As Israel starves Gaza, a group of over 20 Democratic senators are calling on the Trump administration to stop funding the controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and instead resume support for UN efforts to distribute aid to the Gaza Strip.
In a letter yesterday to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), 21 lawmakers condemned the GHF, stressing the organization’s operations undermine long-established humanitarian norms.
“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 Conventions in 1949,” the senators’ letter reads.
Many international humanitarian organizations have condemned the GHF along these lines, as the IDF has been accused of killing Palestinians waiting for food at the aid hubs almost daily. The facilities’ are located in central and southern Gaza only, suggesting an Israeli effort to drive Palestinians south, out of northern Gaza and potentially into fenced in “humanitarian zones” in the desert.
"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,” according to the senators’ letter.
Along similar lines, Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation" yesterday that 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.”
In the letter, the senators also expressed concern over armed U.S. contractors currently securing the aid hubs alongside the IDF. Reports of contractors shooting at, or otherwise harming, Palestinians at the GHF hubs have circulated since the organization began its operations in late May.
“The introduction of U.S. security contractors into Gaza places them in a volatile environment where new militia groups are reportedly forming with Israel’s help, increasing the risks for both Palestinians and the Americans now on the ground,” the senators wrote.
The senators also asked if the private American contracting companies sending the contractors, Safe Reach Solutions and U.G. Solutions, received State Department funding toward their operations. More broadly, they asked what procurement mechanism was used to provide the $30 million in aid to the GHF, which the State Department announced on June 26.
As Gaza’s hunger crisis grows, leading to growing international outrage over Israel’s starvation and onslaught of the Strip, Israel has announced additional measures to allow aid to Palestinian people, where daily humanitarian pauses will allow UN convoys to enter the territory. Israel and other nations have also resumed dropping aid into Gaza. However, aid groups criticize aid drops as an unsafe and inefficient tactic and the aid trickling in has been deemed insufficient.
Israel has always maintained that Hamas was stealing food aid going into the Strip for their own benefit, yet the New York Times reported over the weekend that the Israeli military had no proof that this was actually happening.
