The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) announced on Monday it would end operations in the Strip.
The controversial US- and Israeli-backed organization faced sharp criticism as hundreds of Palestinian aid seekers were killed by Israeli fire near the GHF’s distribution centers.
GHF Shuts Down
The GHF announced on Monday the conclusion of its mission in the Gaza Strip after delivering millions of free meals to civilians living in the enclave. In a statement, the GHF’s executive director, John Acree, said that the organization would end its operations in Gaza. “We are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” Acree said.
The GHF had operated a new aid delivery mechanism, involving a number of food distribution sites in southern and central Gaza, where Palestinians headed once a week to get one aid package per family. The GHF cooperated with private American contractors to secure aid trucks until their arrival at the distribution sites.
It suspended its operations last month following a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, mediated by the US, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye.
Controversial Organization
Since it started operations in May 2025, the GHF has been marred with controversy. The UN and other international organizations criticized the GHF operation model as “unsafe” and a “breach of humanitarian impartiality standards. Hence, they refused to cooperate with the organization amid fears it aims to force the displacement of Palestinians.
The distribution process quickly turned chaotic, with violence outbreaks in its crowded sites and multiple shooting incidents in the vicinity of the GHF or on the roads leading to it. According to the UN, around 1400 people have been killed and more than 4000 injured while seeking food, at least 859 people of whom have been killed around GHF sites, as of August 2025.
In July, Amnesty International accused Israel and the GHF of using starvation tactics as a weapon of war against Palestinians as part of the Israeli ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. It also said that Israel has turned aid seeking into a “booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians” by preventing UN and other key humanitarian organizations from distributing certain aid items and by maintaining the GHF “militarized aid scheme.”
GHF Replacement
In his statement, Acree also noted that the GHF will transfer its work to the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) – a center the US established in Israel to oversee the ceasefire and aid delivery in Gaza.
“With the creation of the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) and a rejuvenated engagement of the international humanitarian community, GHF believes that moment has now arrived,” Acree said.
“GHF has been in talks with CMCC and international organizations now for weeks about the way forward and it’s clear they will be adopting and expanding the model GHF piloted,” he added.
The CMCC hosts about 200 US troops working alongside counterparts from Israel and other countries, including Cyprus, Greece, France, Germany, Australia and Canada, to plan Gaza’s stabilization and reconstruction.
US & Hamas React
The US thanked the GHF for its contributions in Gaza. In a post on X, the US State Department spokesperson, Tommy Piggott, said: “GHF has shared valuable lessons learned with us and our partners. GHF’s model, in which Hamas could no longer loot and profit from stealing aid, played a huge role in getting Hamas to the table and achieving a ceasefire. We thank them for all that they provided to Gazans.”
On the other hand, the Palestinian movement Hamas welcomed the move. In a statement on Monday, Hamas accused the GHF of engineering a starvation in partnership with Israel.
“Since it entered the Strip, this organization has constituted part of the occupation’s security apparatus, through its adoption of distribution mechanisms that have nothing to do with humanitarianism, and its creation of dangerous conditions that are degrading to the dignity of the hungry among our Palestinian people as they attempt to obtain a morsel of bread,” the statement said.
Furthermore, it urged the international community to hold the organization accountable for the harm it inflicted on Palestinians. “We call upon all international human rights organizations to ensure that it does not escape accountability after causing the death and injury of thousands of Gazans and covering up the starvation policy practiced by the [Israeli] government,” Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, wrote on Telegram.
