Public Statement: This is Not Humanitarianism: Why NEAR Rejects the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Model

On 17 April, the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) sounded the alarm1: In addition to mass displacement, famine, relentless bombardment, and what Palestinian2 and United Nations experts3 have decried as genocide, plans to implement a new international aid mechanism were underway – without any Palestinian humanitarian leadership at the table.

Over a month later, PNGO’s fears were realised. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a model funded by United States and in coordination with Israeli authorities, began operating through military contractors. It bypassed Palestinian civil society entirely, along with other international aid actors, including international NGOs (INGOs) and United Nations (UN) agencies, who have worked in coordination with local responders.

What has emerged under GHF – which continues to operate after temporary closures on June 6 – is a violent distortion of humanitarian action. Civilians are facing chaos, danger, and humiliation in attempts to access basic necessities and services. GHF has no systems in place to reach the more vulnerable groups – older people, women with children, and people with disabilities. Critical needs like clean water, sanitation, and medical care remain inaccessible with infrastructure destroyed, systems collapsed, and no coordinated effort to meet these needs. Military forces have opened fire on civilians near aid distribution points. In its first weeks alone, GHF response has resulted in civilian injury and death. This is not humanitarianism. It is aid instrumentalised under siege – designed without accountability, proximity, or care for human life. That any are calling it ‘innovative’ is not only inaccurate, it is indefensible.

No matter how it is framed, the GHF model to aid will not build legitimacy, trust, or transparency – and, as past experience shows, it is wholly unsustainable.

The GHF response in Gaza runs fully counter to the future NEAR and our members are working to build: one grounded in local leadership, solidarity, mutual accountability, and systems designed by and for the people they serve. This is the response that we want to see in Gaza moving forward.

We stand with PNGO. We stand with Palestinian civil society.