Some of the world’s largest charities and aid groups are calling for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF, to be shut down, accusing the controversial aid distribution operation backed by the United States and Israel of using measures “designed to sustain a cycle of desperation, danger, and death.”
“These areas have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law,” the statement added.
In a joint statement released Tuesday, more than 170 organizations — including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Save the Children and Oxfam International — said that in less than four weeks, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,000 injured while trying to access or distribute food in Gaza under the GHF system.
“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the statement read. “The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution scheme have been some of the deadliest and most violent since October 2023.”
Following a three-month blockade on humanitarian assistance in Gaza, GHF took over aid delivery. Since then, as NBC News reported, “there have been almost daily claims of the Israeli military deliberately firing at aid recipients, accusations that the IDF has denied.”
The statement accused the Israeli government of “deliberately and systematically” dismantling the humanitarian system established during the conflict’s ceasefire and justifying “shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favour of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs. These measures are designed to sustain a cycle of desperation, danger, and death.”
Under the GHF’s plan, the organizations said, millions of Gazans have been “forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites with a single entry point.” There, they said, “thousands are released into chaotic enclosures to fight for limited food supplies.”
“These areas have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law,” the statement added.
In a statement to NBC News on Tuesday, GHF refuted the accusations and said it was “providing millions of meals each day directly to the Palestinian people who deserve and need aid.”
“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” it added.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Hamas of firing on civilians at humanitarian sites in a post on X, sharing what it claimed were “testimonies” from Gazans describing how the group “spreads false claims blaming the IDF, inflates casualty numbers, and circulates fake footage — all to disrupt aid efforts and keep the people of Gaza away from much needed aid.”
