What’s happening in Gaza?
Since March 2, 2025, the Israeli government has blocked almost all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, driving more than 2 million people into a deepening famine. This comes after over 600 days of bombing, forced displacement, and nearly two decades of blockade.
Right now, 100 percent of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine. Nearly half a million people—mostly children—are facing catastrophic hunger, death, and malnutrition. These conditions are not a natural disaster. They are the result of deliberate political choices and a clear violation of U.S. and international humanitarian law.
What is Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)?
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a new, Israeli- and U.S.-backed private mechanism created to take over aid delivery in Gaza. GHF is led by military contractors, not humanitarian professionals. It operates with Israeli government oversight and without transparency, independence, or accountability.
Instead of restoring support to experienced, neutral aid agencies like UNRWA and the World Food Programme, GHF puts control of humanitarian operations in the hands of armed actors. This breaks with international standards and ignores calls from global aid organizations for a safe and comprehensive humanitarian response.
Why is this dangerous?
- It militarizes aid. GHF is run by armed contractors. This violates the humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, and impartiality. Even GHF’s own executive director, Jake Wood, resigned in protest on May 25, saying that it could not work in a way that adhered to “humanitarian principles.”
- It fails to meet basic needs. Before the Oct. 7 attacks, there were approximately 400 aid sites in operation across Gaza, and meeting basic needs in Gaza required at least 500 aid trucks per day. GHF only operates four distribution points, all located in southern Gaza. These hubs cannot meet the scale of need, and they ignore the medical, water, and shelter emergencies that go beyond food.
- It puts lives at risk. As of June 4, Israeli forces have killed nearly 100 Palestinians and injured hundreds more at or near GHF distribution points. Witnesses say people were fired on from drones, tanks, and helicopters while waiting for food.
- It sidelines trusted aid agencies. U.N.-led efforts are ready to restart aid delivery at scale, but remain blocked. Instead of working with experienced humanitarian agencies, GHF creates a parallel, politicized system.
- It may support forced displacement. GHF’s hubs are located near the Egyptian border. Many fear this is an intentional strategy to concentrate Palestinians in small areas as a prelude to permanent expulsion.
What are aid groups and the UN saying?
The UN and major international humanitarian organizations have strongly rejected GHF’s approach. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warned that under this new system, “aid distribution has become a death trap.” Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross have treated large numbers of patients wounded in Israeli attacks while waiting for food.
What about aid diversion?
Some have cited fears that Hamas will divert humanitarian aid from warehouses to feed their fighters as a reason to block all aid deliveries. But nothing justifies this collective punishment of civilians. These claims are not supported by credible evidence of systemic abuse. Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Program, has directly refuted them.
The United Nations and its partners conducting aid delivery and distribution operate under strict monitoring procedures and have proven their ability to deliver aid directly to civilians in conflict. Cutting off food, water, and medicine to the entire population because the de facto authority in Gaza is Hamas is unlawful, immoral, and cruel.
Artificial scarcity caused by the blockade itself is creating conditions ripe for looting, diversion and black markets. When people are pushed to the brink of starvation, and desperation, it becomes easier for armed groups to exploit aid or for civilians to take desperate measures to survive. By restricting the flow of humanitarian supplies, the blockade doesn’t prevent diversion, it fuels it.
The most effective and humane way to limit the influence of any group seeking to control aid is to flood the system with enough access and oversight that no one actor can monopolize it. Opening sustained, large-scale humanitarian corridors with independent monitoring is the real solution — not sealing Gaza off from food, water, and medicine.
What needs to happen now?
- End the blockade. Humanitarian organizations must be allowed to operate with full access and independence.
- Restore U.S. funding to UNRWA and other trusted agencies.
- Reject GHF and all militarized aid schemes.
- Demand an immediate ceasefire to end the suffering and stop the killing.
The starvation in Gaza is not a logistical failure—it is a political choice. GHF is not a solution. It is part of the problem.
