The chairman of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has accused the United Nations of thwarting the organisation’s efforts to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip.
Johnnie Moore made the comments at the State Leadership Summit on Antisemitism and Support for Israel, organised by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) on Monday.
His claim followed comments made by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday, who branded the US and Israeli-backed GHF aid system "inherently unsafe".
"Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. The search for food must never be a death sentence," the UN chief said, referencing the fact that GHF distribution sites sit within areas designated as “combat zones” by the IDF when they are not in operation.
But, speaking at the summit, Moore hit back at the UN for its lack of collaboration on the project.
"I’m surprised that something so right, something so simple as feeding people, has become so controversial,” said Moore.
“We have poked a lot of bears. We thought we were poking the bear of a designated terrorist organisation that wants to steal the aid from people, but what we have discovered every second of every day is the underbelly of the United Nations and all of these organisations around the world.
“We were actually told that the United Nations sent a directive to all of their agencies telling them to not work with us, despite the fact that most of the aid coming into the Gaza Strip right now is from us,” he claimed.
The UN has previously said there is no evidence for Israel’s claims of large-scale hijacking of its aid trucks. But, talking to the BBC, Moore claimed the "UN is not being honest" on this point.
More than 500 Palestinians have been killed and 4,000 injured on their way to get aid since GHF took over the distribution, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
In further comments, Moore criticised the UN for failing to condemn a Hamas attack last month, which allegedly left 12 of his staff members dead.
“And top it all off, Hamas itself actually attacked some of our volunteer Gazan aid workers, killed 12 of them, injured others of them, piled their bodies in front of Nasser Hospital in Gaza, refusing to allow them any medical treatment at all,” he said.
The GHF has previously accused Hamas of attacking a bus transporting more than two-dozen of its Palestinian workers on June 11.
"And the United Nations, which receives billions of dollars from the United States government and the Europeans, didn’t even issue a statement condemning Hamas’s murder of these local Gazan aid workers,” he continued.
More than 130 charities including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty have signed a letter calling for the controversial GHF to be shut down, accusing the Israeli military of "routinely" opening fire on Palestinians seeking aid – a claim the IDF has strongly denied.
The JC contracted the United Nations for comment.
