The United States claimed that a new organization approved by Israel – Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – is the key to resolving the humanitarian crisis of the Gaza Strip, but it already receives its fair share of criticism.
The GHF says it will start operations before the end of May. United Nations officials and humanitarian groups say that he will not have the ability to deal with the humanitarian disaster which takes place in Gaza following the two -month blockade of Israel.
Instead, the aid groups that worked in Gaza point out that they have the capacity to bring food and other humanitarian supplies – if only Israel left them.
So what is the GHF and why is the situation in Gaza so desperate? Here is everything you need to know:
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
Officially independent, the GHF is an organization supported by Israeli and in the United States which plans to distribute the aid to the Gaza Strip.
One in five people in Gaza is currently faced with famine due to the Israeli blockage of food and aid while 93% experience acute food shortages, according to an assessment supported by the UN published last week.
Under increasing international pressure to allow help, Israel sought to find a solution which, according to him, prevents help from going in the hands of the Palestinian group of Hamas. Humanitarian organizations claim that the vast majority of foods and other supplies reach the civilian population of Gaza and are not diverted to the combatants.
The GHF will be supervised by Jake Wood, an American military veteran who led Team Rubicon, an organization that distributed humanitarian aid during natural disasters.
What is the plan to provide help?
Thanks to GHF, the Palestinians of Gaza would receive a “amount of basic food”.
The initial plan was announced last Wednesday with a calendar of about two weeks before it was operational.
We still do not know how the GHF will be funded, but the foundation indicates that it will set up “secure distribution sites” to feed 1.2 million people in Gaza before developing all the Palestinians in the territory.
He indicates that he will coordinate with the Israeli army while security would be provided by private military entrepreneurs.
Why is GHF criticized?
The GHF initiative has been widely turned by the aid groups and the UN.
The UN and humanitarian aid agencies say they already have the means to distribute desperately necessary help and relieve the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The GHF, on the other hand, is considered by criticism as a means of politicizing aid and not having the experience or the ability to help more than two million people.
The GHF “restricted aid to a single part of Gaza while leaving other terrible needs,” said UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher to the Security Council last week. “This makes conditional aid to political and military objectives. It makes famine a negotiation currency. It is a cynical slideshow. Deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for additional violence and displacement. ”
The UN and Aid groups say that the GHF plan violates fundamental humanitarian principles.
“We are concerned about the aid mechanism proposed for Gaza and are deeply worried not to allow humanitarian aid to be distributed in a way of compliant to the main humanitarian principles of impartiality, humanity and independence,” said a declaration by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “The ICRC cannot operate under any mechanism which does not allow us to maintain the principles and our working methods.”
Eleven humanitarian organizations and human rights have signed a declaration in which they “reject the establishment” of the GHF, appellant: the appellant:
“A project led by politically connected Western and military security personalities, coordinated in tandem with the Israeli government, and launched while the people of Gaza remain in the total seat. Any Palestinian involvement in its conception or implementation is missing. ”
This lack of Palestinian involvement, coupled with Israel’s approval for the project and the planned presence of the Israeli army “on the perimeter” of the distribution sites, according to the American ambassador of Israel Mike Huckabee, raises the distribution of the Palestinians that the creation of the GHF will give even more power to the distribution of Israel in Gaza.
Why doesn’t help Gaza?
Israel blocks it.
Israel began to prevent the entry of all foods and other humanitarian supplies in Gaza on March 2 during a ceasefire, which he unilaterally broke out on March 18.
Even before the blockade, Israel limited the amount of help that could happen, and some Israeli demonstrators have also blocked and destroyed aid.
The situation has reached disastrous levels with the World Food Program saying that 70,000 children need urgent treatment for “acute malnutrition”.
How would GHF move the Palestinians?
The UN said the GHF would arm the aid by threatening the mass movement of the Palestinians.
The initial aid distribution sites would only work in the south and center of Gaza, which, warned by the United Nations, could lead to the displacement of the Palestinians in the north of Gaza because they are forced to move south for food and other aid.
“Humanitarian aid should not be politicized or militarized,” the CICR press release said. “This erodes the neutrality required to ensure that assistance is delivered according to needs, not political or military agendas.”
The initiative has also been labeled by many in the humanitarian sector as insufficient.
“Even if it is implemented, the volumes of help offered by the plan are below the immense scale of needs in Gaza”, according to the ICRC. “The level of need right now is overwhelming and help must be allowed to enter immediately and without obstacle.”
Gaza currently has 400 distribution points, and capacity and know-how to distribute aid effectively exists. With only a few distribution points under the GHF, people can be forced to walk over long distances and carry heavy rations.
“The problem is not logistics,” said the declaration of the 11 humanitarian groups. “It’s intentional famine.”
Enough. We require quick, safe and unhindered access to hungry civilians in Gaza.
We have a plan. We have thousands of food trucks on the border. Let us enter. Let us work. pic.twitter.com/btmcambg0e
– Tom Fletcher (@unreliefchief) May 16, 2025
People with disabilities or who are injured would find it difficult to sail in the field and reach the distribution points. Gaza roads have been seriously damaged in the last 19 months of war, and the intensity of Israel’s latest military operations in Gaza is only making things more difficult for the Palestinians there.
In addition, the GHF claims that it is independent and transparent has been criticized by aid groups.
“Despite the brand itself as” independent “and” transparent “, the Gaza humanitarian foundation would depend entirely on Israeli coordination and would operate via entry points controlled by the Israelis, mainly the port of Ashdod and the Kerem Shalom / Karem Abu Salem Crossing”, the declaration of the 11 aid groups.
While Hanan Salah, associate director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa, did not specifically comment on GHF, she said that allowing “a amount of fundamental food” in the Gaza Strip was “the complicity of the use of famine as a method of war”.
