Israeli NGO is helping Gazans. Is that wise? ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, August 11, 2025

Israeli NGO is helping Gazans. Is that wise?

The UJA Federation of New York wrote something surprising:

UJA’s longtime partner IsraAID — Israel’s largest nongovernmental humanitarian aid organization — has been extending critical relief inside Gaza, already reaching more than 100,000 Gazans.

Before October 7, IsraAID’s work focused entirely on global natural disasters and conflicts beyond its borders — arriving under the Israeli flag to offer lifesaving aid after earthquakes, floods, wildfires, epidemics, and displacement. They were, for example, central partners in our Ukraine crisis response.

After October 7, for the first time, they used their hard-earned expertise to meet needs across Israel.

And now, they’ve turned to Gaza, where they’ve built deep working relationships with the IDF unit responsible for aid in Gaza (COGAT), as well as highly reputable global aid organizations on the ground, positioning them to ensure the effective delivery of relief.

This week, we allocated $1 million to IsraAID to support their efforts in Gaza, specifically to provide food, medicine, and the installation of filtration systems to enable safe drinking water for displaced families.

IsraAID represents the very best of Israel — and of us.

Gazans definitely require aid. That being said, I am not so sure if it makes any sense for Jews to be providing that aid.

I am willing to give IsraAID the benefit of the doubt. I am willing to believe that they came up with a mechanism, together with COGAT, to provide aid directly to Gazans who need it in such a way that Hamas does not have a chance to steal or hijack the aid. .

IsraAID, probably for political reasons, says nothing about its aid to Gazans on its website. But I found an article on eJewishPhilanthropy where IsraAID's CEO Yotam Polizer discusses what the NGO has been doing.

For over a year and a half, the Israeli humanitarian relief group IsraAid has been quietly providing assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, first by serving as an adviser and go-between, helping international aid organizations coordinate with the Israeli government and military. In recent months, this has increased to more direct assistance by creating a logistics hub for partners on the ground.

JAG: The obvious question is how you ensure that this aid and assistance doesn’t make its way to Hamas or other terrorist groups.

YP: Honestly, there’s no perfect solution in such a condensed war area, where Hamas is embedded within the population. But what we do know works better than anything else is close coordination and communication. And it goes back to the vetting process, making sure basically that all of these partners do not have team members affiliated with Hamas, making sure that everything they bring is scanned properly.

Also, Israeli policies have changed during this war. In the beginning, the declared policy of the government was that nothing would come in from Israel. And then Israel opened its crossings, and now the preferred route is to bring aid from Israel into Gaza.

At some point, we also realized that we should work on a higher level, too. During the ceasefire [in January and February], Israel agreed to allow 600 trucks into Gaza each day. And I remember, we worked in close coordination with the IDF to make that happen together with the U.N. and the many other aid organizations. And I know we all hear about the toxic relationship between Israel and the U.N., but I can tell that I saw that it was a very productive collaboration on that mission.

Politzer says that other Israeli NGOs are getting involved, and he thinks that the many Israeli Arab doctors can play a role in a future Gaza.

He also says that IsraAID is involved in aid for Druze in Syria and also in other Arab countries he cannot name.

Things in Gaza are bad - not as bad as the NGOs and media are saying, but still bad. It is Hamas' fault. I can understand how organizations do not want to abandon Gazans, and also how IsraAID is uniquely qualified to help other aid organizations work more effectively in Gaza.

But there is always a political aspect to aid, and IsraAID giving aid to hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa or potential Abraham Accords partners would probably gain more goodwill for Israel than anything they can possibly do in Gaza. I know that aid shouldn't be conditional on a "thank you" but it could be prioritized on that.