Trump administration officials visited Gaza on Friday to gain a better understanding of the humanitarian crisis there and help create an improved plan to alleviate it. The visit from U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is part of President Trump’s mission to figure how to help the people in the region who are starving. Apparently, doling out a $30 million dollar grant to the main humanitarian organization there exactly for that purpose has proven insufficient.
The president has made multiple comments indicating he believes the civilians in Gaza are living in inhumane conditions and starving. He said on Monday that there’s “real starvation stuff” happening in Gaza. Then on Thursday, he was asked if he agreed with a recent allegation by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) that Israel was conducting a genocide in Gaza. Trump didn’t dispute the characterization. His immediate reply was, “It’s terrible what’s occurring there. It’s a terrible thing. People are very hungry.”
That Gaza is besieged by a humanitarian crisis is beyond dispute, despite recent claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there is no starvation in Gaza. On the same day Netanyahu made that claim, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced they would begin pausing military activity every day in densely populated areas to “increase the scope of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.”
Clearly, there’s a crisis, but the details of what is causing the crisis have become a major point of contention. That, too, has been clouded by the fog of war. That’s why Witkoff and Huckabee put on bulletproof vests and hard hats and took five hours to get the story.
Whatever Witkoff and Huckabee conclude will undoubtedly be met with skepticism by some and approval by others. Already, there is criticism that their tour was sanitized and that the worst was hidden from them.
The main organizations handling the distribution of food is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), led by an American Zionist pastor named Johnnie Moore, who was once part of Trump’s evangelical advisory board. GHF is loaded with American taxpayer cash. “The State Department in June approved a $30 million grant for the organization,” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Moore began serving as the executive chairman of GHF in June after the previous leader, Jake Wood, resigned over dissatisfaction that the program could not be implemented without Israeli influence. He expressed concerns that the organization was not adhering to basic principles of human dignity. Wood said in a statement, as reported by The New York Times:
It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.
Accusations against GHF reached a fever pitch after a retired Green Beret named Tony Aguilar, who briefly worked as a contractor for GHF, appeared on the BBC and Tucker Carlson’s podcast.
Aguilar made serious allegations in support of his premise that the IDF is committing a number of war crimes against the civilians of Gaza. He alleges that Gazans are eating an average of one meal every other day and that their displacement, which he views as forced, violates the Geneva Convention. He alleges that the IDF shoots at civilians to keep them in line when retrieving food and this reckless way of keeping people in line with live rounds has led to many deaths. And he alleged a Palestinian boy whom he met was killed by some of this careless fire. Aguilar has multiple videos to support his claims, including one showing Palestinians retrieving food with the sound of intermittent shooting in the background.
Aguilar also claimed that all the talk of Hamas looting aide was overblown and serves as the main excuse to starve and kill civilians. He didn’t dispute that Hamas terrorists likely pilfer some of the food. But he reasoned that even though that is the case, it’s very little and it comes at the cost of thousands of people.
Aguilar’s claims have been attacked all over Western media. The GHF said Aguilar’s allegations prompted an investigation, which determined he was lying. “Aguilar’s claim that UG Solutions [the GHF’s security partner] contractors used stun grenades, tear gas, and other non-lethal munitions in a manner that harmed civilians seeking aid is false,” The Jerusalem Post reported. GHF said Aguilar is a disgruntled former contractor who was fired and has threatened revenge if he is not hired back.
Johnnie Moore, the pastor now in charge of the GHF, wrote an op-ed published in The Jerusalem Post Friday saying the organization manages to feed civilians without feeding Hamas. Moore said that “until now, most of the humanitarian aid that entered Gaza was looted by Hamas and various clans.” Hamas then sold the pilfered goods to Gazans at high prices. Moore said that GHF is distributing aide in a way that “threatens Hamas’s immediate survival.” He doesn’t specify what that entails, but he does say the approach is “built on security, transparency, and accountability” while his teams “work under strict oversight, with systems in place to prevent abuse and ensure effectiveness.” Moore’s op-ed paints a rather sunny picture, an illustration that things are going according to plan. He writes:
We know what we have built. And we know who we serve. In one of the hardest places on Earth, during one of the most trying times in memory, we have delivered more than just food. We have delivered hope. That is something every Israeli can stand behind.
Moore and Aguilar see what is happening in Gaza very differently. The only point of agreement seems to be that people there need aide. The comments by Trump and visit from Witkoff and Huckabee suggest all is far from copacetic. If everything was as fine, as Moore claims, there would be no need for Trump’s officers to come in and create a new plan for aide distribution. Something is not working.
The American public have a direct interest in this. Their tax dollars are funding GHF. We deserve to know what is truly going on there.