US- and Israel-Backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Shuts Down After Thousands of Palestinians Died Seeking Its Aid

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the US and Israel, announced it is permanently shutting down after delivering roughly 187 million free meals.

“Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation only had four distribution sites in Gaza”

abc.net.au

Those meals were distributed via four major sites set up in late May as Israel restricted many UN and other agencies' operations amid a blockade.

abc.net.au

GHF said it had completed an emergency mission and will hand its model to the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center while remaining registered to respond if future needs arise.

The closure follows a US-brokered ceasefire and comes after months in which Israel had halted or limited UN deliveries, prompting alternative distribution models to be created.

Humanitarian and medical groups, Gaza health authorities and UN offices attribute thousands of Palestinian deaths and injuries to efforts to reach GHF’s four fortified distribution sites and to routes defended by Israeli forces.

Reported tolls vary across sources.

Al Jazeera

Gaza health ministry and some outlets report figures in the thousands for people killed or wounded while seeking aid.

UN offices and multiple human-rights groups tied many of those deaths to Israeli fire or to crowd crushes near those guarded sites.

GHF, Israel and some U.S. officials deny large death tolls inside site perimeters, saying only warning shots or self-defense fire occurred or blaming armed elements among Palestinians for unrest.

Those denials are sharply disputed by witnesses, medical records and videos cited by independent reporters.

International aid agencies, UN experts and scores of humanitarian organisations refused to work with GHF and warned that the model ceded control of food distribution to Israel and risked displacing Palestinians.

A UN-mandated expert panel accused assistance under GHF of being 'exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas,' and UN special rapporteurs urged the foundation be disbanded.

In contrast, U.S. officials and some pro-GHF accounts praised the operation as preventing Hamas from diverting aid and as an instrument that helped bring Hamas to negotiations, creating a sharp split between human-rights institutions and the U.S./Israeli political line.

Medical organisations and reporters documented both mass casualties and acute food insecurity as the GHF operation unfolded.

MSF described the hubs as 'sites of orchestrated killing' after treating hundreds wounded at distribution points.

BBC

Other outlets report that an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared famine in Gaza City and that at least some people died of starvation after GHF limited operations to a handful of heavily guarded mega-sites.

Witnesses, medical records and videos cited by multiple reporters implicate Israeli soldiers and U.S. security contractors in firing on crowds.

Contractors and footage reportedly show American guards using live rounds and stun grenades.

GHF’s formal wind-down has not resolved accountability or clarity over the death tolls and operational record.

“The controversial, US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says it is winding down its aid operations in the Palestinian territory, after almost six months”

BBC

GHF says it will transfer operations and lessons to the Civil-Military Coordination Centre and keep its NGO registration active.

BBC

U.S. officials defended aspects of the operation.

Meanwhile, UN experts, Gaza authorities, aid groups and families demand investigations and accountability for the killings and for the model that concentrated aid into guarded mega-sites.

Legal actions and demands for access to U.S. government records — including a suit by the Center for Constitutional Rights seeking Trump administration material — underscore continuing disputes over responsibility and transparency.