Origins and Aim of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was established in February, following Israel's ban on the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Israel's parliament passed a bill designating UNRWA as a terrorist group in October 2024.
The GHF is registered as a non-profit organization in the U.S. state of Delaware and is funded in large part by the U.S. Department of State. It was established to take over delivery of food aid to Gaza, replacing UNRWA and other international humanitarian organizations. GHF is partnered with a private mercenary firm, Safe Reach Solutions, founded in January by Philip F. Reilly, a former senior CIA officer, to provide "security" at food distribution sites in Gaza.
The GHF has four aid distribution sites located in southern Gaza, three in Rafah and one in Gaza City. The previous UN-led food distribution network had over 400 sites in the Gaza Strip. To access food, most people in the north have to cross the Netzarim corridor occupied by the Israeli military.
The takeover of food distribution in Gaza by GHF is aimed at completely dismantling the existing humanitarian infrastructure in Gaza. Humanitarian and human rights organizations, in a May 19 press release, describe GHF as "a project led by politically connected Western security and military figures, coordinated in tandem with the Israeli government, and launched while the people of Gaza remain under total siege. It lacks any Palestinian involvement in its design or implementation."
A member of the Israeli Knesset and leader of the Opposition in the Israeli parliament, Yair Lapid, recently accused the Israeli government of funding GHF Safe Reach Solutions as its "shell companies." A GHF spokesman told the Washington Post "the foundation has already secured $100 million from an undisclosed donor." Another Israeli opposition figure and Knesset member, Avigdor Lieberman, said in a social media post: "The money for humanitarian aid comes from the Mossad and the Ministry of Defense," complaining, "Hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of Israeli citizens."
A leaked internal GHF document acknowledged that the food distribution centres and residential compounds it was constructing in Gaza could be perceived as "concentration camps" with "biometrics." The GHF model serves Israel's plan to occupy 75 per cent of the Gaza Strip, forcing Palestinians into what it calls "humanitarian islands."
(With files from the Grayzone, Washington Post, European Journal of International Law)
This article was published in
Volume 55 Number 16 - July 12, 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/TS55166.HTM
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