Following a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by Israel and the US, announced it is ending its contentious “mission” and closing aid distribution locations.
Israel and the US supported the GHF as an independent agency to administer aid in the Gaza Strip, which was under increasing international pressure earlier this year. Since March this year, Israel has completely stopped providing humanitarian aid to the Strip, claiming that UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, is stealing donations from Hamas. UNRWA employees were also prohibited from entering the Strip from February because Israel did not provide any proof for this.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
The UNRWA network previously established about 400 sites across the Strip, but the GHF, which were guarded by armed US private security contractors, established only four “mega-sites” to distribute food and other aid to Gaza’s estimated two million Palestinians.
Additionally, Israeli forces and some US contractors have frequently opened fire on Palestinians who have arrived for aid since the organization started operations in Gaza in May. Large crowds have gathered around the sites as a result of the site’s disorganization, and some have died in stampedes or suffocated.
More than 2, 000 aid seekers have been killed or crushed by gunfire, according to UN figures, despite GHF Executive Director John Acree declaring in a statement on Monday that the organization was the “only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals to Palestinian people in Gaza.”
This is how this year’s GHF “mission” to Gaza came to an end:
May 26 – Hours after GHF’s executive director, Jake Wood, resigned, citing concerns about the agency’s independence, it issued a statement announcing it would begin direct aid delivery inside the battered enclave. The UN and other aid organizations object to working with GHF, warning that gathering Palestinians at a few central aid locations would put people at risk and thwart other aid efforts.
GHF will start operating in Gaza on May 27. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of Palestinians trying to get food in the Rafah area in southern Gaza. Aid seekers are compelled to cross over fences and slog through crowds of people trying to get supplies that are needed. The chaos underscores the staggering level of hunger that is roiling Gaza, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who calls the arrest of thousands of Palestinians “heartbreaking” . The incident is described as a “deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime,” according to Gazi’s government media office.
On May 29, Israeli forces fire on a Gaza aid station, killing 10 people and injuring dozens. Multiple explosions are reported close to another aid facility along the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip, shortly after. There haven’t been any reports of injuries in the explosions, and it’s unclear what caused them.
At least 20 people were hurt when Israeli forces opened fire on civilians waiting to collect food at a GHF distribution point in central Gaza on May 30.
More than 200 others are injured as a result of Israeli tanks killing at least 32 Palestinians waiting to receive food at two Gaza-based aid distribution centers on June 1.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for an independent investigation after Israeli forces fire on a Rafah aid distribution site after the killing and injuries of Palestinian aid seekers. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 90 Palestinians were injured and at least 27 were killed.
June 8: At least 13 Palestinians are killed and more than 150 are hurt when Israeli troops and US security personnel fire on Palestinians waiting for food near two Gaza aid distribution centers, one east of Rafah and the other near the Wadi Gaza Bridge. Israel is accused of using distribution centers as “human slaughterhouses,” according to the government media office in Gaza.
At least 21 Palestinians have been killed at a GHF aid distribution center in southern Gaza on July 16. According to witness accounts, Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd, causing a stampede. At least 15 people were shot, while at least 15 died from suffocation. Mohammed Abedin, a survivor of the incident and age 24, claimed that they were “shot at like animals” on Al Jazeera.
July 22: According to the UN, more than 1, 000 Palestinians were killed while trying to access food in Gaza through GHF distribution points.
August 1 – Anthony Aguilar, a former GHF contractor, tells Al Jazeera about the brutal and unprofessional practices he first witnessed at Gaza’s aid distribution centers. This includes using heavy artillery to fire what the organization called “warning shots” at an unarmed population. He claimed that “they call that warning shots,” and that “I call it a war crime.”
August 2: At least 38 Palestinians are killed while visiting GHF distribution centers, despite Israel’s announcement on July 27 to start implementing “tactical pauses” in fighting to give Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid.
August 5: Twenty-eight UN experts call for the dismantling of GHF, citing it as an “absolutely disturbing example” of aid exploitation for military purposes.
In response to international outcry, Israel allows some aid to be airdropped into Gaza by several nations, including Germany, Belgium, and Jordan, but a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was crushed to death by a falling pallet during an airdrop near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.
More than 2, 146 deaths have been reported in the vicinity of GHF-run sites and along aid convoy routes, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Following the announcement of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on October 10, GHF confirms that its operations have been suspended.
On the UK-based ITV network, Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, a documentary airs on November 10. Some of the witnesses describe how GHF guards “open fire, even if they don’t see a concrete threat,” while others include testimony from Israeli soldiers stationed in Gaza.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply