The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) on Tuesday announced the appointment of a new director after its previous leader quit, just days before the NGO began operating as the only provider of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
American evangelical Christian leader Rev. Dr. Johnnie Moore was on Tuesday named the GHF’s new chairperson after the resignation in late May of Jake Wood, who cited concerns that the operation did not adhere to “humanitarian principles”.
Moore has previously voiced support for US President Donald Trump’s idea that the US should take over the Palestinian enclave.
“The USA will take full responsibility for future of Gaza, giving everyone hope & a future,” he wrote on X, where he also criticised the UN food distribution program, which normally runs 408 centres in Gaza, for enabling Hamas to control supplies.
Moore’s appointment comes amid daily reports of deadly attacks on Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in and near GHF aid distribution centres since they opened last week.
Read moreUN chief calls for probe into killings near Gaza aid distribution centre
"Civilians are risking – and in several instances losing – their lives just trying to get food," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.
The GHF aid distribution model was "a recipe for disaster – which is exactly what is going on”, he added.
$100 million donation
The UN and aid groups have refused to work with the GHF – backed by the US and Israel – because they say it is not a neutral operation.
But little is known about how the newly formed NGO is run or who funds it.
In October 2024, the GHF hired US consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group to design and run its business operations.
The consultancy firm on Friday terminated its contract with GHF and placed one of the senior partners leading the project on leave pending an internal review, the Washington Post reported.
Anonymous sources speaking to the Post said it would be difficult for the foundation to continue to function without the consultancy group “actually making the wheels turn” on the ground.
While the GHF has almost no digital footprint, a memo released in May to potential donors details key board members and the involvement of two US private security firms, UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions.
Read more‘Weaponising aid’: New plan calls for private contractors to take over from UN in Gaza
The memo says the NGO has since February 2025 been registered in Switzerland, where investigators are now leading an enquiry into whether its operations are illegal.
But a New York Times report, which claims the GHF is an Israeli brainchild conceived during the first few weeks of the war, found a group named the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was also registered in Delaware.
The organisation does not reveal where its funding comes from, except for saying in a statement released in May that it had received a donation of over $100 million from an unnamed Western country.
Shell companies
In Israel, rumours swirled that the anonymous benefactor was actually the Israeli state, covertly using taxpayer money to fund the project.
“Is the State of Israel behind two shell companies established in Switzerland and the United States, GHF and SRS, to organise and finance humanitarian aid in Gaza?” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid asked in parliament on May 26.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson denied the accusation.
But former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli media outlet Haaretz he was convinced that Israel’s defence ministry and its intelligence arm, Mossad, were funding the NGO.
“As someone who knows these systems well, it's clear to me when I see such a construction,” he said. “You have a foundation that appeared out of nowhere, and a company operating without a background or experience."
"We're talking about costs in the hundreds of millions to maintain hundreds of armed Americans with combat experience and to provide food,” he added.
More recently, the Israeli military seems to have claimed some ownership of the GHF.
In a video released on June 1, IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin says soldiers were responsible for opening the centres.
To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
'Fear and deep suspicion'
The GHF says that it has given out more than seven million meals from three “secure” distribution sites since it started operations in the enclave a week ago.
But its centres were closed on Wednesday as the group pressed the Israeli military to improve security.
This left Gaza’s population of 1.2 million, which the UN says now faces the risk of famine, with no access to essential food or medical supplies.
“Basically, the Israeli-backed aid distribution plan, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has taken a day off,” FRANCE 24 correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky said while reporting from Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesperson on Wednesday warned civilians in Gaza against moving on roads leading to GHF sites, deeming them "combat zones".
Since opening its centres in Gaza there have been near-daily reports of Israeli attacks killing dozens of Palestinians in proximity to the distribution sites and widespread chaos inside.
Palestinians who collected food GHF boxes on Tuesday described scenes of pandemonium, with no one overseeing the handover of supplies or checking IDs as crowds jostled for aid.
Conditions at the centres and the difficulty for Palestinians to access them has raised “fear and deep suspicion” among critics that they are part of a wider Israeli plan to force Palestinian displacement, Arwa Damon, founder of non-profit aid organisation INARA, told FRANCE 24.
“It is exactly how you do not organise aid distribution,” Damon said. “You do not force people to walk through danger zones, where they are at risk of getting shot, and only provide them with four locations where they can pick up this much-needed assistance. You don’t force the population to walk six or seven hours to pick up a food parcel.”
English (US) · 