The Danish Refugee Council is gravely alarmed by the escalating dismantling of Gaza’s humanitarian infrastructure, the obstruction of principled aid delivery and the continuation of a militarized distribution model.
Posted on 04 Jun 2025
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is gravely alarmed by the escalating dismantling of Gaza’s humanitarian infrastructure, the obstruction of principled aid delivery and the continuation of a militarized distribution model under Israeli authorities and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). This scheme is not humanitarian; it is dictated by political and military considerations, aiming to restrict humanitarian independence, drastically control access to life-saving aid and entrench collective punishment.
Aid delivered within military enclosures, monitored by facial recognition and guarded by military checkpoints can never be called humanitarian. It violates the fundamental principles of humanitarian assistance. What is unfolding in Gaza is not the result of logistical or security challenges, it is an intentional, engineered collapse of humanitarian space.
/ Lilu Thapa, DRC MENA Executive Director
This model marks a deliberate departure from humanitarian norms and principles. Israeli authorities have banned critical supplies, limited distribution to heavily controlled sites, and introduced surveillance-based rationing that is violent, exclusionary, and incompatible with neutrality, impartiality, and independence.
The claim that aid diversion justifies this militarized alternative has been categorically rejected by the UN and the wider humanitarian community.
Humanitarian agencies have proven they can deliver at scale when access is granted. Instead, Israeli authorities are imposing barriers in the form of rerouted convoys, delayed permissions and imposed conditions that undermine effective response.
The so-called “hubs” are not safe. These are militarized zones where civilians must risk their lives to access food or other basic necessities. Since the start of operations 27 May, at least 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens more injured attempting to seek aid in those areas.
This is not a humanitarian operation, it is a strategy of deprivation wrapped in the language of relief. Aid organisations are not just being blocked from delivering aid, they are being asked to participate in a system that endangers civilians and legitimizes forced displacement.
/ Alejandro Cuyar, DRC oPt Head of Operations
We echo the collective position of UN agencies and international and Palestinian NGOs in rejecting this model. It violates dignity, endangers lives, and undermines humanitarian principles.
Aid should never be delivered at gunpoint. The cost of normalizing this model is already being counted in lives lost, dignity denied, and the incapacity to provide for a trapped and starved population.
We call on the international community to reject this militarized approach and to uphold obligations under international law:
Withdrawing financial and political support for any aid structure that compromises humanitarian principles;
Pressuring Israeli authorities to lift access restrictions and allow the full resumption of aid operations;
Supporting the existing UN-led humanitarian system, which works when not deliberately obstructed.
