Extract from ABC News
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation only had four distribution sites in Gaza. (Reuters: Hatem Khaled)
In short:
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an aid organisation set up by Israel and the US in May, is ending its operations.
The body was controversial, with regular shootings near its aid sites as people tried to access food.
Its closure comes six weeks after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was announced.
The controversial Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has formally announced it is ending its operations in Gaza, more than six weeks after a ceasefire in the strip was announced.
GHF was set up in May, and was quickly criticised by 170 international humanitarian organisations.
Israel gave it the task of distributing aid in the war-ravaged enclave after months of a total blockade, with the rationale being that Hamas was stealing and stockpiling aid for its own benefit — an accusation aid organisations roundly rejected.
Regular shootings near the sites were condemned, with hundreds being killed as they tried to secure boxes containing food and other supplies during narrow opening hours at only four GHF distribution sites.
"From the outset, GHF's goal was to meet an urgent need, prove that a new approach could succeed where others had failed, and ultimately hand off that success to the broader international community," GHF executive director John Acree said in a statement.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed near to GHF sites in Gaza. (AP: Abdel Kareem Hana)
In August, a group of United Nations experts labelled the scheme "an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas."
At the time, the UN said at least 859 Palestinians were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) was repeatedly accused of opening fire on people in the area — but it rejected those allegations, either saying only warning shots were fired or blaming Hamas militants for fuelling chaos and undermining aid delivery.
Hamas welcomes GHF's closure
Mr Acree said the ceasefire in Gaza, and the establishment of the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) to monitor the ceasefire and issues such as aid delivery, led to the decision.
"As a result, we are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there's a better way to deliver aid to Gazans."
He said GHF had distributed 187 million meals during the time it operated.
The GHF says a new US-led coordination centre for aid delivery and the Gaza ceasefire is one reason why the foundation is no longer needed. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
The ABC has previously documented the threat to civilians who were accessing the sites, which often turned into stampedes.
The IDF always rejected the figures of dead and injured near the distribution hubs, but failed to provide their own data on casualties.
Hamas welcomed the announcement, describing GHF as an "inhuman institution" which "engineered starvation in partnership" with Israel.
"Since its entry into the Strip, this institution has formed part of the occupation's security system, relying on distribution mechanisms that have nothing to do with humanity, creating dangerous and humiliating conditions for the starving people of our Palestinian nation as they try to obtain a piece of bread," Hamas said in a statement.
The militant group, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation under Australian law, said GHF should be investigated by international organisations.
'Original GHF plan' blocked, outgoing director says
GHF always insisted no one had died inside the perimeter of its aid centres, and had encouraged other humanitarian organisations to work with it to distribute aid.
But many of the more established agencies viewed that as amounting to an endorsement of GHF's model, and the actions of the Israeli-government in giving it sole responsibility for aid in the strip for months.
"At a critical juncture, we are proud to have been the only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals directly to Palestinian people in Gaza, at scale and without diversion," Mr Acree said.
"From our very first day of operations, our mission was singular: feed civilians in desperate need.
"We built a new model that worked, saved lives, and restored dignity to civilians in Gaza."
Questions were asked about GHF's future once the truce in Gaza came into force, given it appeared to have little to no publicised role in the increased aid deliveries announced as part of the deal.
Seeming to respond to criticism of the organisation's small footprint on the ground in Gaza, Mr Acree argued GHF had been stopped from creating more aid distribution centres.
"While the original GHF plan was never permitted to be fully implemented, many positive aspects of our model and operations should be considered to improve aid distribution in Gaza and other parts of the world facing conflict," he said.
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