Thirty-five independent UN human rights experts have called for the immediate dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israeli-backed organization that operates a controversial aid distribution system in Gaza, citing serious violations of international law.
“The GHF, a nongovernmental organization created by Israel in February 2025, with U.S. support, to allegedly distribute aid in Gaza, is an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas,” the experts said in a statement.
The entanglement of Israeli intelligence, U.S. contractors and ambiguous non-governmental entities underlines the urgent need for robust international oversight and action under UN auspices.
“Calling it ‘humanitarian’ adds on to Israel’s humanitarian camouflage and is an insult to the humanitarian enterprise and standards,” they added.
“Seeing children dying of hunger in their parents’ arms should shake us out of our complacency,” the experts said.
“Blocking or delaying aid is not just inhumane—it is a war crime where it is intended to starve civilians and in the context of a well-documented and globally denounced genocide,” the experts said.
“Securing access to food, water, medicine and critical services is not a matter of charity—it is a legal duty, all the more in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory. We must recall that the ICJ has found the Israeli occupation to be unlawful and ordered Israel to withdraw its troops, dismantle the settlements, and stop exploiting Palestinian resources while racially segregating Palestinians,” the experts said.
Israel must comply with the ICJ decision, and Member States are required to support its enforcement.
“Without clear accountability, the very idea of humanitarian relief may ultimately become a casualty of modern hybrid warfare,” they said.
The credibility and effectiveness of humanitarian assistance must be restored by dismantling the GHF, holding it and its executives accountable, and allowing experienced and humanitarian actors from the UN and civil society alike to take back the reins of managing and distributing lifesaving aid.
The experts urged member states to impose a full arms embargo on Israel due to its multiple violations of international law, and suspend trade and investment agreements that may result in harming the Palestinians and hold corporate entities accountable.
Starving Over Two Million Palestinians in Gaza
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 193 have died from malnutrition and hunger since the start of the Israeli genocide in October 2023. Among them are 96 children and infants.
Last week, UNICEF warned that Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food.
Over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Oxfam, warned that “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza, with their colleagues in the enclave wasting away from hunger.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza City has been the area “worst-hit” by malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, with nearly one in five children under five there now acutely malnourished.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food.
Health officials in Gaza issued a stark warning lately: Hundreds of severely emaciated Palestinians are on the verge of death, their bodies too weak to resist any longer.
The Director of Al-Shifa Hospital said hospitals are dealing with hundreds suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition. “We don’t have enough beds or medicine,” he said. “We’re seeing symptoms like memory loss, exhaustion, and collapse from extreme hunger.” He added:
We have 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. This is a generation being starved to death.
According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, over 650,000 children under the age of five face an imminent and severe risk of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks, out of a total of 1.1 million children in the Gaza Strip.
Currently, around 1.25 million people in Gaza are living under catastrophic hunger conditions, while 96% of the population is suffering from severe levels of food insecurity, including more than one million children, according to the Office.
UNRWA warned,
The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children.
Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Palestinians in Gaza face “an acute risk of famine”.
“No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) last week, two out of three famine thresholds for food consumption have been breached across most of Gaza, with acute malnutrition levels in Gaza City confirming aid agencies’ repeated warnings.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC assessment maintained.
The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s clearly a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes, in front of our television screens,” said Ross Smith, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Emergencies.
“This is not a warning, this is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,” he told journalists in Geneva.
The last IPC analysis on Gaza, issued on May 12, forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit “catastrophic” levels.
Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said:
Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.
Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it.
Is Humanitarian Aid Reaching Gaza?
On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, with human rights organizations accusing it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.
After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a scandal-plagued organization backed by the U.S. and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza.
Moreover, mass killings of aid seekers near and at GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces and American mercenaries. Testimonies and evidence from U.S. mercenaries working with GHF, as well as from Gaza civilians, reveal that aid seekers are being directly and deliberately targeted, despite posing no threat.
Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.
According to the UN human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed while seeking food near or at the GHF sites since the GHF began operating in late May. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said:
Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.
More than 514 were also killed by Israeli forces along the routes of food convoys, OHCHR added.
Human Rights Watch stated last week that Israel’s killing of aid seekers at GHF sites amounts to war crimes.
With starvation across the Strip spreading, international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza, the Israeli military announced a “tactical pause” in military activity in some areas of Gaza which it claimed would make it easier to send in UN convoys. However, attacks and killings have been reported across most of the Strip.
A UN worker said the “last minute” aid windows may not be enough to treat malnourished children.
The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.
Last week, the WFP said it is not getting the necessary volumes of humanitarian assistance into Gaza despite Israel claiming it issued new measures to enable more supplies to enter the enclave.
“We have not gotten the authorisation, the permission to move in the volumes that we’ve requested,” Smith said.
Smith said the disaster unfolding in Gaza is “unlike anything we have seen in this century”, adding that it was reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the 20th century.
On Monday, the Gaza Government Media Office and aid groups confirmed that only 674 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Israel announced on July 27 that it would allow the entry of aid, an average of just 84 trucks per day. This represents just 14% of the estimated 4,800 trucks required to meet minimum humanitarian needs.
It added that Gaza requires at least 600 aid and fuel trucks daily to provide for the essential needs of its health, public service, and food sectors.
The Office noted:
We confirm that there are more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks currently parked at the Gaza Strip crossing gates, most of which belong to UN and international organizations and various entities.
“Engineering Starvation” in Gaza
Israel has deliberately engineered famine and chaos in Gaza, the Gaza Government Media Office said, as most of the aid trucks that entered Gaza were looted in a “systematic disorder fostered by the Israeli occupation”.
“What is happening in Gaza is a clear and deliberate model of how the Israeli occupation is consciously fostering chaos and engineering starvation,” the Media Office said, adding that aid is being intentionally prevented from reaching warehouses or intended recipients.
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security has also accused Israel of pursuing a policy of targeting its staff “carrying out their duty of securing aid trucks distributed by international organisations, preventing them from reaching those in need safely”.
It also accused Israeli forces of sponsoring “networks of thieves and thugs to seize control of aid trucks, depriving more than two million citizens of safe access and perpetuating famine in the Strip”.
“This is a blatant attempt by the occupation to absolve itself of legal responsibility for using starvation as a weapon in times of war,” the Ministry said in a statement.
This strategy forces Palestinians to travel long distances for aid, putting themselves at great risk, the statement read, adding that this has led to the “destruction of some of the aid supplies due to stampede and overcrowding”.
Meanwhile, the occupation directly targets them and commits massacres, killing dozens daily near the routes leading to the entry of aid.