MSF calls for immediate closure of US and Israeli-backed aid group in Gaza

One of the civilians admitted at MSF health centre in Al Mawasi, who was injured while trying to get food at the GHF distribution site. (Photo: MSF)

By Mary Wambui
Thursday, August 7, 2025

On Tuesday, UN experts called for the dismantling of the foundation, saying it was being exploited for covert military operations.

A new report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has accused Israeli forces and private American contractors of perpetuating cruelty under the guise of food distribution to hunger-stricken Palestinians through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The report titled "This is Not Aid. This is Orchestrated Killing" says the foundation's four food distribution sites that are in areas under full Israeli military control, and "secured" by private armed American contractors, are recording mass casualties of people getting injured and killed as they scramble for food.

The report is derived from an analysis of medical data, patients' testimonies, and first-hand witnesses at two MSF clinics in Gaza that point to both targeted and indiscriminate violence by Israeli forces and private contractors against starving Palestinians at food distribution sites run by GHF.

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"Over the seven weeks, MSF teams treated 196 patients with injuries following chaotic scrambles at the GHF distribution sites. Patients included a five-year-old boy with severe head injuries and a woman who died of asphyxiation, likely caused by the suffocating crush of a crowd," notes the document.

The organisation said it managed to collect the data by adding a new acronym to their patient registry, BBO (Beaten By Others), about people injured either in the crash of the crowd or by being beaten and robbed of their supplies immediately after receiving them.

"Between June 7 and July 24, 2025, 1,380 casualties, including 28 dead, were received at MSF's Al-Mawasi and Al-Attar clinics in southern Gaza, located near the GHF-run distribution sites. During those seven weeks, our teams treated 71 children for gunshot wounds, 25 of whom were under the age of 15. Faced with no alternatives to find food, starved families frequently send teenage boys into this lethal environment, as they are often the only males in the household physically able to make the journey," said MSF.

Patients in this category included a 12-year-old boy hit by a bullet that had passed through his abdomen, and five young girls, one of whom was only 8 years old and suffered a gunshot wound to her chest.

"Children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People are crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds were gunned down at distribution points. In MSF's nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians," said Raquel Ayora, MSF General Director.

The report noted that an initial analysis of the gunshot wounds among patients arriving at the Al-Mawasi clinic found that 11 per cent of the gunshot injuries were to the head and neck, while 19 per cent were to areas covering the chest, abdomen, and back.

In contrast, people arriving from the Khan Younis Distribution Centre were far more likely to have gunshot wounds to the lower limbs.

"The distinct patterns and anatomical precision of these injuries strongly suggest the intentional targeting of people within and around the distribution sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire. The GHF distribution sites masquerading as 'aid' have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty. This must stop now," says the organisation.

The report added that the deaths are ongoing even in the new month.

"On August 1, the same day the US special envoy to the Middle East visited GHF sites, 15-year-old Mahmoud Jamal Al-Attar was killed around the Al-Shakoush GHF site while trying to get food. He arrived at the MSF Al-Mawasi clinic after being shot in the chest," says Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.

Between July 27 and August 2, 186 people with wounds from gunshots, shrapnel or assault and stabbing were treated in MSF's Al-Mawasi or Al-Attar clinics after being wounded at GHF sites; unfortunately, two of them died. On August 3, MSF clinics received three more wounded people, one who had been shot in the neck and two with shots to the head.

"We treat only a fraction of the total number of people killed and injured at these sites. There is no other way to describe the murder of children as anything but intentional. Despite the condemnations and calls for dismantling it, the global inaction to stop GHF is baffling," said Zabalgogeazkoa.

Mohammed Riad Tabasi, a patient who was treated at the MSF Al-Mawasi clinic, told the organisation that he had been injured at least 10 times, as others were killed.

"I saw it with my own eyes, about 20 corpses around me. All of them were shot in the head, in the stomach."

MSF said the scheme attempts to strip people of their dignity as they scramble to access food with those that manage to secure any food rations at the sites often facing the risk of violent looting and theft of aid by other starving people.

Earlier this year, Israeli authorities sought to dismantle the UN-led humanitarian response and replace it with a militarised food distribution scheme operated by GHF.

"The scheme has been touted by the Israeli and US governments as an "innovative solution", a supposed answer to their unproven claims of aid diversion in Gaza and unfounded accusations of UN failure. The sites are nothing but a deadly scheme, institutionalising the Israeli authorities' starvation policy of Gaza that started on 2 March, with the full siege they imposed on the Strip as part of their ongoing genocidal campaign," said the report.

On Tuesday, UN experts called for the dismantling of the foundation, saying it was being exploited for covert military operations.

"The GHF, a non-governmental organisation created by Israel in February 2025, with US support, to allegedly distribute aid in Gaza, is an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law. The entanglement of Israeli intelligence, US contractors and ambiguous non-governmental entities underlines the urgent need for robust international oversight and action under UN auspices."

"Under any circumstances, when war crimes are overlooked in exchange for temporary relief, impunity can become normalised. Yet, in this case, we are leaving a State accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in charge of feeding the population affected by the genocide without oversight and with impunity. This overt hypocrisy is disturbing."