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Gaza Operations of Much-Criticized U.S. Aid Group Unravel

October 20, 2025
in News
Gaza Operations of Much-Criticized U.S. Aid Group Unravel
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A much-criticized aid group run by U.S. security contractors and backed by Israel has suspended operations in Gaza as a cease-fire takes hold and other international agencies race to supply the embattled territory with truckloads of food.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, once pushed by Israel as an alternative to the U.N.-led aid system in the enclave, is running out of money and faces serious logistical obstacles to resuming its work.

The organization, known as the G.H.F., came under heavy scrutiny from international aid organizations over the past six months, accused of running a system that endangered the lives of desperate Palestinians who came to collect aid.

Israel had championed the new distribution system under the G.H.F., intending to weaken the Palestinian militant group Hamas by keeping the aid out of its reach. But even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in a Fox News interview last month that it had failed.

It “unfortunately did not work,” he said, though he blamed Hamas.

Since beginning operations in May, the G.H.F. handed out millions of boxes of food to people in Gaza.

But it also drew Palestinians seeking aid onto dangerous routes, some guarded by Israeli military forces, who at times opened fire on Palestinians as a deadly form of crowd control. Hundreds were killed, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose leadership is appointed by Hamas.

A spokesman for the group said that there had been no killings at the sites themselves, and that after the Israeli military opened fire well outside the distribution points, the G.H.F. pressed it to ensure the safety of aid seekers.

The Israeli military has said its forces opened fire only when they faced “an immediate threat.”

Despite the criticisms, the organization carried on operations until the Israel-Hamas cease-fire took effect earlier this month.

“G.H.F. was asked to pause operations during the hostage release phase, which is still ongoing,” the foundation said in a statement last week, leaving open the possibility that it could resume its work later.

It is unclear how that would happen given the new lay of the land in Gaza. The cease-fire included an Israeli pullback from parts of the territory, posing significant logistical challenges for the G.H.F. to restart food distribution.

The foundation previously worked through four hubs. Three of them, in southern Gaza, remain within Israeli-controlled zones under the terms of the truce, and Palestinians are not allowed to enter. A fourth site in central Gaza is in an area now controlled by Hamas, where the G.H.F. effectively cannot operate.

The aid group is also facing financial and leadership challenges.

Its funding is expected to run out by before year-end, according to a spokesman for the group, and its American director, Johnnie Moore, stepped down recently. Mr. Moore, an evangelical Christian figure who has ties to the Trump administration, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

G.H.F. efforts to secure additional financial support from the United States and other countries have been unsuccessful, according to two U.S. officials and a third person briefed on the details. They all insisted on anonymity to share sensitive information.

Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said in a recent interview that the foundation faced a “cash challenge.” And its dwindling finances threaten its ability to continue operating.

Much of the group’s previous financing remains shrouded in mystery.

The foundation has said it received $30 million from the United States and about $100 million from an undisclosed “donor country.”

Israel has denied funding any humanitarian aid efforts for Gaza. But in June, its finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the government had put aside funds to help what he called “the American company” build aid distribution sites, widely seen as a reference to the G.H.F.

The foundation launched just after Israel lifted a blockade that prevented food from entering the territory for more than two months. Gaza was sinking deeper into a humanitarian catastrophe with hunger, desperation and lawlessness all on the rise.

Many Palestinian aid seekers set out early in the morning, hoping to reach the G.H.F. sites before they opened and were overwhelmed by crowds.

In some cases, Israeli troops opened fire when they saw Palestinians approaching in the dark or trying to slip behind them through dunes or abandoned greenhouses, according to four Israeli soldiers and commanders who insisted on anonymity to share what they had seen or been briefed on.

In the first months of G.H.F.’s operation, the death toll near aid sites sometimes reached about 30 a day, according to the Gaza health ministry. In all, more than 2,600 Palestinians were killed while trying to retrieve food aid since the end of May, the ministry said.

But more than half of them were not around G.H.F. sites.

Palestinians were also killed along aid supply lines used by U.N. trucks and other international aid organizations. Some of these routes were patrolled by Israeli troops who, at times, fired on Palestinians trying to secure aid, while other people were run over by trucks, according to Palestinian witnesses.

The Israeli military acknowledged that there were cases of aid seekers who were killed by its forces and said they were under review. But it called the Gaza ministry’s casualty figures “inflated.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was the brainchild of Israeli officers and businessmen who sought to achieve several goals, including denying Hamas a source of funding.

Israeli officials had long argued that Hamas was looting humanitarian aid and selling it on the black market at exorbitant prices, buttressing its hold on power in Gaza. The idea was to move aid distribution beyond Hamas’s reach and into parts of Gaza under Israeli military control.

Several Israeli military officials told The New York Times over the summer, however, that they believed Hamas was not systemically looting U.N. aid and even recommended an expansion of U.N. aid operations in Gaza.

The foundation worked with Safe Reach Solutions, a private American company led by a former senior C.I.A. officer, whose armed American contractors delivered food to sites that were guarded by Israeli troops.

Israel also hoped the foundation would provide an alternative to one of the main providers of aid to Gaza, the United Nations, which Israeli officials have repeatedly accused of anti-Israeli bias. U.N. officials say they are upholding strict principles of humanitarian neutrality in Gaza.

Before the G.H.F. launched, the United Nations and other groups operated hundreds of aid distributions sites across Gaza, including in cities and displacement camps.

Even though G.H.F. operated for about six months, it was never able to provide food to many areas, with aid deliveries nowhere near the scale or geographical footprint of the U.N.-led operations beforehand. That made it even harder for the most vulnerable to obtain aid when they needed it most.

The foundation accused Hamas of attempting to sabotage its work by threatening its local staff, circulating false opening times and sparking chaos at or near its sites.

Hamas denied the claims and accused the foundation of bias. But in July, the Hamas-controlled interior ministry in Gaza issued a statement saying that anyone involved with the foundation or helping it would be prosecuted with “the most severe penalties stipulated” by law.

In June, Hamas fighters attacked a bus carrying Palestinians who worked for the G.H.F., killing twelve, according to the foundation. Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack.

Many Palestinians said they would be happy if the organization never returned to Gaza.

Ehab Fasfous, 52, a resident of the southern city of Khan Younis, described the months in which it operated as some of the worst in the war.

“The whole thing was criminal,” he said. “It was devoid of all humanity and dignity,” he added.

Aaron Boxerman, Devon Lum and Sanjana Varghese contributed reporting.

Natan Odenheimer is a Times reporter in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.

Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.

David M. Halbfinger is the Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. He also held that post from 2017 to 2021. He was the Politics editor of The Times from 2021 to 2025.

The post Gaza Operations of Much-Criticized U.S. Aid Group Unravel appeared first on New York Times.

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