Expert: Hani Almadhoun, Senior Director of Philanthropy for UNRWA USA, which supports the humanitarian work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. He also co-founded and runs the Gaza Soup Kitchen, which is operated by members of his family in Gaza.

Question: In May, after imposing a total blockade on Gaza for months, deliberately starving the population of two million people, and shutting down the operations of the UN and other aid organizations, the Israeli military took over distribution of food and other humanitarian aid through a shadowy group called the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.” The UN and more than 170 aid groups and NGOs have condemned Israel’s takeover of aid distribution, saying it is weaponizing food to forcibly displace Palestinians. How would you characterize the GHF and Israel’s takeover of aid distribution?

Hani Almadhoun: GHF is a front group established by Israel as a tool to control and, if we take Israeli government officials at their own words, ethnically cleanse Palestinians. It exists to weaponize food and force people to the south of Gaza.

GHF is currently being run by a right-wing evangelical Christian Zionist pastor with close ties to Netanyahu and President Trump. His only qualification seems to be that he once prayed with Trump at the White House. 

Every credible humanitarian group, including the UN, Oxfam, Save the Children, Care, and Doctors Without Borders, has condemned this takeover. Blocking and weaponizing aid is a grave war crime. Anyone involved with GHF, including Americans, are potentially complicit in Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and what rights groups and other experts have concluded is a genocide.

We know from repeated statements made by Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials that Israel’s ultimate goal is to drive Palestinians out of Gaza entirely by making it uninhabitable, leaving people no choice but to leave. We also know they were already doing this before President Trump said in January that he supported removing Palestinians from Gaza, and that they have accelerated their efforts since, frequently invoking Trump’s plan.

To this end, while the Israeli military uses the GHF to force the population into concentrated areas in the south next to the border with Egypt, Israel has set up a new government agency, the Orwellian named bureau for “voluntary emigration,” and Israeli and US officials have been trying to convince other countries to take in large numbers of displaced Palestinians, so far without success.
 

Q: Can you describe the current conditions for Palestinians in Gaza?

HA: The situation is catastrophic. The worst that we’ve seen since Israel’s brutal war began. People are starving and severely traumatized after enduring nearly 21 months of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Children, who make up half the population, are wasting away, suffering permanent developmental damage, assuming they even survive to adulthood. Israel is even preventing the entry of baby formula. 

According to UNICEF, nearly 71,000 children and 17,000 mothers urgently need treatment for acute malnutrition. Not only are kids being hospitalized (in the few hospitals that are still functioning) due to severe malnutrition, but Israel is restricting medical evacuations out of Gaza, which multiplies the suffering and harm being done.

My family runs several soup kitchens across Gaza. Fresh produce disappeared long ago. Food is extremely scarce and what’s left is criminally expensive.

People are increasingly desperate. Families fight for scraps. Communities and society as a whole are breaking down under the pressure.

Agencies like UNRWA can deliver food at scale within days and end the suffering, but Israel won’t allow it.


Q: Since Israel took over aid distribution, Israeli soldiers have massacred starving Palestinians trying to get food on an almost daily basis, at least 19 times according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which recently published a bombshell expose quoting soldiers saying they were ordered to fire on unarmed civilians who posed no threat. So far, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed and more than four thousand wounded in or near GHF’s militarized locations, which some are calling “food traps.” Why do you think the horrific scenes of starving Palestinians being slaughtered again and again while trying to get food have not caused more outrage internationally?

HA: Because most western governments and media outlets still treat the Israeli military as a credible source of information, despite its long, well-documented history of disinformation, cover-ups, and outright lies, and human rights groups documenting the war crimes and crimes against humanity it is committing in Gaza and elsewhere.

Each time Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians trying to get food, the army issues a statement denying, deflecting, and attempting to blame the victims, the fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters, who were murdered while trying to get a box of flour for their families. These statements, designed for western media and audiences, sow confusion and muddle the horrifying truth of what Israel is doing. Sadly, many journalists and media outlets repeat Israel’s transparently false claims with little or no questioning.

The reality is that Israel has reduced Gaza to a dystopian nightmare where supposed humanitarian aid distribution points are killing fields. People are being starved and lured into militarized aid sites and then hunted. The internet is flooded with verified videos showing exactly that. The question is, why isn’t the international community doing more to stop it?
 

Q: What would you like the international community to do?

HA: Force Israel to end its cruel and illegal blockade and allow the enfettered entry of food and other humanitarian aid through real, reputable aid groups.

There is already a functioning humanitarian network in Gaza — UNRWA, with over 400 aid distribution points, built over decades. The infrastructure is there, it just needs to be activated again and for Israel to allow it to function.

The international community has a legal and moral duty to act. Countries that signed the Genocide Convention are obligated to prevent genocide, not just condemn it after the fact. That starts with an immediate arms embargo on Israel. It also means imposing sanctions, asset freezes, and travel bans on Israeli officials and anyone involved in the blockade or attacks on aid sites. No government should be funding or legitimizing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a dangerous, militarized operation that turns food into a weapon.