The chief of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called figures by the United Nations on people killed at aid hubs “disinformation”.
The UN said at least 410 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on 19 May, while the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 549 people have been killed.
Johnnie Moore, executive director of GHF, told Sky News there is a “disinformation campaign” that is “meant to shut down our efforts” in the Gaza Strip, fuelled by “some figures” coming out every day.
Mr Moore, an evangelical preacher who served as a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said his aid group has delivered more than 44 million meals to Gazans since it began operations in May.
Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Khan Younis.
Pic: AP
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the UN and other aid groups, which have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
The aid agencies claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system using the GHF will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
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They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
The GHF is distributing food packages, which they say can feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days, in four locations, with the majority in the far south of Gaza.
GHF chief was ‘really political, really punchy’ in Sky News interview
It was really political, really punchy, and I think the heart of the matter here is that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is too political.
The principle of aid, when applied traditionally, is that it has to be applied neutrally and that is what used to happen.
Trucks would go into Gaza, and the UN would distribute that food. Israel, for a long time, said that’s not working and they blame Hamas for that.
At a briefing by the Israeli prime minister’s office yesterday, they were saying that Hamas was still looting those aid vehicles, and it was coming out with a plan to stop that. It didn’t provide evidence for that.
When we asked for evidence, they said we shouldn’t swallow Hamas disinformation. That’s a word that’s been used. That’s very, very political.
This is a different model of doing things. And that is the concern: that rather than just handing it over to a neutral body, this is too close to Israel, it’s too close to the US, and is backed financially by the US.
What does that actually imply? Well, if you’re choosing where those sites are, it means people are going to move down there if you’re not putting them in certain places.
The number of distribution sites has dwindled. It’s attenuated. And so, actually, if there are only a few and if there are any in the south of Gaza, that encourages people to move there, that might fit a political goal as well as a humanitarian one.
Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the aid hubs and have to move through Israeli military zones, where witnesses say the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.
Both figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say hundreds of people have been killed or wounded.
In response to Mr Moore’s comments, Rachael Cummings, Save the Children’s team leader in Gaza, told Sky News that people “are being forced into the decision to go to retrieve food from the American- and Israeli-backed, militarised, food distribution point”.
A Gazan man said about the GHF aid sites: “This is a trap, because the plan is to displace us, not to distribute food and drink. If they wanted to organise it, they would have done so. They deliberately made it chaotic.”
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“We’re not contesting at all that there have been casualties in the Gaza Strip. I mean, there’s no ceasefire. This is an active conflict,” Mr Moore said.
“I think people may not understand as clearly what it means to operate a humanitarian operation on this scale, in an environment this complex, in a piece of land as small as the Gaza Strip, and may not appreciate that almost anything that happens in the Gaza Strip is going to take place in proximity to something.”
Mr Moore said the GHF was not denying that there had been “those incidents”, but said the GHF was able to talk to the IDF, which would conduct an investigation, while Hamas was “intentionally harming people for he purpose of defaming what we’re doing”.
He said the GHF, “an independent organisation operating with the blessing of the US government”, was “achieving its aims”.
“We’re not here to replace the UN, we’re here to do the same thing: to feed Gazans,” he said.
Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre in Khan Younis.
Pic: AP
It comes after the US State Department announced on Thursday that it had approved $30m in funding for the GHF as it called on other countries to also support the controversial group delivering aid in Gaza.
Some US officials opposed giving any US funds to the foundation over concerns about violence near aid distribution sites, the GHF’s inexperience and the involvement of the for-profit US logistics and private military firms, sources told Reuters news agency.
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Gazans risk ‘death traps’ for aid
A spokesperson from the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs told Sky News that they are “open to any practical solutions that address the crisis on the ground” and are “happy” to talk to the GHF, a statement welcomed by Mr Moore.
The spokeswoman added that the aid distribution in Gaza was not “currently a dignified process and that the format doesn’t follow humanitarian principles”.
She said that people have to walk for miles, and that there is no scalability, with aid not reaching everyone in need.
Charity Oxfam said in reaction to Mr Moore’s interview that claims of enough aid getting into Gaza “fly in the face of everything we, and other trusted humanitarian agencies, are seeing on the ground”.
Halima Begum, Oxfam’s CEO, said: “It’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous and denies the horrifying reality we are witnessing daily. Gaza is on the brink of famine, and people are being killed as they queue for food.
“We need an immediate ceasefire. Hostages must be released, and humanitarian assistance must be allowed in, delivered by experienced organisations like the UN and Oxfam, to prevent mass starvation.”
