The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an organization backed by the United States and Israel that began distributing food rations in the Gaza Strip last month, said on Saturday that people in the Palestinian enclave “desperately need more aid.”

The admission by the GHF that it has been unable to meet demand came after severe criticism from other aid groups and near-daily deadly shootings near distribution points.

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said Saturday that Israeli troops had killed at least 17 people, including eight who were seeking food at the time of the shooting. The IDF told AFP it was “looking into” the deaths that the civil defense agency reported near GHF distribution centres.

In a statement on Saturday, GHF interim executive director John Acree said that the organization was “delivering aid at scale, securely and effectively… But we cannot meet the full scale of need while large parts of Gaza remain closed.”

He said the GHF was “working with the government of Israel to honour its commitment and open additional sites in northern Gaza.”

“The people of Gaza desperately need more aid and we are ready to partner with other humanitarian groups to expand our reach to those who need help the most,” Acree said.

As part of its efforts to expand its reach, the US- and Israel-backed group has asked US President Donald Trump’s administration to step in with an initial $30 million, according to three US officials and the organization’s application for the money.

The application, obtained by the Associated Press, also offers some of the first financial details about the GHF and its work in the war-torn enclave. That includes a projection of a $150 million monthly budget once the group’s current aid sites fully gear up — an amount equal to $1.8 billion a year.

The group’s funding application was submitted to the US Agency for International Development, according to the US officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The application was being processed this week as potentially one of the agency’s last acts before the Republican administration absorbs USAID into the State Department as part of deep cuts in foreign assistance.

Two of the officials said they were told the administration has decided to award the money. They said the processing was moving forward with little of the review and auditing normally required before Washington makes foreign assistance grants to an organization.

In a letter submitted Thursday as part of the application, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secretary Loik Henderson said his organization “was grateful for the opportunity to partner with you to sustain and scale life-saving operations in Gaza.”

Neither the State Department nor Henderson immediately responded to requests for comment Saturday.

In documents supporting its application, the group said it received nearly $119 million for May operations from “other government donors,” but gives no details. It expects $38 million from those unspecified government donors for June, in addition to the hoped-for $30 million from the United States.

Israel has insisted that it has had no part in funding the new Gaza aid operation, although the Kan public broadcaster reported earlier this month that the government had approved the transfer of NIS 700 million (some $280 million) to fund it.

GHF’s operations have been slammed as a “failure” by the United Nations, while other aid groups have raised concerns about the group’s opaque structure and neutrality amid the war in the Gaza Strip, which has been raging since the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

According to figures issued Saturday by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire since GHF began distributing meal boxes in late May.

The figures provided by the Strip’s health authorities cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

GHF has denied responsibility for deaths near its aid points, contradicting statements from witnesses and Gaza rescue services.

It has said deaths have occurred near UN food convoys.

Earlier this month, the IDF warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to GHF sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing these roads as closed military zones. However, the GHF has indicated it may be open during those hours.

On Monday, the head of aid group Doctors Without Borders, Christopher Lockyear, said that the “imposed system of aid delivery” in Gaza was “not only a failure, but it is dehumanizing and dangerous.”

Israel’s military has continued its offensive in Gaza, even as attention has shifted to its ongoing war with Iran since June 13.

The IDF has denied firing on civilians. It says it fired warning shots in several instances, and on a few occasions, fired directly at several suspects who ignored warnings and approached Israeli forces.

Witnesses have told AFP about injuries caused by drones and tank rounds.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that three people were killed by gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip, with another five killed in a central area known as the Netzarim Corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving rations from a GHF centre.

Earlier this week, the UN’s World Health Organization warned that Gaza’s health system was at a “breaking point,” pleading for fuel to be allowed into the territory to keep its remaining hospitals running.

In addition to the reported fire near GHF aid sites, Bassal told AFP that three people were killed on Saturday in a strike on Gaza City, in the enclave’s north, and another was killed in a strike on the southern city of Khan Younis.

Also on Saturday, the IDF published intelligence documents it said were found in a Hamas tunnel underneath the European hospital in southern Gaza — where the terror group’s leader Muhammad Sinwar was killed in a strike last month — revealing how IRGC official Saeed Izadi was working to arm and fund Hamas during the war, on behalf of the Iranian regime.

“Our forces discovered documents clearly indicating that in recent months, the leadership of Hamas’s military wing continued its ties with Saeed Izadi, its Iranian patron who was eliminated overnight,” the IDF said.

Izadi was the IRGC Quds Force’s Palestine Corps chief and was killed in an Israeli strike in western Iran overnight.

“The documents now being released show correspondence between Muhammad Sinwar and Saeed Izadi, detailing the ‘Tufan (Deluge) 1’ plan, under which Izadi advanced the transfer of weapons to Hamas valued at approximately $21 million, and his intention to advance the ‘Tufan 2’ plan, for the transfer of weapons valued at approximately $25 million,” the military said.

The IDF said that these two plans “did not materialize as intended” due to operations of the Intelligence Directorate, Southern Command, and Shin Bet.

“For years, Izadi transferred weapons to support Hamas’s terror activities against the State of Israel and continued to do so in recent months. The documents now being revealed join many others uncovered during the war, attesting to Izadi’s role in funding and arming the Hamas terror organization,” the military added.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.