This is how the U.S.-run GHF tried to build a local network of ‘aid collaborators’ in Gaza
The Israel-backed and U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been weathering one public relations disaster after another as new information continues to expose the organization’s complicity in Israel’s plans to “concentrate” Gaza’s population in camps ahead of their forcible displacement — in keeping with Israel’s stated military goals of conquering the Strip and expelling its people. In service of these goals, the GHF has replaced the UN’s aid distribution system with what Gazans describe as “death traps,” leading Palestinians to accuse the organization of fulfilling Israeli military objectives under the guise of humanitarianism.
In order to bolster this facade, the GHF has been actively attempting to pressure international humanitarian organizations into cooperating with the GHF and participating in its operations. The GHF has also actively attempted to form a local network of distributors run by companies known to have collaborated with the Israeli army in the past.
Speaking with several individuals and organizations approached by the Israeli army and the GHF’s local agents, Mondoweiss investigations reveal that Israel and the GHF are attempting to coerce local and international actors into cooperating with the U.S.-Israeli aid scheme. In some cases, the GHF has tasked local companies with outreach to the population to advertise its centers and handle distribution and logistics.
According to sources inside Gaza, the Israeli army is also pursuing a broader strategy of pressuring humanitarian organizations to either operate under the GHF framework or cease their activities altogether. The Israeli military has reportedly attempted to force international organizations to distribute their aid through GHF centers, overriding previous agreements that allowed them to operate independently. In many cases, aid shipments that entered through Israeli-controlled crossings were redirected — without the knowledge or consent of the aid organizations — to the U.S. company’s centers.
An official security source in the Gaza civil government told Mondoweiss in mid-June that Hamas possesses “reliable intelligence” confirming that the GHF has been pressuring local institutions to participate in its operations. These attempts were meant to force organizations to cooperate in a strategy of “engineering starvation and managing chaos,” the official said, which he said was part of “a politically motivated and security-driven project dressed in humanitarian garb.”
“However, these institutions, guided by their national consciousness and ethical commitment, refused to become tools for a party responsible for our people’s suffering,” he added.
But there are some organizations that have cooperated. The GHF and the Israeli army have essentially pursued two paths in dominating the humanitarian landscape in Gaza: forcing international organizations to either work with the GHF or to halt operations, and using local gangs and businesses as part of its “native” network, giving a Palestinian face to an Israeli-U.S. operation with military and political objectives. Here is how it has attempted to achieve the objective of building this network of “aid collaborators.”
The case of the al-Khozandar Company
On the night of June 11, 12 employees working for a local trading company were killed after being publicly detained by groups affiliated with Hamas’s security forces. Locals said they were from the Arrow Force, the Hamas unit tasked with hunting down looters and Israeli-backed gangs in Gaza. After being reportedly beaten and shot in the feet, the security members publicly accused the individuals of working for a company allegedly collaborating with the Israeli military. Eyewitnesses told Mondoweiss that the employees were then lynched by a crowd of people who were allegedly incited by the security members, who reportedly told the crowds that the employees were responsible for the deaths of their loved ones at GHF sites.
It later became clear that the individuals were employees of the al-Khozandar Company, a commercial firm owned by a Palestinian residing in Cairo.
The killing of the employees sparked controversy and outrage, with the victims’ families issuing a statement on June 17 demanding accountability. The statement also denied allegations that their sons were working with the Israeli-backed gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab that loots aid across Gaza, calling the accusations “false and baseless.”
The events surrounding the incident, however, reveal a more complex picture. Before the families had issued their statement, the GHF condemned the “murder of 12 of our aid workers.” In contrast, the families stated that their sons were on their first day of work for al-Khozandar, suggesting that the company was working closely with the GHF.
The security source in the Gaza government who spoke to Mondoweiss in June identified the Mohsen al-Khozandar Trading and Transport corporation, headed by a man named Muhammad al-Khozandar, as a “morally and nationally compromised” company that “coordinates directly with suspicious foreign actors at the expense of our people’s interests.” This company, the source added, “contributes, whether knowingly or not, to the systematic killing and starvation of Palestinians.”
He asserted that “certain measures” have already been taken against the company, and that “more will follow,” including classifying the company as a “complicit entity.”
The Khozandar company has been operating in Gaza for years. Also known as “Three Brothers,” the company specialized in bringing goods into Gaza in coordination with Israel before the war, which led Hamas to classify the company as “collaborating with the occupation,” according to the security source. The source added that, during the war, the company’s activities expanded noticeably beyond trade, raising suspicions of collaboration with the Israeli army’s military plans.
According to the Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties, Palestinian workers employed by Three Brothers have been “forced to work under conditions resembling modern slavery,” and have been forced to sort and load aid boxes under direct Israeli supervision and to “serve American mercenaries.” The workers were subject to degrading searches by Israeli soldiers, and were not paid any wages, only receiving a few cigarettes and a single daily meal as compensation, according to the Geneva Council, based on testimony it says it has verified.
Al-Khozandar began implementing the U.S.-Israeli aid distribution scheme in Rafah after it contracted with Safe Reach Solution (SRS), a military contractor that is also the parent company of the GHF and has reportedly conducted military-intelligence operations in Gaza using Israeli data. According to a Financial Times investigation, the arrangement was for SRS to provide security at the GHF centers, while the Khozandar company would run distribution, specifically at the Tal Sultan center in Rafah.
According to local reports, al-Khozandar’s role in the aid scheme is to engage local individuals and civil society organizations to cooperate with the GHF, while the FT investigation quoted a source that said Three Brothers would be “the first interface with the population” at the distribution sites, and that the Khozandar team “was well known to the Israeli security establishment and had a long history of working with them.”
The FT reported that SRS had approached several other prominent businessmen in Gaza to staff the centers, but that they refused to participate in the U.S.-Israeli scheme, “arguing it amounted to forced displacement of people in the enclave.”
Meanwhile, the al-Khozandar family in Gaza issued a statement in May disavowing the Mohsen Khozandar Company and condemning any activities carried out by Muhammad al-Khozandar and his brothers, who manage the firm. The statement was supported by the Contractors Union and business owners in Gaza, who described any cooperation with this scheme as a “betrayal of national unity” and demanded strict accountability for all those involved.
Local testimonies also indicate that the company’s managers from the al-Khozandar family phoned several prominent influencers and content creators in Gaza, urging them to promote the company’s aid centers and claiming they were safe and free from inspections or any violations of people’s dignity.
Yahya Hilles, a digital creator, told Mondoweiss that a person going by the name of Noor al-Khozandar contacted him and spoke with him for over an hour, trying to convince him to encourage people to go to the GHF centers. Hilles explained that he consulted his family elders, who firmly opposed any involvement in promoting this project.
“Noor al-Khozandar kept insisting, urging me to go, film, and promote the centers, but I repeatedly asked him why he came to me specifically,” Hilles said. “He gave no clear answer. He knew that people trust me and believe what I share on social media, so he wants to drag me into this. He told me there would be no soldiers or Americans, and that I would just carry aid and return home.”
“I knew that, even if things might go smoothly the first or second time, it might later turn into a disaster,” Hilles added. “In that case, I would be responsible before my people, so I categorically refused. I told him clearly: this issue is bigger than one person, with serious security and political implications. It cannot be handled through a simple call from one person to another.”
Israeli army attempts to strong-arm international organizations
Rahma Worldwide is among the most active humanitarian organizations in Gaza since the war began, although it has been operating in the territory since 2017. During the war, it became notably involved in facilitating the entry of medical delegations and volunteers to Gaza hospitals, where they provided services for a limited time before leaving the territory.
The organization has an extensive history in humanitarian relief. Recently, however, the Israeli military attempted to coerce Rahma Worldwide into operating under the umbrella of the GHF. In late May, the organization’s director, Dr. Shadi Zaza, told Mondoweiss that Rahma Worldwide rejected the collaboration.
Zaza stated that the organization operates in Gaza as part of a group that includes several humanitarian institutions, including some affiliated with the UN. He said that the Israeli army had informed them of the addition of a new institution — the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — to this group, and later announced changes to the aid distribution plan, including designating new distribution points where each organization would be required to send its staff.
“We are always on standby,” Zaza said. “We’re ready anytime we’re permitted to bring in aid. Our goods are prepared and waiting at the crossings.” He noted that Rahma Worldwide had received permission the previous month to deliver four trucks carrying 4,000 food parcels, only to be surprised by an Israeli army order to transfer the aid to distribution points managed by the GHF, along with a demand that Rahma staff help with distribution there.
“We categorically refused this request,” Zaza stated. “Our agreement with the army was clear — we would distribute our parcels at locations designated for our organization, not those belonging to any other.”
Despite Rahma Worldwide’s request that the parcels be redirected to their own sites, the army insisted on sending them to the GHF-run facilities. The army also declared that GHF was now the sole authority responsible for aid distribution in Gaza.
Accordingly, the 4,000 parcels were transferred to Rafah, and the army contacted Rahma’s team, urging them to assist with distribution. But the team reached out to the organization’s U.S. headquarters, which unequivocally rejected involvement with the GHF.
“We will not be part of this mechanism. We reject it entirely,” said Zaza, highlighting that the army continues to pressure aid groups, especially those importing goods from Egypt, Jordan, or even the West Bank, insisting that all items be sourced from within Israel.
As a final request, Rahma Worldwide asked for its logos to be removed from the food boxes that were to be distributed at the GHF’s sites to avoid appearing as a participant or collaborator in the distribution scheme. This, Zaza said, reflects the organization’s firm opposition to the scheme.
According to the organization, some of the logos were removed, but boxes bearing the Rahma logo were nonetheless distributed at locations affiliated with the GHF on at least one occasion, which the organization said was beyond its control.
Rahma identified these Israeli efforts early on as attempts to forcibly integrate them into the GHF’s network. Upon the organization’s refusal, the army imposed even more stringent conditions for aid entry.
“We have over 20,000 food parcels ready in our warehouses,” Zaza added. “But we refuse to deliver them through the American organization’s mechanism. That organization was originally just one of many working here—we had no issue with that. But now that it’s trying to monopolize aid and impose its control, that is completely unacceptable.”
This stance of refusal reflects a broader trend among humanitarian organizations in Gaza, many of which oppose the GHF for its role in facilitating Israeli military objectives. Continued pressure for these organizations to work with the GHF or leave, some warn, could lead to the withdrawal of many aid organizations from Gaza entirely, creating a severe gap in humanitarian assistance.
“If Israel continues imposing this style of control and management, we simply won’t bring in aid,” Zaza said. “Other organizations may follow our lead. This policy — though unofficial — may well be Israel’s way of clearing the field of independent organizations and turning humanitarian work into a fully controlled instrument.”
Some international humanitarian organizations have begun cutting ties with the Boston Consulting Group, the company that helped conceive and launch the GHF and had even modelled the costs of “relocating” Palestinians outside of Gaza. Save the Children recently ended a two-decade partnership with the BCG over its role in the GHF, calling the aid organization’s plan to forcibly displace Gaza’s population “utterly unacceptable.” BCG’s chief executive admitted that its involvement in the GHF was “reputationally damaging” and the result of “deliberate individual misconduct” and “missed warning signs.”
The GHF has continued to push organizations to work with it as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen. On July 6, the GHF announced that it had met with the Country Director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to propose a plan to help it “feed the north of Gaza.”
“Right now, nearly all their trucks are being looted,” the GHF said. “We hope they will put politics aside and accept our proposal soon so we can achieve our shared mission: getting more aid to the people of Gaza.”
The GHF was responding to a WFP statement that the need for food in Gaza was desperate. “WFP stand ready to assist the entire population,” the WFP said. “We have the food, the capacity and the systems.” The WFP could not be reached for comment regarding whether it had agreed to work with the GHF.
In an abrupt development on Monday, July 7, the GHF announced the closure of its center in central Gaza near the Netzarim Corridor until further notice. This was followed by another announcement on Wednesday, July 9, declaring the closure of its distribution point in Khan Younis. At present, only the GHF’s distribution center in Rafah remains operational.
These announcements come amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. One of Hamas’s conditions for the prospective 60-day ceasefire period is that aid distributions be handled exclusively by the United Nations and its agencies operating in Gaza, completely excluding the GHF. This condition was reportedly accepted in the ceasefire talks.
This has led local reporters to speculate that the closure of the GHF’s distribution centers indicates that an agreement regarding the ceasefire’s terms is near, with the GHF complying with Hamas’s demand by halting its operations in the Strip. Local sources say it is expected that the Rafah distribution center may also be closed in the coming days, signaling that the ceasefire might soon go into effect.
Muhammad Eslayeh and Ahmad Jalal contributed reporting to this piece.
