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The controversial US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says it will wind down its aid operations in the Palestinian territories after nearly six months.
The group has suspended three of its food distribution sites in Gaza after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect six weeks ago.
The GHF aims to bypass the United Nations and become the main provider of aid to the people of Gaza. The United Nations and other aid agencies refuse to cooperate with its system, calling it unethical and unsafe.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed while searching for food in chaotic scenes near the headquarters of the Global Humanitarian Fund, much of it caused by Israeli artillery fire, according to the United Nations. Israel said its troops fired warning shots.
The GHF said on Monday it was now winding down operations due to the “successful completion of its emergency mission”, which had delivered a total of 3 million packages to Palestinians, equivalent to more than 187 million meals.
GHF executive director Jon Acree also said the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), which was established to help implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, will “adopt and expand the model” piloted by the GHF.
State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott wrote on
Hamas denies stealing aid and welcomes closure of global humanitarian fund, Reuters reports
A Hamas spokesman said the GHF was responsible for the harm it had caused Palestinians.
“We call on all international human rights organizations to ensure that they do not evade responsibility after killing and injuring thousands of Gazans and covering up the starvation policy implemented by the (Israeli) government,” Hazem Qasim wrote on his Telegram channel.
The GHF began operations in Gaza on May 26, a week after Israel partially eased a comprehensive blockade on aid and commercial shipments to Gaza that had lasted 11 weeks and resulted in severe shortages of essential goods. Three months later, Gaza City was declared famine.
GHF’s food pantries in southern and central Gaza are operated by U.S. private security contractors and are located within Israeli military zones.
The United Nations and its partners say the system violates basic humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence and that directing desperate people into military zones is inherently unsafe.
The UN human rights office said it recorded the killing of at least 859 Palestinians looking for food near GHF sites between May 26 and July 31. A further 514 people were killed near the routes of United Nations and other aid convoys, the report added. Most of them were killed by the Israeli military, according to the office.
The Israeli military said its troops fired warning shots at people who approached them in a “threatening” manner.
The GHF said there were no shootings at aid sites and accused the United Nations of using “false and misleading” statistics from Gaza’s Hamas health ministry.
The future of the GHF has been uncertain since Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire to implement the first phase of Trump’s peace plan.
The statement said the aid would be distributed “without interference from either side through the United Nations and its agencies, the Red Crescent and other international institutions that have no ties to Hamas or Israel.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that GHF’s ​​closure would not have “any impact” on its operations “because we have never worked with them.”
He also said that although more aid has entered Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, it is “not enough to meet all the needs” of the 2.1 million people.
