Palestinian Testimonies and Official Investigations Contradict GHF Claims

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) announced that it has ended its operations in the Gaza Strip, following months of working in the enclave under a full blockade.

In a recent interview with Fox News, GHF Executive Director John Acree announced the shutdown of the foundation, presenting it as an effective method of distributing aid in a war-torn region. He praised the foundation’s method, claiming that Hamas has never looted a GHF aid truck while it was systematically looting U.N. aid. Acree’s remarks paved the way for further armed aid operations inside the besieged enclave, promoting the method as more efficient than alternative approaches.

Misbar investigated Acree’s statement and interviewed Gazans who went to GHF sites, as well as rights activists, highlighting a gap between the public narrative around U.S.-backed aid and the lived reality of Gaza’s civilians.

Testimonies Contradict Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Claims

In his statements, Acree presented GHF’s mission as purely humanitarian, ignoring the abuses and violations that occurred under American contractors working with the organization.

On June 11, after three months of a full blockade in the Strip, which left residents starving, Emad, a Gazan from the central area of the Strip, risked going to the GHF site in the Netzarim area. The gates opened between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m.

“Almost the first people to reach the parcels and start opening the boxes were the thieves — not the people in need,” Emad told Misbar. “The thieves are faster, more agile, and more daring, so they reach the aid first. They get the lion’s share.”

According to Emad, the GHF contractors did not organize the process or manage the flow of people, so thieves were left free to sift through parcels. He added that the timing of the distribution is “suspicious,” and seemed designed to favor thieves rather than the hungry.

Emad noted that the contractors stood about ten meters from the distribution area, behind barbed wire and concrete blocks, occasionally communicating instructions to the crowd: “Stay back, take what you can, and leave immediately.” The Israeli soldiers remained largely invisible but operated from fortified positions, firing at anyone who moved outside the perimeter.

Mohammed Nasser, another resident, echoed these observations. He described the distribution as a space controlled by survival of the fittest. “There is no system except one: kill or steal,” he said. “Strong people dominate the weak. Whoever arrives first takes the largest share. Those left behind are the hungry, who are few because most avoid going there late at night due to the danger and darkness.”

While Nasser observed theft and violence, he noted that the American contractors’ role was limited to crowd control. Tear gas and sound grenades were used to disperse those still trying to reach parcels toward the end of the distribution, but there was no effort to organize or regulate the process. The chaos unfolded in full view of both the contractors and the Israeli soldiers, who remained largely detached but monitored from fortified positions.

According to Emad and Mohammed, the GHF sites were marred by chaos and looting, which benefited thieves rather than the people in need. Their testimonies contradict Acree’s claims that the GHF’s method was designed to help hungry Gazans.

No Evidence Proves Hamas Looted U.N. Aid

Acree further claimed that Hamas never stole a single GHF truck, while it consistently stole from U.N. trucks. Israel and the U.S. previously used this claim to justify the armed GHF operation.

This claim contradicts investigations by the U.S. government and admissions from senior Israeli officials.

According to an analysis by the internal USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), there is no evidence of systematic aid theft by Hamas. The analysis, conducted in late June, one month after the GHF launched, examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of U.S.-funded aid.

Of these incidents, 63 were attributed to unknown perpetrators, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed people, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to aid group personnel “engaging in corrupt activities,” six to “others,” a category that accounted for “commodities stolen in unknown circumstances,” and 11 directly to Israeli military action, according to the USAID analysis.

Most of these incidents could not be attributed to any specific perpetrator, according to the presentation slide of the report obtained by Reuters.

The BHA analysis found that the Israeli military “directly or indirectly caused” 44 incidents in which U.S.-funded aid was lost or stolen, including 11 tied to direct Israeli actions such as airstrikes or evacuation orders.

The report noted that USAID partners tend to overreport any diversion by groups designated as terrorist organizations because they fear losing their U.S. grants. In other words, if Hamas were stealing systematically, it would have shown up clearly in these reports — but it did not.

When Reuters contacted the GHF about allegations that Hamas stole aid, the group pointed only to an article citing anonymous sources.

Furthermore, the claim that Hamas systematically steals U.N. aid is not supported by Israel’s own military.

According to an investigation by The New York Times, two senior Israeli military officials — along with two additional Israelis involved in oversight of Gaza aid — said there was no evidence that Hamas regularly stole U.N. supplies. They described the U.N.-run distribution system as largely effective and less vulnerable to interference than operations run by smaller NGOs. The officials stated that Hamas had stolen from some smaller organizations that lacked staff on the ground to supervise their deliveries.

The NYT report also revealed that Israeli military officials privately warned the government that dismantling the U.N.-led system and replacing it with the U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would worsen hunger and destabilize aid distribution. That warning was ignored.

Together, the U.S. government analysis and the admissions from senior Israeli military officials undermine the core premise behind Acree’s narrative and Israel’s public justification for backing the armed GHF operation: there is no evidence that Hamas systematically looted U.N. aid.

Leaked Documents Reveal Plans for New U.S.-Backed Gaza Deployment

Although GHF’s distribution model was widely criticized, newly leaked details about the American security contractors behind the GHF indicate plans to resume U.S.-controlled aid distribution in Gaza.

A Drop Site News investigation published in November revealed that UG Solutions — the U.S. private military subcontractor hired to secure GHF sites — has been quietly recruiting ex-soldiers for a new deployment to Gaza. According to internal communications reviewed by Drop Site, the company expects between 12 and 15 new aid sites to open in Gaza and has offered recruits $800 to $1,000 per day, plus per diem, for what officials described simply as “pulling security.”

The leaked details align with Acree’s statements to Fox News that the GHF will hand over its distribution mechanism in Gaza to another U.S. organization to resume the work.

The return of such an armed distribution method raises fears of more deaths among aid-seekers, repeating the GHF scenario. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed at GHF sites either by gunfire or crushed to death, according to U.N. figures.

A Sky News analysis revealed that deaths spiked on the days the GHF distributed more aid. According to the analysis, when GHF conducted two or fewer distributions, health authorities recorded an average of 48 deaths and 189 injuries across the Strip.

But on days with five or six GHF distributions, the number of reported casualties was nearly three times higher.

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