
US: Protesters descend on home of GHF's executive director
"GHF only aids ethnic cleansing," they chanted as they marched to the home of interim executive director John Acree in Vienna, Virginia, just a half-hour drive from Washington, DC.
"Gaza needs medicine, food, and housing," they continued, according to a video shared by the Palestinian Youth Movement advocacy group, and posted to its Telegram account.
Protesters draped in keffiyehs banged pots and pans as they gathered on the public sidewalk outside Acree's doorstep and laid out props showcasing GHF food parcels splattered in blood, symbolising more than 1,000 Palestinians - according to the United Nations - who have been gunned down by Israeli forces or American military contractors at four different aid distribution sites in Gaza.
The irony was not lost on the crowd when, at one point, a woman opened the door of Acree's home, smiled, and waved at the protesters before picking up what appeared to be a food delivery drop-off.
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Nearly 150 Palestinians have died as a direct result of starvation, Gaza health officials have said. The vast majority of them were young children, given that baby formula is banned by Israel from entering Gaza and is confiscated if brought in by volunteer doctors in their luggage.
Rights groups as well as the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah have referred to the GHF sites as "death traps" after videos emerged of what appeared to be a kettling process, whereby military contractors from the US and UK funnelled thousands of Palestinians waiting for aid into narrow fencing that resembled a long cage under the scorching summer sun.
As they moved to obtain what they described as meagre rations of rice, oil and pasta, the Israeli military would then open fire on them. Doctors in Gaza have recounted a pattern of gunshots to the groin in young men in particular.
GHF began operations in May as the only entity approved by Israel to distribute aid inside Gaza.
Israel imposed a total siege there in mid-March and blocked operations by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (Unrwa) and other aid groups such as Anera, despite their decades-long expertise, embedded infrastructure, and trust among locals.
Even World Central Kitchen was barred from making hot meals for several months until its slow return on Friday.
Despite a mounting death toll and gruesome testimony from survivors, the Trump administration approved $30m in funding for the GHF, even after a report from the now-defunct United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said the plan lacked basic details for an initiative of this scale.
Who is John Acree?
Acree's career has largely been spent at USAID or USAID-funded initiatives, according to his LinkedIn profile.
'A distraction': Unrwa says Israeli and GHF claims over UN aid delivery are baseless Read More »
Since at least 1999, he has mostly worked from the Washington headquarters in project leadership and senior advisory roles, managing what he described as "development" programmes in Afghanistan and Iraq targeting internally displaced and high-risk populations.
Acree also served as the point person for the US Department of Defence at USAID in Kabul, and repeatedly talked about building a "civilian-military partnership" with groups such as US special forces in the country.
Until USAID was dismantled by President Donald Trump in March, Acree was the head of its regional disaster assistance programme in Costa Rica - a shift from most of his previous work in war zones where the US military was operating.
Since May, he appears to be "on site" at GHF's headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel.
In a post he shared on LinkedIn in June, Acree said he accepted the position to be interim leader of GHF because "the needs on the ground would be staggering, and the operational environment would be among the most complex and constrained I've seen in my career".
"I've worked in humanitarian emergencies for over two decades. I've seen what happens when systems break down under pressure," he wrote. "But I've also seen what becomes possible when organizations are willing to challenge the status quo - with focus, integrity, and an openness to doing things differently."
That difference, however, may have caused far more harm than longstanding aid groups would be willing to risk or tolerate, given that a group of US Senate Democrats is now calling on Trump to defund the GHF.
Aside from the $30m provided by the US government, GHF has never disclosed any of its funding sources, and its first executive director resigned before aid distribution even began.
" GHF does not control the war," Acree wrote on his LinkedIn account in response to the criticism lobbed at the organisation.
"We do not control the borders, the checkpoints, or the broader circumstances in which aid must flow. But we are working within those constraints".
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