Rabia İclal Turan
08 May 2025•Update: 08 May 2025
WASHINGTON
The US is close to a mechanism to deliver food and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Thursday.
“We are steps away from that solution, from being able to deliver the aid and the food,” Bruce told reporters at a daily media briefing. “We welcome moves to quickly get urgent food aid into Gaza in a way that actually gets to those to whom it's intended. It cannot fall into the hands of terrorists.”
Bruce said an announcement would be made soon by a foundation tasked with implementing the delivery plan, though she declined to name the group or provide details.
“While we don't have anything to announce in specifics in this regard today, and I will not speak on behalf of the foundation which will be doing the work ... We escort a plan to get aid in right now and urge others to do so as well,” she added.
“President Trump called for creative solutions that would secure peace, protect Israel and leave Hamas empty-handed and help Gazans,” she said. “Due to his inspirational leadership, we are steps away from that solution.”
The spokeswoman criticized the UN's response, saying that “endless press releases and Hamas appeasement have not delivered food, medicine or shelter to those who need it.”
The UN opposes Israel's reported aid delivery control plan for Palestinians in Gaza via private US security contractors.
In a news conference Thursday, spokesman Farhan Haq addressed US President Donald Trump's Special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's unofficial briefing to Security Council members on Wednesday, and stated the UN was not "directly informed" about the briefing.
According to media reports Wednesday, Witkoff focused on a new aid plan for Gaza proposed by the US and Israel, which aims to deliver aid boxes to individuals via private US security contractors.
Noting the UN's position on humanitarian aid deliveries, Haq said information received from Israel “appears designed to further control and restrict supplies down to the last calorie and the last grain of flour."
"The Secretary General has made it clear that the UN will not engage in any arrangement that fails to uphold the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality," he said.
