By Sam Sokol
and Nava Freiberg
26 May 2025, 5:17 pm

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses the government of secretly funding humanitarian aid for Gaza through two foreign “shell companies,” an assertion quickly denied by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Our job is to ask the government tough questions, and with such a question I take the podium today: Is the State of Israel behind two shell companies established in Switzerland and the United States, GHF and SRS, to organize and finance humanitarian aid in Gaza?” Lapid asks from the Knesset rostrum ahead of a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed this morning that the distribution of assistance under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) had begun, launching a system that Israel says is meant to keep aid from being diverted to the Hamas terror group.

While technically an American company, GHF was established in close coordination with Israeli authorities. Aid groups and the UN have refused to cooperate with the new initiative, saying it would create even more displacement of the Palestinian population, fail to meet local needs, and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.

GHF has published a 14-page document detailing its distribution plan, including the names of those leading the project. Two American companies, Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) and UG Solutions, were selected to serve as onsite contractors.

According to The New York Times, the project wasn’t simply built in coordination with Israel, but is “an Israeli brainchild” proposed during a 2023 meeting of “like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government.”

According to a separate Haaretz report published yesterday, SRS entered Gaza without security clearance from the Shin Bet, as is the procedure.

“Could it be that the Israeli security services were sent by the prime minister and the finance minister to move Israeli funds abroad, so that they would return to Gaza as humanitarian aid?” Lapid asks, noting that GHF CEO Jake Wood resigned yesterday. Wood said it is “clear that this program cannot be implemented while strictly adhering to the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.”

“The important word here is ‘independence,'” Lapid states. “Jake Wood understood that he was being played. The big question is whether we are not being played too. If this money is Israeli, if it comes from the state treasury, the State of Israel should not and cannot hide it.”

To hide the source of the money would constitute a “fraud” against the Israeli people and “one of the greatest acts of political folly in the history of the state,” he continues.

“If our tax money is buying humanitarian aid, financing food and medicine for children in Gaza, let’s profit from it in the international arena” by announcing it, he says.

“The Israeli government should have some dignity, say out loud that it funds these two organizations, and do the thing it hates to do the most: take responsibility for the things it does, and bear the consequences.”

In a swift reaction, Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri says: “Israel does not fund the humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. Israel and the United States are working in full coordination and through various channels to cut off aid from reaching Hamas.”

Source : https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/lapid-suggests-israel-funding-foreign-shell-companies-distributing-gaza-aid-pm-spokesperson-denies/

I have an issue with Lapid's views on why Israel should announce if Israel is funding GHF. He seems to be saying that, if Israel is doing it, it should "profit" from the good publicity as an apparent benefactor of Gaza's children. I'm sorry but what the hell?

The principle of humanitarianism refers to the exclusion of a warring party to humanitarian aid efforts. Does Lapid not recognize the violation of this principle if what he accuses the Israeli government of is true?

To be frank, I also find it odd that Lapid seems not to understand the severity of international revulsion at what Israel under Netanyahu has done to Gaza. The announcement of such a scheme would be seen not just as unseemly and self-promoting, but hypocritical and bizarre. Orwellian even.

but the problem is we hear everything on the radio and television news
then it comes out on the written media the next day ....but in Hebrew .
Takes time for it to reach the english media and most times it doesnt

Everything is politics , Lapid was addressing us not the international media .
He wants to bring this government down and he will use everything and anything to do
so .....and good luck to him .

Whats ironic is that it looks like the Haredim are about to bring the gov down , ironic
because Lapid hates the Haredim just like his late father did .

See : https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/haredi-leaders-said-to-tell-utj-to-bolt-coalition-opposition-parties-to-submit-knesset-dissolution/

Haredi leaders tell UTJ to bolt coalition; opposition to submit Knesset dissolution bill

In response to the reports, opposition parties Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu and The Democrats say they will submit a bill for the Knesset’s dissolution next Wednesday, giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a week to try to resolve the issue, in addition to the period it would take for the bill to be voted on by the parliament.

Both Shas and UTJ, the two Haredi parties in the Knesset, had demanded the passage of the controversial military draft legislation by the Shavuot holiday, which this year ended on June 2, warning that any delay would endanger the government’s continued existence.

that the current coalition will fall next week?

I would put higher odds on Bibi finding a way out , its what he is an
expert at , probably by replacing Edelstein.
Much depends on Shas .
If they fall expect elections either end of October or April/May .

Two links for more info :

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byhxiatfgg

https://archive.md/E0BTn

Prime Minister’s Office denies Kan’s assertion that funds were transfered quietly to prevent public from knowing

By ToI Staff
Today, 6:23 am

The Israeli government has set aside hundreds of millions of shekels to fund the new humanitarian aid mechanism in the Gaza Strip, Kan news reported Wednesday, contradicting government officials who have insisted that Israel has no part in its funding.

According to the report, the government approved the transfer of NIS 700 million (some $280 million) last month to an unclear source, identified by the government only as “the defense establishment.”

Citing unnamed officials, Kan reported that the money was being used to fund the new aid mechanism, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and that the decision to transfer the funds was made under the radar in an attempt to keep the public from finding out — ostensibly since doing so would be highly unpopular with the government’s hard-right base.

The Israel- and US-backed GHF began operating in Gaza late last month, with Jerusalem saying it would serve as an alternative to previous aid distribution mechanisms, as a way to prevent Hamas from hoarding aid and using it to control the population.

At the same time the organization and US officials have maintained that it is an independent and neutral body.

The government has insisted that it has no part in funding GHF, which has faced scrutiny due to the lack of information regarding its funds.

The organization claimed to have received more than $100 million in commitments from a foreign government donor but did not name the donor.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid suggested last week that the government was secretly funding the aid group through foreign “shell companies,” but this was quickly shot down by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Israel does not fund the humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri said. “Israel and the United States are working in full coordination and through various channels to cut off aid from reaching Hamas.”

In response to the Kan report, the Prime Minister’s Office and the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich insisted that the country “is not funding humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

The New York Times reported late last month that the organization was conceived by several Israelis, including businessmen with close links to the government. The report said the project wasn’t merely built in coordination with Israel, but is “an Israeli brainchild.”

The idea was first proposed in late 2023 at “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government” who believed the government lacked a long-term Gaza strategy, the report said.
The report posited that the “project’s genesis” occurred when “hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians rejoined the military as reservists, many of them reaching positions of influence,” following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks.

This created “a huge cohort of Israelis with one foot in the military and another in civilian life, blurring the boundary between the two worlds.”

Continued @ https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-israel-contributed-nis-700m-to-gaza-aid-mechanism-it-claims-not-to-fund/

He will make everything all right with God's help.

I honestly don't know how to respond anymore to anything except with bitter sarcasm. Such is the state of my soul these days.

Thanks for the post. As you know, the vicinity of these non-humanitarian "aid centres" have been turned into killing fields over the last few days. Exactly as the UN and others warned about. It is to weep.

Thanks for this info.

Edited to add link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/03/gaza-humanitarian-foundation-chair-johnnie-moore