Above photo: Yousef Zaanoun / Activestills.
Where Hundreds Of Palestinians Have Been Killed.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation points have enabled daily massacres of Palestinians by Israeli troops, who describe the sites as ‘killing fields’.
More than 170 international NGOs, including Oxfam, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, issued a joint declaration on 1 July in Geneva calling for an immediate end to the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
According to medical authorities in Gaza, over 550 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured near GHF aid distribution sites and transport routes since the foundation began operating in late May.
The statement warned that “Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families.” As of early afternoon in Geneva, 171 charities had endorsed the call for countries to pressure Israel to dismantle the GHF and restore UN-led coordination.
The GHF, which operates through private US logistics and security firms, bypasses existing UN mechanisms. Israeli officials claim this avoids aid diversion by Palestinian resistance factions, but UN officials have condemned the model as “inherently unsafe” and in breach of humanitarian impartiality standards.
NGOs say the system forces civilians – often malnourished and displaced – to walk for hours through combat zones in hopes of receiving food, exposing them to gunfire and shelling.
The Israeli army admitted on 24 June that Palestinian civilians had been harmed at GHF distribution centers and confirmed that “new instructions” were issued to soldiers following “lessons learned.”
However, Haaretz had earlier reported that Israeli soldiers were ordered to fire on unarmed civilians near food lines, even when no threat was present.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the report as “malicious falsehoods,” despite firsthand testimonies from Israeli soldiers and personnel.
In the deadliest incident to date, Israeli tanks and drones opened fire on a crowd awaiting food along Salah al-Din Street, killing at least 50 Palestinians.
On 20 June, the US government approved a $30 million grant to the GHF under a “priority directive” from the White House.
UN officials and humanitarian standards bodies continue to warn that the GHF model violates core humanitarian principles, with 15 legal and rights organizations saying the scheme may be complicit in international crimes.
The NGOs urged all donors to withdraw support from the GHF and to reinstate a unified, UN-led coordination system involving UNRWA, Palestinian civil society, and the broader humanitarian community.
