Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. It’s already June, which means that the countdown to this month’s NATO summit has begun. Both of us will be on the ground in The Hague starting June 24 for a series of special SitRep pop-up editions, along with several colleagues hosting FP roundtables and discussions on the sidelines, so get in touch if you have something to share or would like to connect.
Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: A chaotic new aid system gets underway in Gaza, a Ukrainian drone attack leaves Russia stunned, and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nudges Washington’s Asian allies on Taiwan.
Aid Chaos in Gaza
A controversial new aid distribution system in Gaza—backed by the United States and Israel—has been consumed by chaos and violence since it went into effect last week.
Starving Palestinians have faced gunfire as they attempt to reach desperately needed assistance following an 11-week Israeli blockade on all aid into Gaza, which prompted warnings of famine from the United Nations. The U.N. and other aid groups have boycotted the operation, accusing Israel of weaponizing aid.
Here’s what you need to know about the new system, why it was put into place, why there has been so much pushback, and where Gaza goes from here.
Who is behind the operation? The new U.S.- and Israel-backed aid operation is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a recently formed private organization with murky origins. It’s not clear where the nonprofit, which is registered in Delaware and Switzerland (but is winding down operations in the latter), receives its funding from.
GHF is working with private U.S. security contractors, including Safe Reach Solutions, which is run by Philip Reilly, a former CIA officer. The contractors, who are overseeing the Israeli-designated aid sites, are reportedly armed and have been given as much ammunition as they can carry.
In a major sign of the myriad problems swirling around GHF, the organization’s executive director, Jake Wood, quit in late May—shortly before the new operation was slated to begin—stating that it wasn’t “possible” to implement the plan and adhere to principles of neutrality.
GHF’s new executive director is Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical Christian leader and former Trump campaign advisor. The Boston Consulting Group, which helped create GHF, also withdrew from the project in recent days as it faced mounting criticism.
Deadly violence and competing claims. On Wednesday, GHF paused operations for 24 hours in the wake of several deadly shootings near aid distribution hubs. Witnesses and health officials have blamed the incidents on Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops firing at crowds of Palestinians trying to receive aid.
Israel has contested the nature of its involvement in some of the incidents, but a growing body of evidence undermines the IDF’s claims. The IDF has instead said that it fired “warning shots,” which are meant to be fired into the air and above people’s heads, and has accused Hamas of attempting to disrupt the flow of aid.
The details surrounding these fatal incidents are still emerging, and the U.N. has called for an investigation. Obtaining precise information on what’s happening in Gaza has been a consistent problem throughout the war, especially given that—with few exceptions—Israel has prohibited foreign journalists from entering the enclave since the fighting began.
GHF, which maintains that the recent shootings occurred outside its area of operations, reopened two distribution centers in southern Gaza on Thursday. The organization, which has set up only four locations overall, mostly in the south, said that it’s distributed roughly 7 million meals so far. But the U.N. continues to warn that Palestinians in Gaza are not receiving sufficient levels of food to survive.
Why is this happening? Israel says the new system is necessary because Hamas steals aid and profits from it. Hamas vehemently denies this. The U.N., which has a strict verification process for distributing assistance and for years has been the primary aid provider in Gaza, has also pushed back on this assertion.
“We haven’t been presented with such evidence to date,” Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told SitRep, adding that the U.N.’s aid system has “proven to work effectively and efficiently” and “has been tested over time and over different crises across the world.”
Israel’s contentious relationship with the U.N., which it has repeatedly accused of antisemitism, is also a major reason why it’s backed a system that circumvents the international organization.
Critics of the new operation also warn that it appears to be designed to force Gazans into the enclave’s south, in line with an Israeli plan to take over the territory.
The new system “fuels displacement,” Cherevko said. “It’s more about control, really, rather than actual distribution. This isn’t aid distribution.”
Expect more chaos. The problems surrounding the GHF aid operation are indicative of why there was so much opposition to the approach before it even began.
“This is not humanitarian in any way,” Cherevko said. The system makes “aid a bargaining chip,” turning assistance into a tool for military or political objectives, she added. The operation is putting people at risk by limiting assistance to certain areas of Gaza and “leaving dire needs unmet,” Cherevko said.
Humanitarian experts also emphasize that the GHF appears to lack the expertise to carry out this operation, amid reports that the Palestinians receiving aid aren’t being screened.
Food distribution operations in conflict zones are “really intricate, detailed, and sophisticated,” and you can’t just set up a table and hand out boxes, said a U.N. official who spoke to SitRep on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue and concerns for the safety of their colleagues. “How do we know that’s going to the right people?” the official said.
“We as humanitarians have contacts. We have systems. We have modalities. We have an ability to collect information, to analyze information, to look at the vulnerabilities of the population,” the official said. “Starving people are really dangerous,” the official added, and the private security contractors overseeing this operation seem to have a “very limited understanding of the community.”
The U.N. warns that unless there’s a drastic shift in approach, more pandemonium is likely.
“This is not the way to approach this at all,” Cherevko said. “Unless anything changes, it will be the same or get worse.”
Let’s Get Personnel
This week saw a series of new assignments at the Pentagon, including John Noh as assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs, Alex Velez-Green as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, and Austin Dahmer as assistant secretary of defense for strategy.
Trump also named Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to lead the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East and where Cooper currently serves as deputy commander, while Lt. Gen Alexus Grynkewich has also been tapped as the head of U.S. European Command as well as the supreme allied commander for NATO.
Raising a few more eyebrows? The appointment of 22-year-old Thomas Fugate to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s counterterrorism efforts, as reported by ProPublica.
On the Button
What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.
Ukraine’s gains. The Ukrainian military has been on a mini-victory lap this week after a series of drone strikes on Sunday that it said destroyed at least 13 Russian bomber aircraft out of a total of 41 that it targeted. The attack took place on the eve of the latest round of Istanbul-based negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war, though the talks proved largely fruitless other than a deal to exchange dead and captured troops.
“What the Ukrainians were able to achieve with the Sunday strike is effectively operational surprise,” Kateryna Stepanenko, the Russia deputy team lead and analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C., told SitRep. “The Russians were not expecting it—they didn’t have the materials and the resources needed to protect their air bases,” she added.
But a nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia is a big part of the reason that those aircraft were left exposed in the first place, George Beebe, the former director of Russia analysis at the CIA, said in an interview with John earlier this week. The 2010 treaty, known as New START, requires both countries to have their nuclear-capable aircraft viewable by satellites for verification purposes (Russia did say two years ago that it would suspend the implementation of New START, but the treaty technically remains in force until February 2026).
“The very thing that is a vital component of nuclear stability between Russia and the United States … is what Ukraine exploited to target these strategic bombers,” Beebe said.
Hegseth in Asia. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took the Trump administration’s defense spending grievances to the United States’ Asian partners in a speech in Singapore. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, Hegseth said Washington is “here to stay” in the Indo-Pacific region, where Beijing’s military brinkmanship and the prospect of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan have long topped the list of concerns.
“We are here this morning, and somebody else isn’t,” he added, alluding to the Chinese defense minister’s decision to skip the gathering.
Hegseth said the United States is prepared to “fight and win” if China invades Taiwan, but he also called on Asian countries to increase defense spending, like Trump has done with European allies. “We ask—and indeed, we insist—that our allies and partners do their part on defense,” he said.
Snapshot
Hot Mic
Rishi sat down this week with California Rep. Ro Khanna, who has been one of the most vocal Democratic lawmakers in the first six months of the Trump administration. Here’s a bit of what Khanna had to say about Trump’s foreign policy:
FP: You’ve been critical of most of the Trump administration’s policies but have supported them in some areas—such as prescription drug pricing. Do you see anything in the administration’s foreign policy that you can support?
RK: Personally, the foreign policy has been a deep embarrassment to America, American ideals, and American moral leadership. It has been a betrayal of [former President John F.] Kennedy’s vision, articulated so beautifully in his inaugural [speech], about America being the leader of the free world.
They berated [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky in a way that made Americans feel so small about our commitment to standing for free people. They have launched incoherent tariffs against Canada. The Canadians are the politest people. For them to be talking about having elbows up and jerseys off in a fight with America requires great incompetence for an administration to anger them so much.
They have totally compromised our relationship with Mexico—in fact, I’m going to see [Mexican] President [Claudia] Sheinbaum in a bipartisan delegation—because of the tariffs, they are hurting Mexico’s economic development and going to force further migration into the United States.
FP Insider subscribers can read the full interview here.
Put On Your Radar
Monday, June 9: The Trump administration’s new travel ban goes into effect.
Tuesday, June 10: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds confirmation hearings for Jacob Helberg for undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment; Andrew Puzder for U.S. ambassador to the European Union; Paul Kapur for assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs; and Benjamin Black for CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
Argentine President Javier Milei visits Israel.
Thursday, June 12: Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appear in front of the House Armed Services Committee for a hearing on the Defense Department’s 2026 budget request.
Quote of the Week
“I don’t think it’s a genocide, but I think it is—without a doubt—true that Israel has committed war crimes.”
— Matthew Miller, a former State Department spokesperson for the Biden administration, in an interview with Sky News.
This Week’s Most Read
- Russia Has Started Losing the War in Ukraine by Michael Kimmage
- How Russia Responds to Ukraine’s Drone Attack Depends on Trump by John Haltiwanger
- Actually, Trump Has a Coherent Vision by Thomas Carothers
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
As Washington, D.C., prepares to host World Pride this month, the Pentagon is choosing to mark it by scrubbing the name of a gay rights icon from one of its warships. USNS Harvey Milk— named after the first openly gay man elected to public office in California and one of the leading faces of the United States’ gay rights movement until his 1978 assassination—will be renamed, CBS reported. The Pentagon also reportedly plans to rename other ships named after civil rights leaders such as Thurgood Marshall and Harriet Tubman, as well as one named after the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The post Deadly Aid Chaos in Gaza appeared first on Foreign Policy.
