More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty, have called for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation(GHF).
In a joint statement, the groups called for the Israeli and US-backed aid mechanism for Gaza to disband over repeated incidents of chaos and deadly violence against Palestinians heading toward its sites, and be replaced by a United Nations-led system.
They asserted that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is violating all norms of humanitarian work, by forcing two million people into overcrowded and militarized zones where they face daily gunfire.
“Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families.
“The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution scheme have been some of the deadliest and most violent since October 2023.”
Joint Statement from aid group
They added that the GHF brings “nothing but starvation and gunfire to the people of Gaza.”
The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that wrested distribution away from aid groups led by the UN.
The new mechanism limits food distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors, where people must go to pick it up. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions.
Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access the GHF hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.
Israel had demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid.
The United Nations and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. They reject the new mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and won’t be effective.
GHF started distributing aid on May 26, 2025, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that has pushed Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people to the brink of famine.
Since the GHF started operating in Gaza, there have been almost daily reports of Israeli forces killing people seeking aid at these sites from medics, eyewitnesses and the Hamas-run health ministry.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed around the chaotic and controversial aid distribution program over the past month.
At least seven Palestinians were killed late Monday and early Tuesday in three separate locations while seeking aid.
Three of the deaths by Israel fire occurred in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, while four were killed in central Gaza.
According to the Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp and the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, which received the casualties, more than 65 others were wounded.
The casualties were among thousands of starved Palestinians who gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route in central Gaza.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas.
Nonetheless, the Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned.”
Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the centres in order to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Palestinian Hamas rebels.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Tells Aid Groups To ‘Stop Bickering’
In a statement, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that it has delivered more than 52 million meals over five weeks.
“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza.
“We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need. At the end of the day, the Palestinian people need to be fed.”
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
The call by the charities and NGOs was the latest sign of trouble for the GHF — a US and Israeli-backed initiative headed by am Johnnie Moore Jr, Evangelical leader who is a close ally of Trump.
The UN and other aid groups have repeatedly emphasised that they are capable of delivering sustainable aid to the people of Gaza, if Israel lifts its blockade that has brought more than two million Palestinians to the brink of famine.
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