More than 20 Democratic senators are calling for the Trump administration to stop financially supporting the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a shadowy private group that has faced international condemnation for weaponizing food aid by carrying out daily massacres against starving Palestinians.
Led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the Democrats sent a letter on Sunday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio citing “grave concerns” with the lack of transparency around GHF’s funding and operations, as well as the many reports, videos and testimonies documenting the daily chaos and violence at the group’s militarized aid sites.
“Blurring the lines between delivery of aid and security operations shatters well-established norms that have governed distribution of humanitarian aid since the ratification of the Geneva Convention in 1949,” the letter states. “We urge you to immediately cease all U.S. funding for GHF and resume support for the existing UN-led aid coordination mechanisms with enhanced oversight to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need.”
A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on the letter to HuffPost.
“American taxpayers should not be spending one penny to fund this private organization backed by mercenaries and by the IDF that has become a death trap,” Van Hollen told CBS on “Face the Nation.” “Over a thousand people have died from being shot and killed as starving people crowd to try and get food at just these four sites.”
Israel has furthered the current catastrophe by blocking almost all other aid from entering the territory, in an effort to have GHF replace the United Nations’ long-existent aid distribution infrastructure. Israeli and U.S. leaders have repeatedly pushed claims that Hamas systematically steals aid, but Israeli military officials conceded in a New York Times report on Saturday that they have no evidence to support that.
“Inexperienced, untrained, no idea of how to conduct operations of this magnitude. That would be my most benign assessment. In my most frank assessment, I would say that they’re criminal,” Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar told the BBC of GHF’s operations while he worked there. “In my entire career I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population — an unarmed, starving population.”
Under pressure, Israel said it’s permitting airdrops of aid and a “tactical pause” in three areas of Gaza to allow for increased humanitarian deliveries, including from the U.N. Aid groups that have long warned against GHF say the change is welcome, but that the only way to bring relief to the population of 2 million Palestinians is for Israel to reopen humanitarian routes for the thousands of aid trucks waiting outside Gaza.
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“We welcome the humanitarian supplies entering Gaza of course — and we need to do that in a controlled manner. Airdrops are not in a controlled manner, and one airdrop is equal to around one truck,” Save the Children director Rachael Cummings told ABC’s “This Week.” “So we need to bring in humanitarian supplies over land through the recognized routes. We need the U.N. system [to] be enabled to manage the distributions.”
