I have hesitated to write about the humanitarian situation in Gaza because the honest truth as that I don’t feel I know what’s going on.
Ever since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was launched, I receive daily updates about the thousands of meals they delivery daily. Every now and then another update comes, with GHF typically saying that a report of a violent event occurring at one of their aid sites is false. On occasion I have looked into the claim and it seems GHF is correct. But because of the opacity on the ground and conflicting reporting, I’m also not comfortable assuming everything GHF says is accurate.
I learned skepticism early in this war, specifically on Oct. 17, 2023, when within minutes of an alleged Israel strike it was reported that Israel killed at least 500 civilians in a Gaza hospital. It later turned out it was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad attack, not an Israeli one, and no definitive death count exists to date.
Since then, I avoid commenting on anything without first consulting reporting from sources on the ground that I trust. Most of my go-to sources are not permitted entry into Gaza. Indeed, there is very little independent reportage coming from inside Gaza anywhere.
So how to reconcile a missive from the ranking member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations committee calling for disbanding GHF with GHF’s report stating that it had delivered 31,968 boxes of aid that very same day?
If there are starving people in Gaza, why is the US Senate — along with a number of UN bodies — calling for the removal of an organization that appears to be getting food to people?
Last Friday, I attended a virtual briefing with Chapin Fay, GHF’s spokesman. In its emails and repeated on Friday, GHF says it is open to working with anyone seeking to get food to Gazans.
“Our mission is to feed the people of Gaza. We are ready willing and able to collaborate with anyone,” said Fay.
He also said that Hamas has been wholly unsuccessful in stealing any GHF aid and has not looted a single GHF truck.
A lot of recent reporting on Gaza mentions deadly violence “in the vicinity of” GHF sites. Correlation, possibly; but causation? Without being on the ground, and without detailed reports, I am unable to conclude that it is GHF’s fault that violence is taking place “in the vicinity.”
Sen. Shaheen cited violence as a reason for returning to the UN’s mechanism for distributing aid. But the UN itself admits that its convoys have been violently attacked — so why are the UN’s mechanisms preferable?
This week a new critique of GHF emerged, that its boxes are not as nutritional as they should be. One expert in a BBC article said the boxes are akin to a first-aid emergency approach. But isn’t that precisely what an alleged starvation crisis during a war is? When the contents — which appear to be comprised of high protein, high caloric food — are being criticized, it acts as a confirmation bias for someone like me who has studied the UN and the Arab-Israel conflict closely, and has observed an international community that seems to desire Palestinian deprivation.
In addition to the specificity of GHF’s updates, there is another reason I find myself less skeptical of its narrative. Its updates continue to mention the need for aid. If GHF is a puppet of an unfeeling US and Israel (as the claim goes), why would it keep repeating that there is a grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza?
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
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