Reuters
Tue, June 24, 2025
Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Gaza City
(Corrects U.N. official's comments on the death toll in paragraphs 3 after he revised his remarks from previously saying the number had been independently verified by his office)
GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday that the "weaponisation" of food for civilians in Gaza constitutes a war crime, in its strongest remarks yet on a new model of aid distribution run by an Israeli-backed organisation.
Over 410 people have been killed by gunshots or shells fired by the Israeli military while trying to reach distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began work in late May, U.N. human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters at a Geneva press briefing.
The death toll came from Palestinian health authorities and other sources including non-governmental organisations and is in the process of being verified by his office, he added.
"Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food," he said, describing the system as "Israel's militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism".
"The weaponisation of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law."
Asked whether Israel was guilty of that war crime, he said: "The legal qualification needs to be made by a court of law."
Israel rejects war crimes charges in Gaza and blames Hamas fighters for harm to civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.
(Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Miranda Murray)
Rights groups warn Gaza Humanitarian Foundation it may be liable for international law violations
Alice Speri
Mon, June 23, 2025
THE GUARDIAN
Palestinians mourn the loss of their loved ones killed after Israeli soldiers opened fire at people trying to reach the points where US aid is distributed in the southern Gaza Strip on 17 June.Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
Fifteen international human rights organisations have called on the Israel- and US-backed Gaza food delivery group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and other private groups running humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza to cease their operations or face legal consequences.
In a letter sent on Monday to GHF and the affiliated Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, the rights advocates warned that private contractors operating in Gaza in collaboration with the Israeli government risk “aiding and abetting or otherwise being complicit in crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide”. They also noted that the contractors may be liable under US law and in other jurisdictions.
The letter marks the latest warning against GHF, which has been mired in controversy since replacing most UN-run relief operations in Gaza. Major aid groups have boycotted it and accused it of violating the principles of neutrality and independence that are bedrocks of humanitarian work. GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The rollout of GHF operations over the last three weeks – after a two-month blockade on most aid entering Gaza that has pushed the territory’s 2.1 million residents to the verge of famine – has been deadly. Scores of Palestinians seeking food aid have been killed by Israeli forces in chaotic scenes surrounding four privately run distribution hubs a UN official has described as “death traps”.
“GHF’s militarized model, coupled with its close collaboration with Israeli authorities, undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” the letter sent on Monday warned. “We urge all parties involved – State actors, corporate entities, donors and individuals – to immediately suspend any action or support that facilitates the forcible displacement of civilians, contributes to starvation or other grave breaches of international law, or undermines the core principles of international humanitarian law.”
Earlier this month, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights had warned in a separate letter to Johnnie Moore, the evangelical leader and Trump adviser appointed to run the foundation after its former head resigned, that he and other GHF representatives may face civil litigation or criminal prosecution.
“Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the weeks since GHF began its dehumanizing, militarized ‘distribution hubs’ in coordination with Israeli forces,” said Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at CCR, which also signed on to the most recent letter. “If it continues its deadly, militarized operations, legal consequences will follow, whether in the United States or beyond.”
Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another signatory, said it was “immoral and inhuman when those committing the genocide take responsibility to feed those whom they have starved”.
“They are using the GHF to humiliate, degrade and kill daily tens of starving people,” he added, referring to Israel.
Last week, the US senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the Trump administration’s proposal to redirect $500m from USAID, which the administration has gutted, to GHF, which is registered in the US and Switzerland.
“The questions surrounding GHF – its funding sources and connection to the Trump Administration, its use of private contractors, its ability to serve and be seen as a neutral entity, its abandonment by its founders, and its basic competence in providing aid – must be answered before the State Department commits any funding to the organization,” Warren wrote.
Human rights and humanitarian groups across the world have denounced the replacement of independent, long-established humanitarian relief operations by private, militarized groups and called for UN-operated relief efforts to be allowed in the strip again.
“This is not how you avert famine,” James Elder, Unicef’s global spokesperson, wrote in the Guardian.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We delivered aid at scale during the ceasefire, and we can do it again. We just need to be allowed to do our jobs.”
US-Israeli Gaza aid agency needs $30 million to stop it collapsing
Palestinians mourn the loss of their loved ones killed after Israeli soldiers opened fire at people trying to reach the points where US aid is distributed in the southern Gaza Strip on 17 June.Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
Fifteen international human rights organisations have called on the Israel- and US-backed Gaza food delivery group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and other private groups running humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza to cease their operations or face legal consequences.
In a letter sent on Monday to GHF and the affiliated Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, the rights advocates warned that private contractors operating in Gaza in collaboration with the Israeli government risk “aiding and abetting or otherwise being complicit in crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide”. They also noted that the contractors may be liable under US law and in other jurisdictions.
The letter marks the latest warning against GHF, which has been mired in controversy since replacing most UN-run relief operations in Gaza. Major aid groups have boycotted it and accused it of violating the principles of neutrality and independence that are bedrocks of humanitarian work. GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The rollout of GHF operations over the last three weeks – after a two-month blockade on most aid entering Gaza that has pushed the territory’s 2.1 million residents to the verge of famine – has been deadly. Scores of Palestinians seeking food aid have been killed by Israeli forces in chaotic scenes surrounding four privately run distribution hubs a UN official has described as “death traps”.
“GHF’s militarized model, coupled with its close collaboration with Israeli authorities, undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” the letter sent on Monday warned. “We urge all parties involved – State actors, corporate entities, donors and individuals – to immediately suspend any action or support that facilitates the forcible displacement of civilians, contributes to starvation or other grave breaches of international law, or undermines the core principles of international humanitarian law.”
Earlier this month, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights had warned in a separate letter to Johnnie Moore, the evangelical leader and Trump adviser appointed to run the foundation after its former head resigned, that he and other GHF representatives may face civil litigation or criminal prosecution.
“Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the weeks since GHF began its dehumanizing, militarized ‘distribution hubs’ in coordination with Israeli forces,” said Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at CCR, which also signed on to the most recent letter. “If it continues its deadly, militarized operations, legal consequences will follow, whether in the United States or beyond.”
Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another signatory, said it was “immoral and inhuman when those committing the genocide take responsibility to feed those whom they have starved”.
“They are using the GHF to humiliate, degrade and kill daily tens of starving people,” he added, referring to Israel.
Last week, the US senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the Trump administration’s proposal to redirect $500m from USAID, which the administration has gutted, to GHF, which is registered in the US and Switzerland.
“The questions surrounding GHF – its funding sources and connection to the Trump Administration, its use of private contractors, its ability to serve and be seen as a neutral entity, its abandonment by its founders, and its basic competence in providing aid – must be answered before the State Department commits any funding to the organization,” Warren wrote.
Human rights and humanitarian groups across the world have denounced the replacement of independent, long-established humanitarian relief operations by private, militarized groups and called for UN-operated relief efforts to be allowed in the strip again.
“This is not how you avert famine,” James Elder, Unicef’s global spokesperson, wrote in the Guardian.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We delivered aid at scale during the ceasefire, and we can do it again. We just need to be allowed to do our jobs.”
US-Israeli Gaza aid agency needs $30 million to stop it collapsing
Lilia Sebouai
Mon, June 23, 2025
THE TELEGRA[H
GHF says it has provided millions of meals to Palestinians in southern Gaza - Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
The new US-Israeli aid agency in Gaza has applied for an emergency $30 million grant from the White House to save it from collapse just one month after opening.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) claims that, since it began operating in late May, it has provided millions of meals to Palestinians in southern Gaza who the UN says have been pushed to the brink of famine by Israel’s aid blockade.
Two US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the Trump administration will award the grant, adding that processing was moving forward with a fraction of the auditing usually required to grant foreign assistance to an organisation.
The funding for GHF could be one of the final acts for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) before it is absorbed into the State Department as part of Donald Trump’s unprecedented foreign aid cuts.
The controversial US-Israeli organisation is the backbone of a new aid system designed to wrest distribution away from aid groups led by the UN, which Israel alleges has been infiltrated by Hamas, who it has repeatedly accused of siphoning off aid.
The new mechanism limits food distribution to four fixed sites in southern and central Gaza, all guarded by private American security contractors and Israeli soldiers.
The UN and aid groups have rejected the new system, saying that appointing itself as the main supplier of aid allows Israel to weaponise food for its military and political gain, which violates humanitarian principles.
GHF says it has provided millions of meals to Palestinians in southern Gaza - Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
The new US-Israeli aid agency in Gaza has applied for an emergency $30 million grant from the White House to save it from collapse just one month after opening.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) claims that, since it began operating in late May, it has provided millions of meals to Palestinians in southern Gaza who the UN says have been pushed to the brink of famine by Israel’s aid blockade.
Two US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the Trump administration will award the grant, adding that processing was moving forward with a fraction of the auditing usually required to grant foreign assistance to an organisation.
The funding for GHF could be one of the final acts for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) before it is absorbed into the State Department as part of Donald Trump’s unprecedented foreign aid cuts.
The controversial US-Israeli organisation is the backbone of a new aid system designed to wrest distribution away from aid groups led by the UN, which Israel alleges has been infiltrated by Hamas, who it has repeatedly accused of siphoning off aid.
The new mechanism limits food distribution to four fixed sites in southern and central Gaza, all guarded by private American security contractors and Israeli soldiers.
The UN and aid groups have rejected the new system, saying that appointing itself as the main supplier of aid allows Israel to weaponise food for its military and political gain, which violates humanitarian principles.
A family unpacks a bag of food at their tent in Khan Younis, supplied by a distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Unicef, the UN’s children fund, said the system run by GHF was “making a desperate humanitarian situation worse”.
The collapse of water systems in Gaza is also threatening the territory with a devastating drought, with just 40 per cent of drinking water facilities still functional, Unicef said.
Nearly every day since its operations began, large crowds of desperate and hungry Palestinians have flocked to the distribution points, waiting for hours and jostling for a place in the line to get food handouts before they run-out in a matter of minutes.
Israel and the US have been criticised over near-daily shootings near the distribution points that have claimed more than 400 lives and injured 2,000 others since they opened in late May, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Footage of mass-casualty events has been shared on social media, showing people screaming as bullets rip through the crowds.
Eyewitnesses say Israeli troops, who provide an outer ring of security, regularly open fire on the hungry crowds.
On Friday, at least 24 people were killed while waiting for aid near a site in central Gaza, according to medics.
The Israeli military has denied firing on civilians. It claims it fired warning shots in several instances, and fired directly at a few “suspects” who ignored warnings and approached its forces.
The population of Gaza has been corralled into a patchwork of isolated areas that add up to less than a fifth of the coastal territory’s land area, according to a recent analysis by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
Those wanting to reach the food distribution points must often make perilous journeys through evacuation zones, putting them at risk of being caught in the crossfire.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that under the aid mechanism, Gaza’s population would eventually be moved to a “sterile zone” in Gaza’s far south, freeing Israel to fight Hamas across the rest of the enclave.
There are fears that this could be a prelude to a wider plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza in “voluntary” migrations that aid groups and human rights organisations say would amount to forced displacement.
“We cannot take part in a system that violates humanitarian principles and risks implicating us in serious breaches of international law,” said Shaina Low, communication adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a leading aid group operating in the Strip.
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