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Rights observers have condemned aid scheme for bypassing UN, deadly attacks at distribution sites.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has announced it is ending its “mission” in Gaza.

The US-backed organisation sparked controversy after it began operating in the Palestinian enclave in May 2025.

It had been widely condemned for bypassing the United Nations and other humanitarian aid infrastructure in Gaza, with deadly violence regularly breaking out at or near its distribution sites.

“From the outset, GHF’s goal was to meet an urgent need, prove that a new approach could succeed where others had failed, and ultimately hand off that success to the broader international community,” GHF Executive Director John Acree said in a statement on Monday.

The statement pointed to provisions in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect in October as the reason for ending operations.

That included the creation of the US-backed Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), which is meant to coordinate aid to Gaza, and Israel’s partially allowing UN-backed aid distribution efforts to resume.

In August, 28 UN experts appealed for the GHF to be dismantled, calling the scheme an “utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law”.

They added that “Israeli forces and foreign military contractors continue to open indiscriminate fire on people seeking aid at so-called ‘distribution sites’ operated by GHF”.

At the time, the experts reported at least 859 people have been killed around GHF sites since the beginning of GHF’s operations in late May 2025.

Among other issues, the experts noted that the scheme required aid seekers to make long dangerous journeys to receive supplies, departing from the UN aid delivery model which emphasises bringing aid more directly to affected communities.