The much-criticised Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is halting operations after more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in and around its distribution sites, according to UN figures.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the US and Israel to oversee the distribution of aid in Gaza, has announced it is ending its controversial “mission” and is closing aid distribution sites following a US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Under increasing international pressure to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip earlier this year, Israel and the US backed the GHF as an independent agency to administer aid. Israel completely blocked aid to the Strip from March this year, claiming that Hamas was stealing aid provided by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Israel did not provide any evidence for this and also blocked UNRWA workers from entering the Strip from February.
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While the UNRWA network operated about 400 sites across the Strip before that, the GHF, guarded by armed US private security contractors, set up only four “mega-sites” – three in southern Gaza and one near Gaza City – to distribute food and other aid to Gaza’s population of about two million Palestinians.
Furthermore, since the organisation began operations in Gaza in May, Israeli forces and some US contractors have routinely opened fire on Palestinians arriving to receive aid. Disorganisation around the sites has caused large crowds to gather, and some people have suffocated or died in stampedes.
While GHF Executive Director John Acree said in a statement on Monday that the organisation delivered the “only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals directly to Palestinian people in Gaza”, more than 2,000 aid seekers have been crushed to death or killed by gunfire, according to UN figures.
Here is how the GHF “mission” to Gaza unfolded this year:
May 26 – GHF issues a statement announcing it will begin direct aid delivery inside the battered enclave, hours after its executive director, Jake Wood, resigned, citing concerns about the agency’s independence. The UN and other aid agencies refuse to work with GHF, warning that requiring Palestinians to gather at a few centralised aid points would put people at risk and undermine other aid efforts.
May 27 – GHF begins operating in Gaza. Israeli forces open fire on thousands of Palestinians attempting to receive food in southern Gaza’s Rafah area, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens. Aid seekers are forced to clamber over fences and push through packed crowds to reach life-saving supplies. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says seeing thousands of Palestinians storming the aid site is “heartbreaking” as the chaos underscores the staggering level of hunger gripping Gaza. Gaza’s Government Media Office calls the incident a “deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime.”
May 29 – Israeli forces open fire at an aid point in southern Gaza, killing 10 people and injuring dozens. Shortly after, multiple explosions are reported near another aid centre on the Netzarim Corridor, which divides northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. It is not clear what caused the blasts, and there are no reports of casualties.
May 30 – Israeli forces open fire on civilians waiting to collect food at a GHF distribution point on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza, wounding at least 20 people.
June 1 – Israeli tanks kill at least 32 Palestinians waiting to get food at two aid distribution sites in Gaza, leaving more than 200 others injured.
June 3 – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the killing and injuring of Palestinian aid seekers is “unacceptable” and calls for an independent investigation after Israeli forces open fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah. Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 27 Palestinians have been killed in the incident and 90 injured.
June 8 – At least 13 Palestinians are killed, and more than 150 are injured when Israeli troops and US security contractors open fire on crowds waiting for food near two aid distribution sites in Gaza, one east of Rafah and another near the Wadi Gaza Bridge. Gaza’s Government Media Office accuses Israel of turning distribution sites into “human slaughterhouses”.
July 16 – At least 21 Palestinians are killed at a GHF aid distribution centre in southern Gaza. Witness accounts say Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd, causing a stampede. At least 15 people died of suffocation, while others were shot. Twenty-four-year-old Mohammed Abedin, who survived the incident, told media that they were “shot at like animals”.
July 22 – The United Nations says the number of Palestinians killed while trying to access food in Gaza from GHF distribution points has topped 1,000.
August 1 – A former contractor for GHF, Anthony Aguilar, tells media about what he describes as the deadly and unprofessional practices he witnessed firsthand at aid distribution sites in Gaza. This includes firing what the organisation described as “warning shots” on an unarmed population using heavy artillery. “They call that warning shots, I call it a war crime,” he said.
August 2 – At least 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by GHF are killed, despite Israel announcing on July 27 it would begin implementing “tactical pauses” in fighting in some areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid.
August 5 – Twenty-eight UN experts call for GHF’s dismantlement, describing it as an “utterly disturbing example” of aid exploitation for military purposes.
August 9 – Israel allows some aid to be airdropped into Gaza by several countries, including Germany, Belgium and Jordan, amid global outrage, but a 15-year-old Palestinian boy is crushed to death by a falling pallet during an airdrop near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.
September 4 – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has recorded more than 2,146 deaths in the vicinity of sites run by GHF and along aid convoy routes.
October 12 – GHF confirms it has suspended operations following the announcement of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on October 10.
November 10 – A documentary, Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, is aired on UK network ITV. It features testimony from Israeli soldiers deployed to Gaza, with some describing how GHF guards would “open fire, even if they don’t see a concrete threat”.
November 24 – GHF announces it is ending its “mission” in Gaza following the ceasefire. It claims to have distributed more than 3 million food boxes, equivalent to 187 million meals.
