Controversial Gaza aid distributor backed by US, Israel ends operations

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US and Israeli-backed organisation to distribute aid in Gaza, said on Monday it was ending its operations after months of criticism over deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach its hubs.

The GHF, which had bypassed the United Nations and long-established aid agencies to distribute food, upsetting European leaders, made the announcement weeks after suspending its operations following the October 10 ceasefire in Gaza.

It started distributing food to needy Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in late May. Most of its sites were located in southern Gaza, away from much of the population.

That forced Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid. Hundreds of Palestinians were shot dead near its sites when they first opened, with the Israeli military saying it had opened fire on Palestinians approaching soldiers.

GHF Executive Director John Acree said in a statement that a US-led multinational coordination centre in Israel overseeing President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war would be "adopting and expanding the model" that the GHF had piloted.

"As a result, we are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there's a better way to deliver aid to Gazans," he said. GHF said it was only ever established as a "temporary emergency initiative".

GHF started supplying aid in Gaza nearly three months after Israel imposed a blockade on all goods entering the war-shattered enclave. A famine was later declared in parts of Gaza.

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger, speaking in Jerusalem in June alongside her Israeli counterpart, told reporters that the GHF was not a reliable partner.

The Trump administration provided tens of millions of dollars to finance GHF operations but the organisation otherwise repeatedly refused to say who else had funded it. Last month, it said it had enough funds to operate until the end of November.

In recent months, the GHF had unsuccessfully asked UN agencies to use its sites to hand out aid.

The GHF's future had been uncertain ever since Trump announced his 20-point plan to end the two-year war.

A clause in that plan says that "institutions associated in any manner with either" Hamas or Israel would not take part in aid distribution.

The foundation halted operations in Gaza as the October 10 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect but had repeatedly framed the suspension as only temporary.

On Monday, it said that it had delivered 187 million meals to Gazans since starting operations nearly six months ago, on average less than a meal a day relative to Gaza's 2 million Palestinians.