The controversial US and Israel-backed aid group whose food banks were linked to hundreds of deaths in Gaza has said it is ceasing operations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) had closed its distribution sites after a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10. On Monday, it announced what it called the "successful completion of its emergency mission in Gaza".
It touted the delivery of 187 million meals directly to the people of Gaza, bypassing Hamas, as "a record humanitarian operation".
“As a result, we are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” said the GHF director John Acree.
The GHF ran four distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, while the UN system it replaced had 400. The organisation was shunned by the UN and charity workers, who saw it as biased and dangerous.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid at the four GHF sites, according to the UN human rights office. Palestinians described harrowing and humiliating trips to the food banks that ended in stampedes and massacres, in which the Israeli military admitted opening fire.
The GHF, which was staffed by American guards, denied involvement in killings and said it prevented the looting and violence that plagued UN food deliveries. The organisation was given the task of feeding starving Gazans in May after Israel placed tight restrictions on international agencies, but UN experts and traditional aid agencies criticised its work.
The UN declared a famine in parts of Gaza in August, blaming "systematic obstruction" of food deliveries by Israel. In August, a UN-mandated expert panel alleged that under the GHF aid was "exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas".
Since the ceasefire, the US has set up a new aid system running from a Civil Military Co-ordination Centre in southern Israel. Sources involved have said the CMCC is better because it brings Americans, Israelis and aid workers around the same table for the first time.
However, experts warn that Gaza's food crisis is far from over. While aid deliveries have increased since the ceasefire, Israel's restrictions and destruction of farmland have severely limited Gaza's food stocks, keeping prices high.
