Aid group boss defends work despite Palestinian aid hub deaths
The head of an aid organisation supported by Israel and the United States has justified the group’s activities, despite continuous deaths of Palestinians attempting to receive aid from its distribution locations, the BBC reported on June 27th.
Johnnie Moore, who oversees the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), told the BBC World Service’s Newshour that he was conscious of the fatalities near aid centres. However, Moore emphasised that “100% of those casualties are being attributed to close proximity to GHF” which he claimed is inaccurate.
Moore asserted that the United Nations and other international bodies have been spreading unverified data. UN agencies have denounced the GHF’s aid framework, and on June 27th UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres labelled it “inherently unsafe.”
The UN chief stated: “Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. The search for food must never be a death sentence.”
The Gaza health ministry, operated by Hamas, reports that over 500 Palestinians have died and 4,000 have sustained injuries while attempting to receive aid since GHF assumed control of aid delivery.
Witnesses and medical personnel have repeatedly recounted Israeli troops firing at groups gathered near aid distribution sites. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly dismissed the accounts, labelling the claims as “malicious falsehoods.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) informed the BBC in a declaration that it “did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centres.” It further mentioned that it aimed to enhance “the operational response” in the aid sites and had installed additional barriers and signs, and introduced alternative paths to access the handout areas.
On June 27th, France 24 via Reuters reported, that the GHF will obtain $30 million in monetary support from the US State Department, representing the first publicly acknowledged contribution from the US government to the food aid group.
As reported by Maghrebi, the move occurred in spite of and amid rising worries about the brutality taking place near aid centres that deliver food provisions to Gazans. People have also expressed unease about the organisation’s association with for-profit US firms.
BBC, Maghrebi.org, France24 via Reuters
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