GAZA- In a sweeping and urgent call to action, more than 130 humanitarian and human rights organizations—including Oxfam, Save the Children, Amnesty International, and Médecins Sans Frontières—have jointly demanded the immediate dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an aid mechanism created and backed by Israel and the United States. The NGOs accuse the GHF of contributing to what they describe as a “manufactured humanitarian catastrophe” and of directly endangering the lives of civilians already suffering under Israeli bombardment and siege.
The joint statement, released Tuesday, represents one of the most unified and forceful condemnations yet of the GHF, which began operating in the Gaza Strip in late May 2024. According to the signatories, the GHF has become a militarized and centralized aid operation that has replaced more than 400 community-based food distribution points with only four heavily secured distribution zones, primarily located in southern and central Gaza.
“These are not humanitarian corridors,” the statement reads. “They are corridors to death.”
Aid Distribution Turned Kill Zones
The core of the NGOs’ outrage stems from the GHF’s distribution model, which, they say, exposes civilians to grave and repeated violence. Since its deployment just weeks ago, over 500 Palestinians have reportedly been killed and nearly 4,000 injured while attempting to access food through GHF-managed aid centers.
Eyewitness reports and documentation compiled by aid workers and local journalists detail scenes of chaos, panic, and targeted attacks. According to the NGOs, Israeli forces have “routinely and systematically” fired on crowds of civilians gathered at aid sites, including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In over half of the documented incidents, children were among the casualties.
“These sites are not neutral humanitarian spaces,” said a spokesperson for Oxfam. “They are militarized zones controlled by a government currently engaged in a campaign of collective punishment and forced displacement. For us to continue calling them ‘aid centers’ is to abandon the truth.”
A Humanitarian Facade
The NGOs’ joint report argues that the GHF is not a neutral or humanitarian body but rather a geopolitical tool disguised as a relief mechanism. The foundation, according to the statement, is being used by Israel and its allies to manage and control Gaza’s population through aid dependency—while undermining the role of trusted humanitarian actors and established local networks that have operated in the Strip for years.
“GHF is a political weapon masquerading as a relief agency,” said one field coordinator with a European humanitarian NGO operating in Rafah. “It doesn’t meet the most basic standards of humanitarian neutrality or independence. It forces civilians to make a choice between starvation or risking their lives at gunpoint.”
The NGOs stress that prior to the implementation of the GHF, aid in Gaza—though already heavily constrained by the blockade—was distributed through hundreds of local points, in coordination with UN agencies like UNRWA, and smaller NGOs familiar with the terrain and the communities they served. The GHF model, they argue, dismantled this ecosystem in favor of centralized, highly securitized checkpoints controlled by an occupying power.
Hunger Weaponized
As famine-like conditions worsen in Gaza, the NGOs say that civilians are becoming too weak to endure the physical and emotional toll of attempting to retrieve food from these dangerous sites. The report describes scenes of orphaned children dying while queuing for rations, women being trampled or shot, and medical staff unable to respond due to the collapse of the health system.
“Parents are forced to decide whether to risk sending their children to collect food—fully aware they may not return—or to endure hunger together,” said the director of Save the Children Middle East. “It is a choice no human being should ever have to make.”
In their appeal to the international community, the NGOs warn that continued funding and political support for the GHF—particularly from Western donors—makes those governments complicit in what is increasingly being described by legal experts and rights organizations as war crimes and possible acts of genocide.
International Complicity and Call to Action
The statement concludes with a direct call to international donors, UN agencies, and governments to immediately withdraw all financial, logistical, and diplomatic support from the GHF. Instead, they urge a return to localized, decentralized humanitarian networks that do not require civilians to enter high-risk zones or interact with occupying forces.
“This is not a call for better coordination,” said a representative of Amnesty International. “It is a call to shut it down. Now. Every hour that the GHF continues to operate, lives are lost.”
The NGOs demand that humanitarian access in Gaza be restored based on international law, including protections for civilians, independent humanitarian organizations, and non-discriminatory access to food, water, and medical aid. They also urge investigations into the GHF’s role in exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and call for accountability from both the Israeli and U.S. governments.
As the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza intensifies, the statement serves as both an indictment and a warning: when humanitarian aid becomes a weapon, neutrality dies—and so do those it was meant to protect.
