More than 160 NGOs call on Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to close

Hundreds have been killed seeking supplies at GHF-run sites

The death toll continues to rise in Gaza. The UN and UK are among those to criticise aid distribution in the enclave. EPA

More than 160 charities and other NGOs have issued a joint call for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to close, after hundreds of people died near its aid sites since the controversial group began operating five weeks ago.

The demand came hours after the Israeli military admitted civilians had been "harmed" near GHF distribution points, saying there were "lessons learnt".

The NGOs, including Save the Children, Oxfam and Amnesty International, said Israeli troops had been "routinely" opening fire on Palestinians seeking aid. They called for a return to the previous Gaza aid system, led by the UN, and a complete end to Israeli restrictions on supplies entering the stricken enclave.

"Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the joint statement said.

Israel and the US launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in late May, saying it aimed to bypass Hamas and address humanitarian concerns. But the private contractor has drawn much criticism after scenes of chaos and bloodshed near its distribution sites. Nearly 550 people have been killed near its aid centres while seeking food, Gaza authorities have said.

The GHF has denied the deaths took place in the immediate vicinity of its aid sites, but the UN and other humanitarian organisations have refused to work with the group, calling its distribution system a “death trap”.

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  Displaced Gazans wait for aid as armed Palestinian groups claiming to be preventing theft gather around a UN vehicle accompanying aid lorries at the Israeli-controlled Zikim crossing west of Beit Lahia on Wednesday. Smoke from Israeli strikes rises in the background. AFP

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  The armed men guard aid lorries at the crossing. AFP

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  The armed groups sit on top of aid lorries. EPA

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  A UN vehicle accompanying the lorries. AFP

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  People carrying aid parcels the Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on the Salah Al Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp on Wednesday. AFP

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  Palestinians gather at the GHF aid distribution point. AFP

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  Thousands of Palestinians queued at the GHF location on Wednesday. AFP

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  The supply of aid into Gaza has been acutely limited due to an Israeli blockade. AFP

Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Thursday published a report quoting unnamed soldiers as saying they had been ordered to fire live bullets near distribution centres to disperse crowds, even when they posed no threat.

Israeli authorities previously denied that soldiers fired directly at civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz had dismissed the Haaretz report as "malicious falsehoods". But on Monday night the military admitted people had been harmed.

"Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learnt," an Israeli military representative said in a statement.

The 160 NGOs called on other countries to intervene by taking "concrete measures to end the suffocating siege and uphold the right of civilians in Gaza to safely access aid and receive protection". They also urged donors "not to fund militarised aid schemes that violate international law", saying they risk complicity in atrocities.

The organisations said the four military-controlled distribution sites run by the GHF had forced Gaza's two million people into "overcrowded, militarised zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties".

At least 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave on Tuesday, including seven who were waiting for aid in central Gaza, the Wafa news agency reported. On Monday, 13 people were killed as they waited for aid in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and 10 died when Israel bombed an aid distribution warehouse at Al Zeitoun in Gaza city.

Britain on Monday also condemned Israel’s aid delivery system as “inhumane". Fergus Eckersley, the UK’s political co-ordinator to the UN, said: “The suffering in Gaza is appalling and cannot continue. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's operations, which are supposed to be saving lives, are themselves leading to mass casualties.”

Efforts to bring an end to the war in Gaza have been stalled for months. More than 56,000 people have been killed in the territory since the conflict began in October 2023 with the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israeli communities, in which about 1,200 people died.

Israel's military offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and led to a humanitarian crisis, with a dire shortage of basic essentials and the UN warning of famine.