Al Mezan on World Humanitarian Day: Dismantle Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Restore UN-Led Humanitarian Aid System

Gaza, 19 August 2025 – Today, on World Humanitarian Day, Al Mezan reiterates its calls for the dismantling of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” and the immediate restoration of a UN-led humanitarian aid system in Gaza that safeguards human dignity, protects civilian lives, and upholds the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

For 22 consecutive months, Israel’s genocide has been driven by policies and military campaigns deliberately designed to impose unbearable conditions of life on Palestinians, calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part. As a result, daily existence in Gaza has been reduced to a living hell, and the population is more dependent than ever on humanitarian aid. 

Israel has systematically sought to obstruct the distribution of life-sustaining aid as part of its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, including by deliberately targeting humanitarian facilities, convoys, warehouses, distribution centers, and killing hundreds of humanitarian workers. As of 13 August 2025, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that Israeli forces have killed at least 520 aid workers in Gaza since 7 October 2023,  with Palestinian staff accounting for 98% of fatalities. This includes 356 UN staff members, 53 staff and volunteers of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), four staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and 107 personnel from other humanitarian organizations. 

The most targeted humanitarian entity has been the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),  which the Israeli parliament has been actively trying to shut down across the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). In Gaza, this campaign has translated into systematic attacks on UNRWA’s staff, shelters, and facilities. As the main provider of aid and shelter for a population where 73% are registered refugees, UNRWA remains indispensable for survival. Yet, as of 12 August 2025, nearly 360 staff members have been killed, 895 incidents have impacted its premises, and at least 845 Palestinians sheltering inside its facilities have been killed, with another 2,554 injured. These attacks are not only an assault on UNRWA as an institution but also a direct assault on the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

As of 18 August 2025, at least 263 Palestinians, including 112 children, have died from malnutrition and dehydration, with the toll rising every day. Despite the need for food, water, medicine, and shelter items being higher than ever, Israeli authorities have obstructed UN agencies and established humanitarian actors from resuming their relief operations. 

Following a 78-day total siege imposed between March and May 2025, Israeli authorities have replaced the longstanding UN-led humanitarian aid system and handed control of aid delivery to a newly created body, the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF). Operating under Israeli control and backed by the United States, the GHF has been deliberately established to degrade the dignity of Palestinians in Gaza and entrench starvation as a tool of genocide. 

Far from alleviating the suffering of a population intentionally pushed into starvation, the aid distribution centers run by the GHF have turned into death traps, where starving Palestinians gather in search of food only to be met with live fire and lethal force. As of 18 August 2025, at least 1,965 starving Palestinians have been killed and more than 14,701 injured while waiting for aid trucks in northern Gaza or attempting to reach GHF distribution points. Al Mezan, together with its partner organization MENA Rights Group, has also documented and reported on numerous Palestinians who disappeared as they were attempting to collect humanitarian aid at various GHF aid distribution points. 

The establishment of the GHF has coincided with intensified efforts by the Israeli government to obstruct the work of long-established INGOs in the occupied Palestinian territory, some of which have operated for decades. Newly imposed INGO registration rules allow Israeli authorities to arbitrarily deny registration and reject dozens of INGO requests to deliver life-saving goods to Gaza on politicized grounds.

Echoing Al Mezan’s position, the Commissioner General of UNRWA and dozens of UN independent experts have publicly called for the dismantling of the GHF, and numerous international NGOs have declined to cooperate. At the same time, Al Mezan is deeply troubled by reports of meetings between representatives of UN agencies and major NGOs, including OCHA, WFP, UNICEF, and the ICRC, regarding potential engagement with the GHF. Such engagement risks legitimizing an unlawful scheme deliberately designed to manipulate humanitarian aid and to entrench starvation as a tool of genocide, while also raising serious concerns of complicity in Israel’s grave breaches of international law.

As the world marks World Humanitarian Day, Al Mezan calls for immediate and concrete action, urging Third States, UN bodies, and donors to:

• End Israel’s genocide, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war and tool of genocide; stop all attacks on civilians, aid workers, and relief sites, including UN premises and distribution points.

• Dismantle the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and return aid coordination and delivery to UN agencies, especially UNRWA, OCHA, WFP, and WHO, with restored and increased funding for UNRWA.

• Lift the siege and all movement restrictions; ensure unconditional, sustained entry of food, water, fuel, and medical supplies to all areas, including northern Gaza.

• Protect humanitarian personnel and infrastructure; guarantee safety and freedom of movement, respect protective emblems, and end the killing, detention, and harassment of aid workers.

• Ensure accountability: open independent international investigations into all attacks on UN and NGO premises and attacks on aid workers, cooperate with the UN Commission of Inquiry and the ICC, and impose a global arms embargo and other targeted measures.