In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier operates an FPV drone from a shelter in Kostyantynivka, the site of the heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)
Elder, of UNICEF, said that the plan as presented in the GHF document appears “designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic.”Aid workers say Palestinians would be forced to move to the distribution hubs or walk for miles to reach them, triggering a forced displacement depopulating large parts of Gaza. Though hub locations haven’t been set, aid workers say that according to briefings they received, it appears none will be located in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are located.
Throughout the war, Israel has repeatedly called for Palestinians to leave the north, including Gaza City, saying it’s for their safety as troops battle Hamas militants.Elder said that the plan would entrench forced displacement “for political and military purposes.” The most vulnerable, including children, older people and those suffering from illness, may not be able to get to the hubs, he said.In a statement last month, 20 aid groups operating in Gaza said the plan would force Palestinians into “de facto internment conditions” in pockets around the hubs.
Israel has also told U.N. officials it wants to vet aid recipients, aid workers say, raising fears it could withhold aid from some for political or military reasons, though the GHF proposal says aid would be distributed according to need.Elder also warned civilians will be endangered as they seek aid in militarized areas.
“More children are likely
and risk death and injury as a consequence of this plan,” Elder said.The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Tuesday that Russia is “attempting to prolong negotiations to extract additional concessions from the United States and while making additional battlefield advances.”
Associated Press writers Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at
LONDON (AP) — Joe Biden said in his first post-presidential interview that President Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to give up territory to Russia amounts to “,” a historically fraught term that refers to a failed effort to stop the Nazis from annexing land in Europe in the 1930s.