Rights observers condemned aid scheme for bypassing UN and deadly attacks at distribution sites.
The Israeli- and United States-backed GHF organisation has announced it is ending its “mission” in Gaza.
The group sparked controversy after it began distributing food in the Palestinian enclave in May.
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It has been widely condemned for bypassing the United Nations and other humanitarian aid infrastructure in Gaza and for deadly violence that regularly broke out at or near its crowded distribution sites by Israeli soldiers and its own security contractors.
“From the outset, GHF’s goal was to meet an urgent need, prove that a new approach could succeed where others had failed, and ultimately hand off that success to the broader international community,” GHF Executive Director John Acree said in a statement on Monday.
The statement pointed to provisions in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect in October as the reason for ending its operations.
That included the creation of the US-backed Civil-Military Coordination Center, which is meant to coordinate aid to Gaza, and Israel allowing UN-backed aid distribution efforts to partially resume.
“As a result, we are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” it said, claiming to be the “only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals directly to Palestinian people in Gaza, at scale and without diversion”.
The statement directly contradicted many top figures in the international humanitarian community.
In August, 28 UN experts appealed for the GHF to be dismantled, calling the scheme an “utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law”.
They added that “Israeli forces and foreign military contractors continue to open indiscriminate fire on people seeking aid at so-called ‘distribution sites’ operated by GHF.”
At the time, the experts reported at least 859 Palestinians had been killed around GHF sites since the beginning of its operations in late May.
Among other issues, the experts noted that the scheme required aid seekers to make long, dangerous journeys to a handful of GHF sites to receive supplies, departing from the UN aid delivery model, which emphasises bringing aid more directly to affected communities.
The US had presented the GHF as a solution to delivering aid in Gaza at a time when Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian operations were causing famine in parts of the war-torn territory, according to the world hunger monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system.
UN officials maintained that allowing independent aid workers unfettered access to the enclave was the best way to address the crisis.
In the statement released on Monday, the GHF acknowledged it opened only four distribution sites in Gaza, three in southern Gaza and one near Gaza City. Still, it hailed its operations as a model for future aid deliveries.
It added that GHF leaders “will maintain readiness to reconstitute if new humanitarian needs are identified” and will remain a registered nongovernmental organisation.
