The US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), described by the UN as a “death trap” and an “abomination,” has declared the end of its so-called mission in Gaza, nine months after its establishment.
“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) today announced the successful completion of its emergency mission in Gaza after delivering more than 187 million free meals directly to civilians living in Gaza," the controversial organisation said in a statement on Monday.
According to the UN Office for Human Rights, between May 27 and August 13, at least 1,760 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid, 994 near GHF sites and 766 along supply convoy routes.
More starving Palestinians ravaged by the Israel-created famine were killed in Gaza from August 13 onwards until the October 10 truce.
GHF Executive Director John Acree said the group was "winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans."
However, UN special rapporteurs and several aid groups said in August that the GHF's operations and the violence inflicted on Palestinians at its aid sites are "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and more than 170 humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Doctors Without Borders, signed a joint statement calling for the immediate closure of GHF and the return to UN-led coordination mechanisms in August.
Weaponisation of aid
Acree said the GHF's model was being adopted and expanded by the Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) and other international organisations following weeks of talks.
However, international aid organisations and rights groups denounced the GHF model as a weaponisation of aid.
Jake Wood, who served as executive director of GHF for two months, resigned a day before the “initiative’s” launch, saying the operation could not uphold core humanitarian principles, “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. ”
Multiple eyewitnesses have reported Israeli forces, private contractors and local gangs working with them firing on crowds of civilians and killing dozens of people, including children, near the so-called GHF aid sites.
Under the ceasefire agreement reached between Hamas and Israel on October 10, 600 trucks of aid were supposed to enter Gaza daily.
However, Israel is allowing no more than 200 aid trucks into Gaza per day
Israel has not adhered to the agreement, launching almost daily attacks that have killed at least 342 Palestinians since October 10.
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and wounded over 170,900 in a brutal offensive that reduced most of the enclave to rubble.
