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Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with mysterious origin accused of weaponizing aid [1]
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Date: 2025-06-01
October 7th, 2023, was a day of horror we all remember. Israel was entitled to strike back. Israel had to attack to get back hostages. Hamas was the target, but all of Gaza became a victim in the crossfire.
What brings the subject back up is on Sunday, Israeli tanks fired into a crowd of Gazans as they waited for aid to be distributed, with at least 31 dead and 150 wounded. A medic reports treating people with bullet and shrapnel wounds.
The new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, supported by Israel and the United States to distribute aid, has only been in operation for a week.
The Israeli Army said in a statement that it was, "currently unaware of injuries caused by [Israeli military] fire within the humanitarian aid distribution site. The matter is still under review."
It just happened. How is it "still" under review?
The Foundation has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent access limited. The Foundation says the private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired into crowds. Israel's military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions.
The privately funded Foundation run by US-based security firms is being described as a "blueprint for ethnic cleansing" by Trial International, a Swiss NGO.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) chosen by Israel to distribute aid in Gaza began on Tuesday, while all humanitarian agencies have been blocked, and it has been widely condemned by nonprofits, human rights groups and lawyers, who say the so-called Foundation is weaponizing aid.
On May 19th, Relief Web put out a report on their website and also available as a PDF, that heavily criticized GHF as a sham.
"This initiative is not a genuine humanitarian effort. It is a smoke screen and, as UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher has said, 'a cynical sideshow' for a deeply flawed and dangerous attempt to rebrand the delivery of aid in Gaza while the Israeli government continues to impose a blockade, bomb civilians, and block life-saving assistance. Aid does not need rebranding. It needs to be allowed in."
"The problem is not logistics. It is intentional starvation."
GHF is wholly dependent on the Israeli controlled checkpoints, primarily Port of Ashdod and Karem Shalom/Karen Abu Salem.
"The relief aid GHF plan outlines the deliveries of limited supplies to only 1.2 million people in Gaza during its first phase, with a possible expansion to 2 million. There are over 2.2 million people in Gaza."
Israeli officials hope that other countries will take in Palestinians to reduce the size of the population. Human rights organizations are saying that this is a deliberate plan to starve 1 million Gazans.
The GHF board includes former US senior military and security officials. Armed private contractors and armored vehicles using only a few Israeli controlled checkpoints does not sound like an efficient distribution system.
Trial International filed a request for an investigation after Gaza Humanitarian Foundation registered itself in Geneva, asking for it to be determined if they adhere to international humanitarian law and Swiss law. "It lacks any Palestinian involvement in it's design or implementation."
Safe Reach Solutions is run by a former CIA paramilitary chief Philip Reilly. UG Solutions is managed by US Special Forces soldier Jameson Govoni.
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, condemned the United States-backed aid model in Gaza, saying it is a "distraction from atrocities" by the Israeli armed forces.
Tuesday, the first day of operations, after two months of an Israeli blockade, turned into chaos at the distribution center as desperate Palestinians trampled over toppled barriers and shots rang out.
BBC Verify, in order to get an accurate assessment of what is actually happening, has authenticated dozens of images from distribution sites, interviewed humanitarian and logistics experts, analyzed Israeli and transport data and official statements released by the GHF, and spoken with Gazans searching for supplies.
A Foundation spokesperson said on Friday, it's fourth day of operations, that it had distributed 2 million meals. The BBC has not been able to verify this figure, which would be less than one meal per Gazan over 4 days. In a video filmed at GHF's northern site near Nuseirat on Thursday, Palestinians can be seen running away from a perimeter fence after GHF contractors threw a projectile that exploded with a loud bang, flash and smoke.
Sure. Everybody know that's a flash-bang grenade.
GHF said in a statement that "To prevent escalation and to insure the safety of civilians and staff, non-lethal deterrents were deployed, including smoke and shots fired into the ground." The BBC could not verify that no injuries had occurred. Later that evening, GHF warned Gazans via Facebook that it would shut down any sight we're looting occurred.
Maybe I'm ignorant, but with all that's going on in Gaza, what makes anyone think that electricity is working anywhere to either power a computer or charge a cell phone, and there is any ISP functional? I looked it up.
Israel turned off electricity to Gaza immediately after October 7, 2023. The only source is from generators or solar. The generators couldn't be working because of lack of fuel deliveries. Both electricity and internet access are spotty at best. Usually they're not working at all. That means that trying to communicate with Gazans using social media is completely ineffective.
The World Food Program, WFP, is still operational in Gaza, sort of, but on Wednesday, one of their warehouses was looted and there were several deaths, still being investigated. The WFP depleted it's last stocks to support hot meal kitchens on April 25th. A week earlier, they ran out of flour and cooking oil. That same week, food parcels for families, with two weeks of food rations, ran out. If WFP still has food in warehouses, then they must have no means of distributing it.
With what little information is online, there is mostly misinformation. The BBC found two fake GHF Facebook accounts about the status of aid centers alongside AI generated images showing that aid had been suspended or that looting at GHF centers had been rampant. The real GHF Facebook page was only created on Wednesday.
Before Israel's humanitarian blockade, there were 400 distribution points. GHF has only 4 verified. This increases the concentration of population around them. Either you live in that radius or you are unlikely to survive.
Source: Israeli Defense Forces.
Video and images showed the food distributed by GHF to be limited to canned food, pasta, rice, cooking oil, and some biscuits and lentils. Not exactly meals or any kind of a balanced diet.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a less than half-hearted effort run by armed men. Not once in all the sources I read did it talk about how food was actually handed out. What they do provide isn't enough to keep you alive if you are lucky enough to get any.
Relief Web listed what is needed to keep the Gazans alive:
Demand an immediate and unconditional end to the siege on Gaza. Reopen and support multiple non-Israeli controlled land crossings, especially Rafah. Protect the neutrality, impartiality and independence of humanitarian aid. Ensure aid does not become a tool for forced displacement or political manipulation. Pursue accountability for those responsible for attacks on aid workers, aid convoys, and aid facilities.
We call on all humanitarians, NGOs, governments, and journalists to reject the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation model and instead demand principled access for all aid providers, not just those who cooperate with an occupying power.
There's not much left of buildings where people used to live. Staying alive is a daily fight. Months ago, Netanyahu's government said they would occupy Gaza and rule over the Palatinians. As Israeli settlements increase in the West Bank, there is less space for the Palestinians there or for Gazans to move there. Israel's idea of surrounding countries taking in 2.2 million Gazans and take the Gaza strip to be part of Israel is a pipe dream. There would be international condemnation for such a course of action, except from Donald Trump.
How US military contractors got involved in this, and following the money to see what is really happening with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is needed.
All we know is that GHF was registered a a humanitarian organization in Switzerland. They contracted two US security firms linked to a shell company in Wyoming. Paying for the security takes money along with what food there is.
A GHF spokesperson claimed that a foreign country had pledged $100 million, but would not name the country. Israeli opposition to Netanyahu's government think the Mossad is the source.
The New York Times says the whole idea originated in Israel and was dreamed up by Israeli businessmen.
Follow the money. That's the only way to find out the truth about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
In the meantime, real aid needs to be allowed in. There are too many dying because it isn't.
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