N. and aid groups said in their joint statement.
In northern Gaza, resident Bassem Shniwrah criticized the reported aid plan.
"Absolute crazy," he said. "We would be going 30 or 40 kilometers to take food parcels. And they told us it's, like, dry food, not fresh food, which made us feel like animals."
The Biden administration rejected a similar plan, a former official says
The Trump administration did not immediately comment on Israel's planned changes, but President Trump has said food needs to get into Gaza. Trump is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.
A former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door deliberations, said Israel tried to implement a version of the aid plan while Biden was in office, but the administration opposed it as a violation of the international laws of war by manipulating humanitarian aid for military gains.
The Trump administration has not imposed the same pressure on Israel regarding its conduct in Gaza.
Israel is calling up more soldiers
Israel has announced it has begun calling up tens of thousands of reservist soldiers to support the expansion of the Gaza offensive.
Far-right Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday said the new plan marks a permanent policy shift.
"We are conquering Gaza to stay — no more in-and-out. This is a war for victory, and it's time to stop being afraid of the word 'occupation.' We are defeating Hamas — we will not surrender, they will surrender," said Smotrich.
Israeli officials say the new military plans would advance efforts to encourage Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza, a notion Trump articulated earlier this year.
Anas Baba contributed from Gaza City.
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