THE Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.- and Israel-backed initiative set up to distribute aid as an alternative to United Nations channels, announced Monday that it would permanently cease operations.
AP reported on Tuesday that the group said it had fulfilled its mission of demonstrating “a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” according to director John Acree. “We have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” he said.
The foundation, which began operating in late May during a critical food shortage following Israel’s suspension of UN food deliveries, had delivered over 3 million food boxes, totaling 187 million meals.
Its operations, shrouded in secrecy, relied on armed contractors to secure distribution sites, aiming to ensure aid was not diverted by Hamas.
Palestinians and aid workers, however, raised serious safety concerns, saying that civilians had to risk their lives to reach the sites, with soldiers firing on crowds during attempts to access food.
While GHF claimed no violence occurred within the distribution sites themselves, contractors’ accounts and video footage indicated that American security guards fired live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scrambled for supplies.
Acree said that the foundation would hand off its work to the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel, which oversees the Gaza ceasefire.
“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. U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said that GHF had “shared valuable lessons learned with us and our partners.”
Meanwhile, tensions continue within Israel, where Defense Minister Israel Katz publicly clashed with military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over probes into the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks that killed approximately 1,200 people and sparked the ongoing Gaza war. Katz sought to freeze army appointments pending a new review, prompting Zamir to warn that the move risked undermining military readiness.
“The army is the only body in the country that has thoroughly investigated its own failures and taken responsibility for them,” Zamir said.
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it killed a Palestinian militant wanted over a May 2024 attack that killed two Israeli soldiers.
Israel has maintained a military offensive in the West Bank since October, displacing tens of thousands of civilians and drawing criticism over civilian casualties.
In Gaza, the Health Ministry reports over 69,700 Palestinians killed and more than 170,800 injured since the outbreak of the conflict, with women and children comprising a majority of fatalities. - November 25, 2025
