Palestinians gather at an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
In a statement on Friday, MSF condemned the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), set up last month by the US and Israel, saying it “is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies”.
MSF has demanded the project be “immediately dismantled”.
The announcement comes as the United States has authorized providing $30 million to the group, a US official said on Tuesday, despite growing criticism of its operations. It also comes as conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate under Israel’s blockade and genocidal war on the territory.
On Thursday, Israel shut crossings into northern Gaza, blocking the most direct route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at risk of famine. The closure followed yet more killings of civilians waiting for food.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 56 people were killed in another string of Israeli attacks on Thursday, including six who had gathered at two separate aid distribution points.
At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 injured by Israeli forces while trying to access humanitarian aid over the past month, the Government Media Office said.
In a statement posted to Telegram on Wednesday, the office described the so-called “American-Israeli aid centres” as “death traps and traps for daily mass killing and luring” that have, within a month, become sites of repeated massacres.
It said the killings occurred as Palestinians attempted to reach food amid “a policy of starvation and comprehensive siege”.
Since the GHF began operations, UN efforts to deliver aid through existing humanitarian frameworks have been repeatedly obstructed by Israeli military restrictions, ongoing airstrikes, and widespread lawlessness on the ground.
The UN has warned that the GHF lacks neutrality and has undermined established, more effective aid systems that previously functioned in Gaza.
At least 11 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli air and drone strikes in southern Gaza on Friday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Warplanes reportedly bombed a tent sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi, a declared “safe zone” south-west of Khan Younis, while drones struck the Bani Suheila and Sheikh Nasser neighbourhoods.
Another person was reported killed in a separate Israeli air raid on the town of al-Qarara.
Since the war began on 7 October 2023, Israel has killed at least 56,156 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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