Defending Rights & Dissent Seeks Answers About U.S. Government Role in “Slaughter Masquerading as Humanitarian Aid”

Yesterday, Defending Rights & Dissent filed two Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover details about the U.S. government’s relationship with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the shadowy private aid group that has been mired in controversy since announcing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza in early May. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published a statement which declared that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution effort “is a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.” 

The first FOIA request seeks internal State Department reports and communications about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as well as the U.S. government’s communications with Israel about the organization. The second requests all State Department, Department of Defense, and (the now-defunct) United States Agency for International Development contracts for services performed in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s war.

Chip Gibbons, Policy Director, Defending Rights & Dissent, said:

“The world has watched as Israel has first starved the Palestinians, then forced them to queue up for aid only to be massacred. We know our government has backed Israel’s war. And pieces of the U.S. government’s involvement with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have trickled into the public domain. The American people have a right to know the full extent of our government’s complicity in these crimes. Defending Rights & Dissent will work tirelessly to ensure that they do.” 

On May 9, the Trump administration announced it was partnering with a private aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in cooperation with the Israeli government, to ostensibly provide humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, who have suffered mass starvation, malnutrition, and extreme destitution over the last year and a half. Less than three weeks later, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Executive Director Jake Wood, a former U.S. Marine, resigned from his position because it was “clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”

Palestinians have reported that the Israeli military have shot and killed hundreds of starving civilians as they approach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid delivery sites in the past several weeks. The latest reports count more than 600 killed attempting to seek aid, with thousands more injured. Furthermore, numerous press agencies have reported that Palestinians seeking aid at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation delivery sites must submit to biometric scanning via facial recognition technology.

Nevertheless, on June 26, the State Department approved $30 million in funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, announcing the support as “simply the latest iteration of President Trump’s and Secretary Rubio’s pursuit of peace in the region.” There are also reports of U.S. contractors operating in Gaza.