US approves $30 million in funding for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
The
US
has approved $30 million in funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the State Department said, calling on other countries to also support the controversial group delivering aid in war-torn
Gaza
.
'This support is simply the latest iteration of President
[Donald] Trump
's and Secretary
[Marco] Rubio
's pursuit of peace in the region,' State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott told reporters at a regular news briefing.
Washington has long backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation diplomatically, but this is the first known US government financial contribution to the organisation, which uses private for-profit US military and logistics firms to transport aid into the Palestinian enclave for distribution at so-called secure sites.
Since
Israel
lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19th, allowing limited UN deliveries to resume, the
United Nations
says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid from both the UN and GHF operations.
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Earlier this month,
GHF halted aid deliveries for a day as it pressed Israel
to boost civilian safety near its distribution sites after dozens of Palestinians seeking aid were killed. It says there have been no incidents at its sites.
The foundation's executive director, Johnnie Moore, an evangelical preacher who was a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said in a post on X on Thursday that the group has delivered more than 46 million meals to Gazans since it began its operations in May.
Some US officials opposed giving any US funds to the foundation over concerns about violence near aid distribution sites, the GHF's inexperience and the involvement of the for-profit US logistics and private military firms, four sources said earlier this week.
The United States could approve additional monthly grants of $30 million for the GHF, two of the sources said, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
In approving the US funding for the GHF, the sources said the State Department exempted the foundation, which has not publicly disclosed its finances, from an audit usually required for groups receiving USAID grants for the first time.
There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza's two million inhabitants. - Reuters
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
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