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FIRST ON FOX – In a war-torn a part of the Middle East, the place corruption and violence typically decide who will get to eat and who goes hungry, one lady selected to problem the system.
When a lot of the world had written off northern Gaza as unreachable, 30-year-old east-Jerusalem resident Sarah Awaidah and her group carved out a lifeline. Beneath the umbrella of Mena Help, a regional accomplice coalition working via the Multifaith Alliance (MFA), and in coordination with Israeli authorities, she constructed a system that moved a whole bunch of vehicles of meals and provides into Gaza – bypassing Hamas and personal contractors who had turned starvation right into a enterprise.
The outcome: greater than 100,000 households fed. The associated fee: her personal security. “I by no means imagined that making a protected, impartial humanitarian route would turn into the rationale my life would possibly finish,” Sarah Awaidah informed Fox Information Digital in an unique interview that befell in a protected home in Israel.
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Distribution of assist coordinated by Sarah Awaidah in northern Gaza final week. (Courtesy of Multifaith Alliance.)
“After delivering 346 vehicles of assist between September 2024 and February 2025, we reached 100,622 households,” Awaidah stated. “We determined to scale up distribution on June 30, 2025, at a time when nobody was in a position to get something into Gaza due to looting, chaos and a number of layers of obstruction on the bottom.”
Working via Mena Help, Awaidah’s group designed an alternate path to ship meals and important provides.
In Israel, a trusted logistics firm transported the products from the port of Ashdod to the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings. Inside Gaza, one other logistics accomplice dealt with transport, whereas Awaidah’s personal workers – coordinating in actual time with Israel – shadowed each cargo.
“As soon as the help crosses into Gaza, it’s picked up by one other trusted logistics accomplice and escorted by our personal group members.
Sarah Awaidah, working with Multifaith Alliance, introduced meals to greater than 100,000 households. Her success has now made her a goal for profiteers.
“Our groups are current throughout offloading and accompany the help from the crossing to safe warehouses. Contained in the warehouses, we start distribution instantly – aiming to ship all the things the identical day, and at most inside two to 3 days. Nothing is allowed to take a seat idle.”
That stage of management allowed them to realize what few others might: reaching northern Gaza, the place individuals had not seen a staple provide of meals for months.
Her breakthrough uncovered a darker actuality – an economic system the place starvation itself has turn into a enterprise.
Distribution of assist in northern Gaza final week. (Courtesy of Multifaith Alliance.)
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“There’s a variety of non-public sector businessmen – some related to Hamas and different political teams – who attempt to use assist to make tens of millions,” she stated. “As a result of there’s such a scarcity of products, and costs are so excessive, some steal assist and promote it out there. Others attempt to take over the provision routes to allow them to resell it.”
In response to Awaidah, her group’s success threatened those that revenue from shortage. By flooding the market with free items, they not solely fed households but in addition drove down the inflated prices charged for fundamentals like sugar and flour.
“If there’s no sugar in Gaza, and we carry it in free of charge, they will’t maintain promoting it at outrageous costs,” she stated. “So we turned their downside.”
Israeli authorities additionally tried to chop off these private-sector schemes by shutting down routes that allowed industrial profiteering. Whereas this helped curb some corruption, it additionally made the remaining humanitarian channels extra harmful.
Hamas terrorists take up positions forward of a hostage launch in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP)
“The non-public sector was blocked, and so those that misplaced their earnings began making an attempt more durable to threaten and infiltrate the humanitarian route,” she stated. “They couldn’t management it, so that they tried to interrupt it – and me.”
The assaults on her got here shortly. “I started receiving demise threats – not simply from Gaza, however from the West Financial institution… heartbreakingly, some got here from individuals I as soon as trusted.”
Probably the most painful betrayals got here from somebody near her, she stated, “I even found that I used to be in a relationship filled with lies,” she stated. “That individual was a part of a gang that wished to take advantage of the help operation – and he tried to make use of me too. However I stood agency. I made certain he, and folks like him, by no means obtained close to it. And now, my life is in danger as a result of I refused to let the non-public sector hijack assist for industrial acquire, or let political actors bend it to serve their objectives.”
Help employees delivered meals to Gazans within the northern a part of the enclave final week. (Multifaith Alliance)
For Awaidah, the households she helps are the rationale she refuses to stop. “We created a distribution mannequin based mostly on verified beneficiary lists, utilizing ID checks to make sure truthful and dignified entry to meals,” she stated. “Folks stood in line calmly, organized, even in unattainable situations. That’s one thing the media not often reveals – the dignity and endurance of the individuals.”
Prior to now month alone, her group has delivered 75 vehicles and has one other 112 on the way in which from Ashdod. Every day, she focuses on the mission, even because the threats develop.
“What broke me most wasn’t the threats from strangers – it was realizing that folks near me have been a part of it,” she stated. “It’s simpler to struggle enemies from the skin. However when it comes from your personal circle, it cuts deeper. Nonetheless, that solely confirms we’re doing one thing proper. In the event that they’re shedding their minds over this, it means the mechanism we constructed works. It means it’s safe. It means they couldn’t discover a approach to manipulate it, so that they tried to interrupt me as a substitute.”
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She is aware of the dangers. However for her, the choice is worse. “I cannot cease. And they won’t cease me,” she stated, “I’ll proceed delivering assist to the individuals who want it, irrespective of the threats. That’s my promise.”
For Awaidah, standing as much as corruption has come at a steep private price. However for the households in Gaza who’ve stood in her meals strains, she has already modified what as soon as felt unattainable: getting a justifiable share of assist, and not using a price ticket.
