Executive summary

The purpose of this paper is to delineate and describe The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)- why it was created, how it operates, and what it has managed to accomplish in Gaza. The paper will cover the operations of the GHF as well as the international campaign attempting to tarnish its humanitarian work by citing false claims originating from Hamas-aligned sources. This paper explains the humanitarian-aid complex and how the interests of UN bodies, Hamas, and certain mainstream media outlets all converged to chastising the GHF rather than collaborating with it in its humanitarian mission. 

• The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was created to establish a secure, professionally managed humanitarian supply channel in Gaza that operates independently of Hamas influence. Formed by a multidisciplinary team (humanitarian logistics, security, diplomacy, finance), it mobilized quickly after the deterioration of legacy aid mechanisms and is capitalized with U.S. government sponsorship plus private and governmental donor support from other unnamed sources. Its strategic purpose is dual: immediate large-scale relief (food, hygiene, medical essentials) and structural disruption of militant control over aid-dependent civilian life.

• Hamas has an inherent interest in scuttling the GHF humanitarian framework as it takes away its leverage over the population by controlling the aid and making money to power its war machine. Dismantling the GHF has been Hamas’s second most prioritized demand in the hostage deal negotiations after stopping the war because of the impact that the GHF has on its governing capabilities. Hamas has worked with the international humanitarian community to spread the famine in Gaza lie to exert pressure on Israel to end the war and allow Hamas to control the humanitarian aid by shutting the GHF operations.

• Before GHF’s intervention, the aid pipeline moving through conventional crossings was chronically compromised: systematic diversion, siphoning of commodities, and repurposing of materials for tunnel fortification and militant sustainment. These leakages eroded civilian confidence, inflated black-market pricing, and empowered patronage networks that converted humanitarian inputs into political loyalty and operational cash flow. Persistent allegations and external criticisms targeted both diversion and coercive crowd management practices, underscoring the need for an alternative channel with verifiable integrity. Even today, pictures and videos of armed groups such as Hamas commandeering aid, and the UN’s self-declared inability to deliver aid, are continuing proof of the compromised previous system.

• Launching food distribution rapidly (late May) and accelerating steeply by early July, GHF crossed the tens of millions meal threshold within weeks. Daily throughput ramped from hundreds of thousands toward the multi-million range, aligned with an ambitious 90-day commitment sufficient, in aggregate, to cover most of the population’s baseline caloric needs. This growth curve demonstrated that a purpose-built, security-integrated humanitarian platform can match or exceed legacy volume benchmarks while enforcing anti-diversion safeguards.

• The GHF opened four Secure Distribution Sites (SDS) geographically positioned to balance accessibility with security. Each site is engineered for high, modular throughput (initially serving roughly a few hundred thousand people per site, scalable to well over two million cumulative). Pre-packaged unit boxes (food, hygiene, medical items) standardize handling, reduce pilferage opportunities and compress dwell time at pick-up points. Randomized warehouse allocation upstream and a lean, repeatable “box per household representative” model drive an all-in meal cost engineered to remain low while preserving layered security.

• The end-to-end pipeline integrates inspection and sealing in controlled private facilities; randomized assignment to convoys to defeat targeting; escorted movement along pre-approved secure corridors; and tightly managed last-meter distribution at SDS perimeters. Quantitative consistency (dozens of loaded trucks daily; each carrying high meal equivalents) enables predictable civilian planning. Design choices, such as small package size, removal of large transshipment stacks and minimized idle staging, systematically lower the “theft value density” that previously incentivized organized seizure.

• A hybrid security scheme combines private professional route and site protection, local auxiliary forces for crowd interface, and standoff deconfliction with external military surveillance and intelligence. This stratification creates overlapping deterrence: early interdiction of threats on routes; perimeter control that prevents chaotic crowd surges; and aerial/ISR overwatch discouraging organized attacks. The absence of mass-casualty incidents at distribution nodes (despite adversarial narratives) is positioned as validation of the model’s protective architecture.

• Hamas and aligned actors have employed a blend of intimidation (threats, bounties against security personnel, pressure on local partners), targeted violence (attacks producing aid worker casualties, use of grenades and small weapons in the distribution sites and injuries to foreign staff) and proximate harassment to erode morale and deter attendance. Incidents of Hamas operatives beating and killing Gazans who receive aid from GHF centers are reported on a regular basis. Hamas propaganda targets Gazans who collaborate with the GHF or simply receive aid as traitors and collaborators with the enemy and are targeted. The kinetic layer is deliberately coupled with psychological messaging portraying sites as traps or intelligence fronts, aiming to fracture nascent civilian trust and restore dependence on controlled, diversion-prone channels.

• Parallel to physical threats, an information operations effort seeds rapid, emotive allegations (shootings, deaths at sites, adulterated commodities) calibrated for viral media uptake before verification. Subsequent clarifications or corrections lag, allowing initial narratives to shape perception. Legacy agencies and coalition NGOs, some defending incumbent roles, echo or amplify concerns, calling for reversion to traditional UN-centric mechanisms. This forces GHF to allocate management bandwidth to reputational defense while sustaining throughput.

• By inserting a high-volume, low-leakage supply chain that bypasses militant gatekeepers, GHF constrains the prior “diversion economy” (skimming percentages, black-market resale of staples like flour, monetization of restricted goods). According to estimates Hamas has made over half a billion dollars in 2024 alone from stolen aid to power its terror machine.  Reduced scarcity dampens speculative spikes and undermines patronage leverage. Strategically, the model attacks layered civilian alignment ideological cooperation, passive co-optation, enforced compliance by offering a neutral alternative that does not extract political loyalty as a condition for essential goods. The proposed vetted “humanitarian city” concept extends this logic: concentrated, demilitarized service provision to crystallize a post-Hamas civic nucleus. 

• The cumulative effect- secure scale, cost discipline, anti-diversion design, psychological counter-narrative and embryonic governance substitution advances a template for humanitarian operations in contested spaces where armed groups have historically monopolized aid. Resistance from legacy structures highlights competitive disruption, yet the demonstrable feasibility invites adaptation to other sectors (health, education, welfare) and theaters. Sustained donor confidence and eventual multilateral buy-in could institutionalize a model that simultaneously meets urgent relief needs and reshapes the political economy that previously empowered militant governance.

• UN aid organizations like UNICEF, WFP and OCHA have refused to collaborate with GHF despite continuous requests from COGAT and the GHF to work together to allow aid to reach more people and achieve the humanitarian mission that these organizations were designed for. Because of their cooperation with local Hamas operatives on the ground who control the aid, and a political battle of who should be responsible for aid deliveries, the UN has seen the GHF as a competitor to be boycotted rather than a partner to work with. As a result, over 600 truckloads of aid have been left on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom border which were supposed to be picked up by UN originations. Instead of helping the civilians of Gaza, the UN with the support to the international humanitarian community have launched a campaign of delegitimization of the GHF with bogus claims of not adhering to humanitarian principles. The civilians of Gaza have suffered the brunt of this political campaign orchestrated by Hamas and the UN.

• The Network Contagion Research Institute has issued a report on July 15th 2025 titled: “The 4th Estate Sale: How American and European Media Became an Uncritical Mouthpiece for a Designated Foreign Terror Organization” which lays down the pipeline of information passing from Hamas itself and its acolytes straight to the headlines of top news items on the GHF in Gaza by constructing a narrative that is beneficial to Hamas. The shocking finding was that the UN humanitarian organizations, which were created to facilitate the distribution of aid and refused to collaborate with GHF despite its pleas, were participating in amplifying unverified Hamas-sourced claims while ignoring statement and reports from the IDF and GHF.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is an American foundation established in February 2025. The foundation is led by experts in various fields—humanitarian aid, security, diplomacy, and finance. Its funding comes from governments as well as private donations. On June 26, the U.S. State Department announced that it would allocate $30 million to support the foundation’s activities. The recognition that an entity that could safely and securely deliver aid to Gazan civilians without going through Hamas, would be a critical factor in the war, was anticipated and conceived, just weeks after Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, and has received support from both the Biden and Trump administrations. It must be emphasized that Hamas is declared as terror organization by the USA and most of the western countries (EU, Canada, UK and more).

Before the Foundation’s Operations

Since the onset of the war, humanitarian aid has primarily been delivered through supply trucks entering via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the Erez crossing, and a new crossing opened (March 2024) near Be’eri, reaching distribution points. Over 95,000 trucks carrying more than 1.8 million tons of humanitarian aid have entered. However, Hamas and other entities seized control of the aid trucks, stole goods, and hindered the ability of Gaza residents to receive humanitarian aid. This aid also enabled Hamas to hoard supplies, continue fortifying their tunnels and hideouts, and sustain their fight against Israel. According to the UN’s own figures, in June 1090 trucks entered Gaza with 1043 being intercepted. This means that only 47 trucks reached their destination without being intercepted which is about 4%.

The foundation’s activities faced criticism from international bodies, such as the UN, even before operations began, due to allegations that they violate humanitarian aid principles. Additionally, Switzerland considered launching a criminal investigation into the foundation’s activities, suspecting it enforces displacement of Gaza residents and puts thousands at risk of harm. However, the foundation denied these allegations, stating that it is “fully committed to humanitarian principles and will not support any form of forced displacement of civilians.”

It is important to emphasize that a significant amount of the GHF staff have extensive experience in providing humanitarian assistance in other parts of the world. Most of the staff have 15-25 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, some have worked for UN agencies, international NGOs and USAID. Their experience also includes field work alongside work in strategic planning and inter-organizational cooperation. There are dozens of countries where GHF staff have been active prior to joining the foundation, assisting during dozens of conflicts and humanitarian events with populations from all over the world. Among them are Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Iraq, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Jamaica, Morocco, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

It seems that part of the frustration of the global humanitarian aid community is because the GHF personnel were trained and worked with them but chose to refuse to continue working with them to work with the GHF.

Amount of Aid Distributed

The foundation began distributing food on May 26. As of August 5, over 106 million meals have been distributed to Gaza residents, averaging over one million meals per day. This is despite initially distributing a few hundred thousand meals daily and amid the “Rising Lion” war between Israel and Iran during the foundation’s first month of operation. Currently, the number of meals provided daily is estimated at 2 to 2.5 million (the population of the Gaza Strip is also estimated at approximately 2 million). It should be noted that the foundation committed to distributing 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.

How the Aid is Distributed

The aid is distributed through four Secure Distribution Sites (SDS), three in southern Gaza and one in central-northern Gaza. Each site is designed to serve approximately 300,000 people, totaling 1.2 million people, with plans to expand aid to over 2 million. The aid, which includes pre-packaged food parcels, hygiene products, and medical supplies, is transported through secure corridors to prevent theft. The cost of each meal is approximately $1.30, including security and logistics expenses.

Currently (August), there are approximately 60 trucks that enter Gaza daily from Kerem Shalom with each truck carrying approximately 60,000 meals. The aid is inspected in Israel by SRS and UG (American contractor companies) and is stored in a few warehouses where it is later picked up with SRS (Safe Reach Solution) convoys that deliver it to the SDS. The distribution of the aid is randomized to different people in the warehouses in Israel- making it virtually impossible to smuggle weapons to specific destinations. The randomization mechanism disrupts any attempts to coordinate arm smuggling to Gaza, which was a major flaw of previous aid delivery systems. 

In the past Hamas would regularly commandeer aid trucks heading to warehouses along routes that were not completely secured.  The GHF procedure does not allow trucks to be commandeered and looted, since all the trucks go in specified routes secured by SRS with the IDF coordinating deconfliction zones to ensure avoidance of friendly fire.

Once the aid is delivered to the SDS, distribution is carried out so that each representative of household can visit a distribution site and collect a box for their family, making it difficult for Hamas to seize or steal them from civilians, as each box contains only a small amount of food. This contrasts with the methods of other organizations, such as the UN, where humanitarian aid is delivered to distribution centers and stores via trucks, making it easier for Hamas to steal large quantities of aid—either by seizing trucks or breaking into distribution centers.

It is important to note that heads of households are not required to undergo checks beyond security screenings or register with a supervising entity. This aims to build trust between residents and the operators of the aid centers, despite the understanding that some individuals may attempt to take more than one box per day.

How Hamas Threatens, Targets, and Kills Gaza Civilians

Since the start of operations in May 2025, Hamas has threatened groups supporting the new aid mechanism and attempted to prevent Gaza residents from accessing distribution points. Additionally, Hamas’s Ministry of Interior warned that Israel would use the aid centers for intelligence purposes. This statement reflects Hamas’s fear of the new aid centers and their potential to undermine its control over the Strip and its residents. Hamas also routinely harasses civilians who accept aid and brands civilians as collaborators. Recently, Hamas has insisted GHF close down as part of the ceasefire deal and all aid distribution return to the UN.

According to several reports (and a subsequent GHF statement on June 28), Hamas explicitly targets the foundation and its workers. Hamas offers money to those who harm or kill the foundation’s American security personnel and Gaza aid workers. Furthermore, it has stationed armed operatives near humanitarian zones to disrupt the aid mechanism. At least 12 Gaza aid workers have been killed by Hamas, alongside others who have been tortured, with increasing threats. On July 5^th, two Americans working at one of the distribution sites were injured by a grenade launched by Hamas militants who targeted the American personnel.

Additionally, despite foreign reports (from outlets like Al Jazeera) of shootings and killings of civilians near aid sites, the GHF revealed that these claims are false and condemned those spreading such rumors, which created fear and chaos among aid recipients and discouraged civilians to take advantage of the GHF operations. According to a June 30 statement by the foundation, reports of shootings of civilians near aid sites are untrue and pertain to incidents at other sites, such as those operated by the UN and other humanitarian organizations. The misinformation originates from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas (which has an interest in undermining the foundation’s operations) and is amplified by media outlets, primarily Al Jazeera.

Hamas has consistently fabricated allegations, and attribute it to the "Palestinian Government Media Office” the “Gaza Ministry of Health” or another agency that is part of the Hamas government. They often use a generic photo with no identifying markers in the image, like timestamp or location and push all of it using Hamas-connected influencers in social media and media outlets, to amplify it. Western mainstream media often reports this as credible, and only a couple of days later when the Hamas narrative of events have been credibly disproven, will they issue a correction, after the news cycle has passed, causing irreparable harm to both the GHF, and to the needy Gaza civilians.

How Security is Provided by Various Entities (U.S., Israel, and Local Gazans)

U.S. Entities: American private security companies are responsible for securing the distribution sites themselves, managed by individuals with extensive experience in U.S. security agencies. The first company, Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), owned by a former senior CIA officer, handles the security of aid routes and logistics. The second, UG Solutions, led by Jameson Giovanni, a former U.S. special forces member, is responsible for checkpoints and GHF distribution centers.

Israel: Under the agreed framework, the IDF is responsible for securing distribution sites from a distance through intelligence and aerial monitoring. Additionally, aid trucks enter through routes controlled by the IDF to prevent looting. It should be emphasized that despite reports claiming Israel killed hundreds of Gazans at distribution sites through gunfire, these appear to be false. The GHF stated (June 1) that no deaths occurred at any of its sites. The foundation also released camera footage absolving the IDF from allegations of shooting Gazan civilians.

Gaza Locals: According to reports, Gaza militias are also involved in securing aid centers. For example, the “Popular Forces” militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabāb (also known as the Abu Shabāb militia), collaborates with Israel against Hamas, participating in securing aid centers and supply convoys. On July 2, Hamas’s Ministry of Interior announced that Yasser Abu Shabāb must surrender within 10 days, charging him with forming an armed group and inciting rebellion.

Exploitation of Humanitarian Aid by Hamas

Gaza has been an aid supported society for decades. Over the last two decades, Hamas has weaponized Aid and aid organizations such as UNRWA to maintain its stranglehold on Gaza and further its terrorist aims, including enriching itself through controlled supply chains and educational indoctrination in aid supported schools.

Hamas, which today sells looted humanitarian aid to fund its military activities, has a clear interest in preventing the foundation’s operations. Control over humanitarian aid allows Hamas to use it as leverage against the population to discourage cooperation with Israel or the establishment of an alternative governance mechanism. Additionally, Hamas uses the funds it earns from selling aid to pay its operatives. According to a May 2024 assessment by commentator Ehud Yaari, Hamas had already earned more than half a billion dollars in plundered aid. In an interview to NBC, House Speaker Mike Johnson, confirmed these claims, saying that Israel had let in over the course of the war over 2 years’ worth of food into Gaza. The reason the aid has not reached civilians is because Hamas has stolen the food. He has said that over the course of 2024, estimates suggest that Hamas has profited over half a billion dollars from food that should have reached the civilians of Gaza. This constituted over half of Hamas’ budget, showing that the UN delivery system is inherently broken.

Over the course of the entire war, the IDF estimates that Hamas has earned hundreds of millions of dollars by exploiting the humanitarian aid mechanism. In June, the IDF published findings indicating that Hamas used humanitarian aid to fund terrorism— “Hamas determined throughout the war that various amounts (between 15% and over 25%) of the humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip would be automatically diverted to the terrorist organization and its needs. The aid allocated to the terrorist organization was transferred to operatives in the field or sold at high prices to profit at the expense of Gaza residents. A document recently uncovered proves that decisions on this matter were made during the war.”

In a conversation between local Gazans and COGAT officers, the Gazans explained how Hamas steals flour from UNRWA and sells it at double the market price. Additionally, Hamas attempted to smuggle “prohibited” items like cigarettes, which it banned merchants from selling to maintain a monopoly on the market. As part of the humanitarian aid process, cigarettes were not approved for entry, and attempts to smuggle tobacco products were often, but not always thwarted.

Reports emerged in July 2025, that armed gangs affiliated with Hamas and independent forces created a secure mechanism where aid is stolen from UNRWA and EFP warehouses.

Efforts to Delegitimize the Foundation Through False News

Hamas launched a series of claims about mass shootings of Gaza civilians at distribution centers, through its controlled Ministry of Health or “Civil Defense Agency.” Global media outlets cited Hamas sources, initiating a campaign of delegitimization by international media, various aid organizations, and jurists who politicized international law by attacking Israel and the GHF. Western media reports tend to label GHF as “controversial” or an “Israeli-American” foundation, despite its registration as an independent non-governmental organization. Additionally, surprisingly, UN organizations have been highly critical of GHF, claiming that it does not fulfill the population’s needs or according to established humanitarian principles,  despite GHF being staffed by senior officials with extensive humanitarian aid experience: Interim executive director, John Acree is a former senior USAID official; Board of Trustees member, Nate Mook, is a former CEO of World Central Kitchen; and senior advisor Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz served as the U.S. Security Coordinator between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. As Israel works with GHF to facilitate widespread humanitarian aid distribution, “human rights” organizations like Amnesty International issued reports accusing Israel of using starvation tactics to commit genocide against Gazans. Succumbing to pressure coming from the UN and legacy aid organizations that appear threatened by the GHF, its first director, Jake Wood, resigned the day before operations began in Gaza.

According to recordings released by the IDF and COGAT, local Gazans testified that Hamas militants fired small arms and mortars toward distribution points in Rafah. They stated that the IDF responded to the Hamas fire, which allowed Hamas and international media to claim that the IDF deliberately targets civilians, exactly as Hamas planned. Additionally, locals testified that Hamas acted to disrupt the aid mechanism, including by pressuring aid agencies to pass aid on pre-determined routes so Hamas could steal it. In a conversation with COGAT, local Gazans revealed that Hamas consistently uses terror and violence against civilians in food distribution areas and falsifies data to create the appearance of large-scale casualty events caused by the IDF.

International pressure manifests in several ways. Over 170 charitable organizations called for halting GHF operations and returning aid distribution to the UN, claiming the foundation operates in an uncoordinated and illegitimate manner. This claim ignores the fact that Hamas seizes UN aid, while GHF works to distribute aid directly to residents outside of Hamas’s control. Additionally, after claims were spread about the organization distributing drugs, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon criticized the UN’s handling of GHF, stating that these were false claims aimed at undermining the organization.

Reports published in June by BBC, The Guardian, and the UN described dozens of deaths and injuries at the foundation’s sites. Between June 1 and 15, 32 deaths and 250 injuries were reported in the Rafah camp, directly blaming the IDF. These reports relied primarily on sources from Hamas’s Ministry of Health without independent verification. The foundation rejected these claims, calling them the product of a “political agenda.” Documentation published by the foundation and the IDF showed that the shooting occurred due to riots near the site, not from a deliberate attack on the aid area. The Associated Press reported the use of force at the foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza, including live ammunition and stun grenades, allegedly based on testimony from two anonymous American workers. AP reported that 94 Palestinians were killed in Gaza (July 3rd), including 45 who were attempting to get to humanitarian aid, hospitals, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said. In response, GHF stated that the information was “completely false” and claimed that all shooting occurred outside the aid areas, with no documented injuries within the distribution sites themselves. 

Irresponsible reporting by mainstream journalists have helped to create doubt and confusion about the successful GHF efforts.  While reporting on the fighting in Rafah, the BBC affirmed that a “tank fired on a crowd” at an aid distribution site, but only later, updated the report to clarity that the initial report was exclusively based on Hamas-affiliated sources, with no secondary, corroborating evidence. The Guardian and AP also broadcast reports relying on statements from Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, linking deaths and injuries directly to GHF without independently verifying the information or examining additional sources. As a result of these inaccurate reports, The Washington Post was forced to amend its reporting on the number of deaths.

In response to these accusations, in early June, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of accepting casualty figures from Hamas’s Ministry of Health. The BBC was forced to “correct and retract” a report of an Israeli attack near an aid distribution site, partly due to headlines changing from “tank fired on 26” which implied Israel as the aggressor to “shooting caused 31 deaths” which did not assess blame on Israel.

Hamas propogandists have launched numerous false allegations that were parroted in Arab media without accountability, including the accusation that GHF was using sugar to bait Gazans into pits and then bury them alive. Arab media amplified this absurd claim. Another claim which went viral alleged that Israel laced flour with narcotics to drug Gazans.

On July 7th Reuters alleged that GHF was “build[ing] large-scale camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside - and possibly outside - Gaza to house the Palestinian population, outlining a vision of ‘replacing Hamas' control over the population in Gaza’”. GHF denied it vehemently saying that the editors ran a fake story they knew was false.

International organizations and newspapers continue their campaign to delegitimize the activities of the GHF. Several senior officials in the organizations were asked about the famine in Gaza and why they are not cooperating with the fund's activities, but they avoided answering this directly. They claimed that there is a blockade of aid, despite evidence of the entry of dozens of trucks of humanitarian aid. In addition, they did not call for cooperation with the GHF, despite the claims of famine in Gaza and the Fund working to provide humanitarian aid. For example, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said that “I don’t know how you would call it other than mass starvation and it’s manmade. And that’s very clear. And this is because of the blockade” without mentioning the fact that dozens of trucks with humanitarian aid entry the strip. Furthermore, Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the WFP responded when asked about the GHF activity “We are not coordinating, and we do not work with the GHF…we are UN agency, so we have our UN. The way the UN operates is different than what the GHF is doing”. In addition to that, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of the mercy corps claimed that “Our team is waking up every morning just like everyone else, wondering where they are going to get their next meal”, without referring to why they do not cooperate with the GHF activity in Gaza.

In letters sent by the Foundation's Director General, Johnny Moore to UNOCHA, he once again expressed his desire to cooperate with UN organizations in distributing humanitarian aid. These letters were responded with a general expression of willingness regarding the need for cooperation and the possibility of meeting, but no request has yet been made to schedule a concrete meeting.

In addition, in an article from July 26, the NYT (New York Times) wrote that despite repeated accusations over the past two years, the IDF has not been able to prove that Hamas operatives are stealing humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip. However, the UN itself reported as early as 2009 and again in 2023 that Hamas was stealing and taking over humanitarian aid in their possession. The Palestinian Authority also stated (May 2025) that Hamas was responsible for stealing humanitarian aid. Despite reports of a USAID report that refuted the accusations of aid theft by Hamas, the White House claimed that there were videos proving aid theft by Hamas and that the credibility and existence of the report was questionable.International media often disregarded sources that fed the information which were not Hamas based. The shootings near the distribution sites, often conducted by Hamas operatives was overlooked even when video evidence showed it clearly. Hamas affiliated journalists and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry or other witnesses whose claims could not be verified were made into a significant number of international media headlines reporting on the story with the narrative that the GHF is purposely acting in a manner that would maximize civilian casualties and avoiding reporting contrary evidence. Some media outlets did acknowledge that the source of the reporting came from and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry (which has had its figures thoroughly debunked) but buried it deep in the text.

Another popular story that ran on major outlets was a fired disgruntled GHF ex- employee, Anthony Aguilar, who has disseminated false stories of IDF shooting at civilians. He has appeared on major mainstream outlets like the BBC and even on Tucker Carlson’s show to make his claims. The GHF has denied Aguilar’s claims and has presented evidence that he was fired after inadequate performance. The GHF has debunked his lies and has shown texts in which Aguilar demanded to be reinstated otherwise he would work to tarnish GHF’s reputation by going to the media. Despite this new evidence, media outlets have run Aguilar’s slanderous claims about the GHF and the IDF and the articles are still up on their sites.

The Network Contagion Research Institute has issued a report on July 15th 2025 titled: “The 4th Estate Sale: How American and European Media Became an Uncritical Mouthpiece for a Designated Foreign Terror Organization” which lays down the pipeline of information passing from Hamas itself and its acolytes straight to the headlines of top news items on the GHF in Gaza by constructing a narrative that is beneficial to Hamas.

The narrative common in major mainstream media outlets, global humanitarian and “human rights” organizations presented the GHF SDS as filled with chaos, violence and the source of a flawed aid delivery system which are death traps to Gazan civilians seeking food. They delegitimized the GHF with out of context information and lies coming directly from Hamas propogandists. The reports found that more than any source, media headlines cited Hamas-linked officials– creating a global precedent where foreign terrorist organization is the main voice shaping news about GHF which aims to fight Hamas’ ability to leverage aid against the population. The strong bias against GHF as tested using analysis of X posts, “Among posts on X made between May 25 and June 11, a large language model (LLM) determined that negative narratives about GHF were nearly twice as prevalent as positive narratives, and that posts featuring these negative narratives received 116% more total engagements.”

The shocking finding was that the UN humanitarian organizations, which were created to facilitate the distribution of aid and refused to collaborate with GHF despite its pleas, were participating in amplifying unverified Hamas-sourced claims while ignoring statement and reports from the IDF and GHF.

These reports ultimately increased the percentage of people believing that Israel is starving Gazans, committing a genocide, massacres aid receipts and other anti-Israel conspiracy theories.

Qualitative analysis of the information pipeline from the NCRI report.

Hamas’s Cooperation with UN Agencies

There are also known instances of Hamas cooperating with UN-affiliated organizations. Reuters (May 23) reported that a group of robbers seized at least 15 WFP (World Food Programme) trucks on the way to a bakery.  Hamas protected these robbers who looted some of their warehouses. WFP confirmed that a robbery occurred at the Al-Jafaouri warehouse in Deir al-Balah: hundreds of residents attempted to break in, and two people were killed. Additionally, on May 28, it reported a violent mass robbery at a UN warehouse in the Gaza Strip, with videos showing gunfire in the background, likely from local armed groups and robbers affiliated with Hamas.

Advantages of the Foundation

Undermines Hamas’s Control and Accelerates the Collapse of Its Civilian Governance in the Strip: Since humanitarian aid is delivered directly to civilians, civilians do not rely on Hamas’s services to receive it. This undermines Hamas’s civilian governance capabilities in Gaza and demonstrates that an alternative to Hamas’s rule is possible. Additionally, because Hamas cannot seize the aid trucks loaded with food under this framework, it reduces their food reserves, weakening their resilience and ability to harm Gaza residents. Moreover, taking away Hamas’ economic monopoly over aid lowers its price which is what some Gazans have indicated took place. After the grenade incident in the SDS, flour prices in Gaza doubled because the population believed that the GHF would halt operations. After this belief was dispelled, prices stabilized. This shows that the just the belief in a durable and reliable GHF presence has the ability to stabilize prices of food, which benefits the civilians and harms Hamas’ efforts to finance its war machine.

Delivers Humanitarian Aid Directly to Civilians, Reducing Dependency on Hamas: As aid is delivered directly to civilians, they do not rely on Hamas’s services, reducing civilian dependency on the organization to survive in the Strip. Continued and expanded operations will facilitate direct humanitarian aid delivery to those in need, further reducing civilian reliance on Hamas. Gazans have been seen in several videos celebrating the organization thanking President Trump and even Prime Minister Netanyahu.

No Need for Direct Contact with the IDF: IDF operations do not take place within aid centers but monitor and secure them from a distance. This eliminates direct contact between IDF soldiers and Gaza residents, reducing friction and associated security risks. Claims of targeted shootings and killings of civilians ignore the fact that this is a war zone with active combat near distribution points. Since the conflict is confined to a relatively small area, incidents of gunfire near aid distribution points are inevitable. However, global media often report these events without proper context, creating the misleading impression that the shootings occur directly at the distribution sites. Additionally, Gaza’s Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, attributes all deaths in the area to GHF activities.

The GHF as a Relevant Model for Governance After Hamas in the Strip

International Mechanisms Can Operate in Gaza: The success of GHF’s operations proves that international mechanisms can function in Gaza without being controlled by terrorist organizations or requiring their cooperation. This has forced international bodies like UNRWA, which have contributed to the current situation in Gaza and collaborated with Hamas, to cease operations. In their place, new international entities that have proven they can conduct terrorism-free humanitarian operations will take over. As GHF demonstrates its robust successful model, it poses a direct threat to a legacy humanitarian aid organizations who have enjoyed a monopoly and limited oversight and accountability in other conflicts. Legacy humanitarian organizations working with the UN employ tens of thousands of personnel in Gaza and across the world view the success of the GHF model as a huge threat to their monopoly and have a vested in interest in seeing GHF fail, even if harms the exact the civilians that they have pledged to assist. 

As Hamas Becomes Less Relevant and Weaker, Mechanisms Can Operate More Effectively: One of the main opponents of GHF operations is Hamas, as its success undermines Hamas’s civilian governance institutions. Consequently, Hamas spreads misinformation that is regularly published in global media, that delegitimizes GHF and threatens and actually harms Gaza residents cooperating with it. It is not surprising that since the arrival and success of GHF in June/July 2025 the reports of Hamas’s demands during cease-fire negotiations have consistently included the termination of GHF operations – a clear admission by Hamas of how threatened they are by GHF’s success.

Applying the Model to Other Areas (Health, Education, Welfare, etc.): The success of GHF’s operations demonstrates that previous assumptions about the inability to establish civilian governance mechanisms by international entities are incorrect. Therefore, the model can be expanded to provide services in other essential areas, such as education and health, and even applied in other conflict zones worldwide.

Support from Additional International Entities Will Increase GHF’s Impact: Currently, many international institutions condemn and boycott GHF’s activities, citing the gray area in humanitarian aid laws, despite this being at the expense of residents needing aid. These legacy institutions prioritize politics, existing old bureaucracies and legal disputes over delivering humanitarian aid directly to residents. If additional international bodies, such as the UN and the European Union, cooperate with the GHF, as its representatives publicly call for, GHF could expand its operations and open additional aid sites in other areas. This would allow GHF personnel to focus on their critical humanitarian work instead of waging public relations efforts, defending their activities. The GHF has called upon the UN to cooperate with it to achieve its humanitarian mission, but none of the calls have been answered.  The GHF was never designed to be the exclusive aid provider in Gaza but rather a better solution. Currently almost one hundred trucks full of UN/WFP aid lay idly by the side of the road because the UN is unable to deliver them and they will not cooperate with the GHF.

Roadmap for Post Conflict Construction 

The current operational configuration of the Gaza Humanitarian Framework (GHF) enables it to maintain direct engagement with local Gazan communities, including tribal and clan leaders who are already contributing to the security and logistics of the ongoing operations. This engagement has the potential to extend beyond security cooperation into critical domains such as welfare delivery, civilian infrastructure, and essential services, particularly in the context of constructing a “humanitarian city” in the Rafah corridor.

This humanitarian zone, envisioned as a sterile and demilitarized enclave, would allow for systematic population vetting to prevent Hamas infiltration. Within this safeguarded environment, civilian life could be gradually reconstructed, utilizing GHF mechanisms already established for aid distribution, service provision, and community liaison.

Critically, the GHF’s presence provides Gazans with a credible alternative to Hamas’ rule by fear. By interacting with Gazans on the ground, the GHF is shifting the psychological and social calculus that has sustained Hamas’ dominance. Individuals who once aligned with Hamas are gradually reconsidering their positions as alternative credible sources of governance and security emerge.

The population’s cooperation with Hamas generally falls into four categories, arranged in descending order of ideological commitment:

1. Cooperation – Voluntary support based on shared ideological or religious affinity with Hamas.

2. Co-optation – Passive alignment driven by mutual interests, such as economic ties or tribal affiliations (e.g., northern Gaza clans).

3. Coercion – Compliance motivated by implicit or explicit threats of retaliation.

4. Compulsion – Forced participation under direct, non-consensual pressure (e.g., under threat of immediate violence).

   
   

The GHF’s expanding civilian footprint is eroding the upper categories—cooperation and co-optation—by offering legitimate alternatives to Hamas’ services and authority. Simultaneously, it is weakening Hamas’ coercive and compulsive tools by dismantling its enforcement capabilities and psychological dominance. This process is essential to breaking Hamas’ hegemonic grip over Gaza and ensuring it cannot reconstitute its control post-conflict.

For this reason, it is imperative that the GHF be institutionalized as the primary civilian coordination body in Gaza, working in tandem with vetted local leaders and clans. This would enable the emergence of a new civic order, where dissent is possible and collaboration with non-Hamas actors is not punishable by death or disappearance.

Hamas has made it explicitly clear that any future ceasefire must include the termination of GHF operations. This demand reflects Hamas’ fear that the GHF’s continued presence will undermine its capacity to retaliate against perceived collaborators and restore its reign of terror over the population. Preserving and legitimizing the GHF’s role is therefore not just a humanitarian necessity—it is a strategic imperative for long-term stabilization and the dismantling of Hamas’ social and political control.

Left: Humanitarian aid distribution in the Tel Sultan area | Source: IDF Spokesperson

Right: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid in Gaza | Source: GHF

Left: Gazan children at a GHF aid center | Source: GHF X account

Right: A Gazan receiving aid at a GHF center | Source: GHF X account

COGAT released a video of all of the aid trucks awaiting on the Gazan side of the crossing- as there has been a decline in collection of humanitarian aid. | Source: COGAT on X

GHF personnel fist bumping Gazan children at a delivery site | Source: GHF on X

These are fragments of a grenade packed with ball bearings, two of which were thrown by Hamas at American aid workers delivering food in Gaza. |Source:  GHF on X

Militants taking over aid convoys

Source: GHF on X