UN data on Gaza deaths 'disinformation', claims head of controversial aid group
The chief of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called figures by the United Nations on people killed at aid hubs "disinformation".
The UN said at least 410 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on 19 May, while the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 549 people have been killed.
Johnnie Moore, executive director of GHF, told Sky News that there is a "disinformation campaign" that is "meant to shut down our efforts" in the Gaza Strip, fuelled by "some figures" coming out every day.
Mr Moore, an evangelical preacher who served as a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said his aid group has delivered more than 44 million meals to Gazans since it began operations in May.
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the UN and other aid groups, which have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
The aid agencies claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system using the GHF will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
The GHF is distributing food packages, which they say can feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days, in four locations, with the majority in the far south of Gaza.
Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the aid hubs and have to move through Israeli military zones, where witnesses say the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.
Both figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say hundreds of people have been killed or wounded.
"We're not contesting at all that there have been casualties in the Gaza Strip. I mean, there's no ceasefire. This is an active conflict," Mr Moore said.
"I think people may not understand as clearly what it means to operate a humanitarian operation on this scale, in an environment this complex, in a piece of land as small as the Gaza Strip, and may not appreciate that almost anything that happens in the Gaza Strip is going to take place in proximity to something."
GHF chief was 'really political, really punchy' in Sky News interview
Data and forensics correspondent
@chesh
It was really political, really punchy, and I think the heart of the matter here is that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is too political.
The principle of aid, when applied traditionally, is that it has to be applied neutrally and that is what used to happen.
Trucks would go into Gaza, and the UN would distribute that food. Israel, for a long time, said that's not working and they blame Hamas for that.
At a briefing by the Israeli prime minister's office yesterday, they were saying that Hamas was still looting those aid vehicles, and it was coming out with a plan to stop that. It didn't provide evidence for that.
When we asked for evidence, they said we shouldn't swallow Hamas disinformation. That's a word that's been used. That's very, very political.
This is a different model of doing things. And that is the concern: that rather than just handing it over to a neutral body, this is too close to Israel, it's too close to the US, and is backed financially by the US.
What does that actually imply? Well, if you're choosing where those sites are, it means people are going to move down there if you're not putting them in certain places.
The number of distribution sites has dwindled. It's attenuated. And so, actually, if there are only a few and if there are any in the south of Gaza, that encourages people to move there, that might fit a political goal as well as a humanitarian one.
Mr Moore said that the GHF was not denying that there had been "those incidents", but said the GHF was able to talk to the "professional military", the IDF, which would conduct an investigation, while Hamas was "intentionally harming people for he purpose of defaming what we're doing".
He said the GHF, "an independent organisation operating with the blessing of the US government", was "achieving its aims" by feeding Gazans.
It comes after the US State Department announced on Thursday that it had approved $30m in funding for the GHF as it called on other countries to also support the controversial group delivering aid in Gaza.
2:22
A spokesperson from the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs told Sky News that they are "open to any practical solutions that address the crisis on the ground" and are "happy" to talk to the GHF.
The spokeswoman added that the aid distribution in Gaza was not "currently a dignified process and that the format doesn't follow humanitarian principles". She said that people have to walk for miles, and that there is no scalability, with aid not reaching everyone in need.
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The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Gaza must be eliminated': Israel's airwaves are filled with pro-genocide propaganda
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'The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death,' Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir's far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a radio interview. This did not get much international coverage but was cited in the letter sent to the attorney general at the end of 2023 accusing the country's judicial authorities of ignoring incitement to genocide. 'Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything,' Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, said October 2023. (Gallant was in this position at the time of the statement but is no longer in government) 'I'm not sure you're speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman. I hope you don't stand behind that statement either. When fighting a group like this, the distinctions that exist in a normal world don't exist,' said Likud parliament member Amit Halevi in the Knessest, in response to a statement from an Israeli doctor saying suffering children should get painkillers, May 2025. 'The children in Gaza have brought this upon themselves,' said Meirav Ben-Ari from Yair Lapid's opposition party Yesh Atid in response to a Palestinian lawmaker bemoaning the loss of civilian life on 16 October 2023. 'There should be 2 goals for this victory: 1. There is no more Muslim land in the Land of Israel ... After we make it the land of IL, Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom …' said Likud member of the Knesset Amit Halevi on 16 October 2023. 'They [the children] are our enemies,' said Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the National Religious party, part of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Rothman was responding to a question from a Channel 4 (UK) interviewer asking 'the children are your enemies?' The following statements were all made on Channel 14: a far-right TV station that used to be a niche outlet but has morphed into one of the most watched news sources in Israel. Three civil rights organization have asked for an investigation into Channel 14 for its normalization of genocidal statements. 'This is clearly not a matter of a few isolated voices saying outrageous things in the heat of the moment,' Ran Cohen, the director of the Israeli Democratic bloc said in a statement to the Guardian. 'The pattern of incitement emerging from Channel 14 is systematic, sustained, and orchestrated – not incidental. We have documented hundreds of statements, many delivered by regular hosts and guests, broadcast daily into Israeli homes and directly watched by soldiers. The line between media and war propaganda has been erased.' 'If the goal of this operation is not destruction, occupation, expulsion, and settlement, then we have accomplished nothing,' said former member of the Israeli Knesset, Moshe Feiglin, on 12 October 2023. 'Erase Gaza completely, don't leave a single person there' said singer Eyal Golan, on 15 October 2023. Since making a number of statements like this, Golan has gone on to perform concerts in Europe. 'We are coming. We are coming. We are coming to Gaza. We are coming to Lebanon. We will come to Iran. We will come to every place [...] We will annihilate the enemy. We will return the Middle East to a situation where Arabs are terrified of Jews [...] we will come to annihilate you [emphasizes]. To a-n-n-i-h-i-l-a- t-e. Annihilate. Pass this on, share this video so all your friends can see what we are about to do to you,' said the anchor of Channel 14's morning show, Shai Golden, 17 October 2023. 'The enemy is not Hamas, but Gaza. The enemy is not Fatah, but the Arabs of the West Bank. And they are not willing to accept this because the approach to dealing with this enemy, called 'Gaza,' needs to be completely different [...] Similar to Chechnya, where the Russians flattened it to the extent that the Chechens realized: it's not worth thinking with them [...] There are no innocents. When you say 'population', there is no population. There are two and a half million terrorists [...] When there are no innocents in Gaza, there's no point in 'roof knocking'. Because everyone is a terrorist,' said Eliahu Yusian, who presents himself as an expert and commentator on Arab affairs. He is a frequent guest on Channel 14, was a guest on the show The Patriots and said all the above without interruption on 29 October 2023. 'I keep looking beyond the military objectives, which is nice, but in the end, there's something beyond the military objectives, and that's the strategy. It's about breaking the spirit of the Gazan public, and things are happening there,' Shimon Riklin said on 21 February 2024. '… every day we're killing 100 terrorists? There are two and a half million terrorists there!' panelist Eliahu Yusian said on 24 February 2024. 'Regarding what Boaz mentioned, in the first day or two, we should have killed 100,000 Gazans [...] Only a few are possibly human there. Only a few are possibly human there. Over 90% are terrorists and are involved! Not uninvolved, there's no such thing as uninvolved,' political commentator Danny Neuman said on journalist Boaz Golan's show on 6 May 2024. 'The destruction in Gaza gives me a good feeling. Gaza is in a state of annihilation. Many buildings no longer exist in the landscape. The destruction machine must keep working so it's clear they have nowhere to return to. Despair as a work plan,' Yinon Magal said on the show The Patriots reading a tweet by a reservist soldier named Dvir Luger on 3 August 2024. 'Gaza deserves death. The 2.6 million terrorists in Gaza deserve death! … Men, women, and children – in every way possible, we must simply carry out a Holocaust on them – yes, read that again – H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! For me, gas chambers. Train cars. And other cruel forms of death for these Nazis. Without fear, without hesitation – simply crush, eradicate, slaughter, flatten, dismantle, smash, shatter …. Gaza deserves death. Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza,' said Elad Barashi, a TV producer affiliated with Channel 14, on 27 February 2025. in a post on X which was later deleted. It's clear now that nothing will shame the West into stopping Israel from carrying out its 'total victory' in Gaza. But I've written this to serve as yet another reminder that we all knew what was coming. Nobody can feign ignorance. Nobody can pretend they didn't know. Arwa Mahdwai is a Guardian US columnist
The Guardian
36 minutes ago
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UK launched huge operation to find suspected Russian double agent in MI6
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BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
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