The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US- and Israeli-backed private organisation that provided aid for Palestinians in Gaza but was criticised by the UN, said on Monday it was ending its mission.
“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) today announced the successful completion of its emergency mission in Gaza after delivering more than 187 million free meals directly to civilians living in Gaza,” the group said in a statement.
GHF was tasked with managing aid distribution points in the Gaza Strip in May, effectively supplanting the UN after Israel placed tight restrictions on international aid agencies.
Those agencies were highly critical of the GHF, which managed four distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, while the UN system it replaced had 400.
In August, a UN-mandated expert panel alleged that under the GHF aid was “exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas” and United Nations special rapporteurs called for it to be disbanded.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid from GHF distribution sites according to the UN human rights office.
The foundation said in its statement on Monday that it had been in talks with other international humanitarian organisations and with the Civil-Military Coordination Centre, a task force set up by the US and its allies in southern Israel to monitor the truce in Gaza.
“It’s clear they will be adopting and expanding the model GHF piloted,” the group’s executive director John Acree said, according to the statement.
The US State Department thanked GHF for its humanitarian work and its contribution to reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.
“GHF’s model, in which Hamas could no longer loot and profit from stealing aid, played a huge role in getting Hamas to the table and achieving a ceasefire. We thank them for all that they provided to Gazans,” Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the US State Department, wrote on X.
In reaction to the announcement of GHF’s closure, a spokesman for Hamas said the organisation should be held accountable for the harm it caused to Palestinians.
“We call upon all international human rights organisations to ensure that it does not escape accountability after causing the death and injury of thousands of Gazans and covering up the starvation policy practised by the (Israeli) government,” Hazem Qassem wrote on his Telegram channel.
A US-brokered ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel came into effect on October 10.
It is the first phase in what international mediators hope will be a process to end the war and kickstart reconstruction in Gaza.
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