This Shadowy US-Backed Aid Group Is Accused Of Helping Israel In Gaza

A shadowy US-backed group pledging to distribute aid in Gaza has faced accusations of helping Israel fulfil its military objectives while excluding Palestinians, of bypassing the UN system, and of failing to adhere to humanitarian principles.

What do we know about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and what criticism has it faced?

Who are they?

Registered in Geneva in February, the GHF has no known offices or representatives in the unofficial capital of the humanitarian world.

Its former executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation on Sunday, saying it was impossible to do his job in line with humanitarian principles. His announcement came hours before the organisation said it would start delivering aid.

On Monday, the GHF said it had commenced operations, delivering "truckloads of food to its Secure Distribution Sites, where distribution to the Gazan people began."

"More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day," it said, as it announced the appointment of a new executive director.

The UN said on Tuesday that it had no information on whether it had actually delivered any supplies.

Photos distributed by the group on Monday showed trucks loaded with boxes, and people carrying some of the boxes away, at a site surrounded by metal fencing.

What the photos do not show is the precise location of the distribution or the number of alleged beneficiaries.

Why does it matter?

Israel ended its total blockade last week after stopping any aid from entering Gaza for more than two months, but aid groups say only a trickle of assistance has been allowed into the territory so far. The blockade sparked widespread hunger amid severe food and medical shortages in a territory already battered by the war.

For decades, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees had spearheaded aid efforts in Gaza, with dozens of other organisations participating in efforts to assist the population.

Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of the agency's employees took part in Hamas's October 7 attack.

A series of investigations found some "neutrality-related issues" at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.

What criticism do they face?

One of the criticisms the GHF has faced has been over its designation of what it calls secure distribution sites -- a tactic humanitarians say contravenes the principle of humanity because it would force people to move again in order to stay alive.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million have already had to move several times over the course of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

Another question critics have raised is who determines the location of the distribution points -- especially in light of Israel's plans for the "conquest" of Gaza and the movement of its population.

In an article published on May 24, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed Israeli officials, that a new US-backed aid plan for Gaza had been "conceived and largely developed by Israelis as a way to undermine Hamas".

Who's going to work with them?

For now, no one aside from the United States has announced support for the GHF.

The United Nations has ruled out involvement in its plan, with spokesman Farhan Haq saying that it "does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence".

A group of NGOs, including ActionAid, this month said: "Aid that is used to mask ongoing violence is not aid, it is in fact humanitarian cover for a military strategy of control and dispossession."

Last week, Swiss rights watchdog TRIAL International asked authorities in Switzerland to investigate the GHF in order to determine whether its activities adhered to Swiss and international humanitarian law.

It also criticised the alleged use of private security companies which it said led to a "risky militarisation of aid".

What about Hamas and the Palestinians?

In Gaza, the Hamas-run interior ministry called the GHF's work part of an Israeli "plan... to control aid distribution in the Gaza Strip".

It also called the GHF a "suspicious" organisation and accused Israel of using it for military purposes.

The GHF on Monday accused Hamas of issuing "death threats targeting aid groups supporting humanitarian operations at GHF's Safe Distribution Sites, and efforts to block the Gazan people from accessing aid at the sites".

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian supplies and of weaponising hunger in the Gaza Strip.

With Hamas still powerful in Gaza more than 18 months into the war, and with suspicions of collaboration with Israel landing people in jail or dead, Palestinian businessmen who have in the past worked with aid groups were unlikely to cooperate with the GHF.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)