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Following unrelenting criticism from the United Nations, the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is once again being targeted by NGOs, even as it delivered its 155 millionth meal to Gazans on Saturday.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, has launched ads criticizing GHF. Meta’s Ad Library shows that in August it ran several Facebook ads targeting the foundation. One ad read, “This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.” Another said, “In MSF’s 54 years, rarely have we seen such levels of systemized violence.”
Both allegations are taken from an Aug. 6 article on MSF’s website in which General Director Raquel Ayora describes accounts received from patients reportedly injured around GHF sites. Ayora says aid seekers claimed to have witnessed “children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points.”
GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay called MSF’s accusations, “false and disgraceful,” saying that it is “amplifying a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Hamas-linked Gaza Health Ministry. They know better. By repeating these lies, they’re not aiding civilians, they’re aiding Hamas.”
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Gazans walk with boxes of humanitarian aid they received at a distribution centre run by the U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
“No civilians have ever been shot at any of our distribution sites,” Fay told Fox News Digital.
Fay said that “Nearly every day, Nasser Hospital issues false reports to the media of civilians killed near our sites, based solely on testimony from others. Not a single MSF doctor has ever witnessed an incident near our sites. Any conflict between Israel and Hamas, sometimes several kilometers away, the Gaza Health Ministry falsely links to GHF.”
In response to questions about whether MSF employees have witnessed injuries or deaths at GHF sites firsthand, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital that, “MSF has documented the impacts of violence and chaos at GHF sites in Gaza, based on firsthand accounts of our personnel and patients at two clinical sites, as well as a body of medical data.”
MSF declined to respond to questions about how much money it has spent on ads targeting GHF, or whether it has advocated for medical care for Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.
A building belonging to the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is reportedly being targeted by Israeli tank fire in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 2024. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The MSF spokesperson added, “For the past 22 months, humanitarian organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank have consistently faced baseless and inaccurate smear campaigns.”
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Though there is growing outcry about purported violence near GHF sites, reporting from the United Nations indicates that there were twice as many deaths surrounding humanitarian aid convoys (576) as there were deaths around GHF sites (259) between July 21 and Aug. 18.
A U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs update from August states there were 1,889 deaths near aid sites between May 27 and Aug. 18, 1,025 “near militarized distribution sites” and 864 “along convoy supply routes.” As of July 21, U.N. News reported there were 1,054 deaths at food distribution sites, with 766 near GHF sites, and 288 near U.N. and humanitarian aid convoys.
A view of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis in Gaza, Dec. 2020. (Photo by Abed Zagout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.)
The U.N. Human Rights Office did not respond to a request for confirmation of these figures by press time.
Amid tensions between GHF and humanitarian aid organizations, Fay said that GHF nonetheless provided support to MSF in early August after it requested help to “safeguard their medical aid from the elements.” A GHF post on X from Aug. 7. showed what it said were pallets of MSF aid in GHF care. MSF did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to confirm that they asked GHF for assistance with their supplies.
When GHF staff were brought to Nasser Hospital after a Hamas attack in June that killed eight, they did not receive care from MSF staff, according to Fay.
A GHF employee’s written statement provided to Fox News Digital describes how wounded workers were taken to Nasser Hospital, where doctors refused to treat them. The witness said survivors were placed in a courtyard, where hospital staff incited others to beat them. One GHF employee was reportedly stabbed.
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“Three more GHF staff died due to their lack of treatment by Nasser Hospital. MSF doctors work there, yet claim they weren’t aware of the situation,” Fay said.
In an Aug. 25 report following the Israeli bombing of Nasser Hospital, MSF said that it “has been operational in Nasser since before the conflict escalated in October 2023, providing trauma and burn care, physiotherapy, neonatal and pediatric services, and treatment for malnourished children, among other critical services.”
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has reported multiple times since October 2023 that Hamas fighters have been operating out of Nasser Hospital. On Aug. 26, FDD senior research analyst Joe Truzman shared photos on X of two Hamas summonses that reportedly ordered individuals to come to Nasser Hospital for questioning.
MSF did not respond to questions about GHF employees failing to receive care or whether its staff at Nasser Hospital were aware of Hamas’ operations at the site.
Palestinians in Gaza get aid from the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation)
In an online statement about the incident, MSF said it “has seen no credible evidence that healthcare was refused by Ministry of Health or other medical staff.” The group also said “MSF staff have not been present in the emergency department of Nasser Hospital since 2024.”
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On Saturday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced a new initiative to provide medical care to Gazans through a program with Samaritan’s Purse.
In a statement on X, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that in addition to treating wounds, injuries and infections, it was also helping pregnant women.