Aid group suspends Gaza operations after ceasefire

The controversial Gaza Strip Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by the United States and Israel, has confirmed that it has suspended its operations in Gaza after the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect on October 10.

Although it was funded until November, the organization said its final delivery would have taken place on Friday.

The GHF was heavily criticized after hundreds of Palestinians were killed while collecting food near its distribution sites. Witnesses say most were killed by Israeli forces.

Israel has regularly denied that its troops fired on civilians at or near the sites and the GHF has maintained that aid distribution at its sites took place “without incident”.

The group’s northernmost aid distribution site, known as SDS4, was closed because it was no longer in IDF-controlled territory, a spokesperson said.

Satellite images revealed that it was dismantled shortly after the October 10 ceasefire took effect. The images show tire tracks, disturbed earth and trash strewn across the former complex.

“For now we are on pause,” said the GHF spokesperson. “We believe there is still a need, an influx of as much aid as possible. Our goal is to resume aid distribution.”

Despite the group’s apparent desire to continue, speculation has swirled that the final terms of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel would exclude them.

At the same time, analysis of data provided by the UN shows little change in aid collected at crossing points after the ceasefire agreement took effect last Friday.

The average amount of aid “collected” – defined by the UN as when it leaves an Israeli-controlled crossing – each day increased slightly from the previous week, but remains in line with September figures.

UN data shows that around 20% of aid leaving a crossing has reached its intended destination since May 19. More than 7,000 humanitarian trucks were “intercepted” either “peacefully by starving people or forcibly by armed actors,” according to UN data.

Humanitarian sources told the BBC they hoped looting would decrease in the coming weeks as law and order was restored and people received assurances that the ceasefire would be respected.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that while it was essential that the ceasefire allowed an increase in aid and other essential supplies, it was important to reach vulnerable Gazans, including in areas that were inaccessible until recently.

OCHA has hundreds of community and household service points involved in aid distribution. He lost access to many people, sometimes because of conflict and sometimes because Israel denied him access.

“We need to restore our service points, we need to reduce looting, we need roads cleared of unexploded ordnance and we need security guarantees,” the OCHA spokesperson said.