Head of Gaza Aid Organization Resigns Before Controversial Plan Set to Launch

Date: 26 May 2025 - 22:18

News ID: ۱۳۹۹۸۳

GAZA (Dispatches) – The head of a controversial aid organization, which says it is ready to start delivering food into Gaza, has resigned saying he does not believe it is possible for the organization to operate independently or adhere to strict humanitarian principles.
Jake Wood, the executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), announced his resignation late on Sunday, hours before the group said it planned to begin “direct aid delivery” into the Palestinian enclave and after aid organizations sought to distance themselves from the contentious plan.
“I am proud of the work I oversaw, including developing a pragmatic plan that could feed hungry people, address security concerns about diversion, and complement the work of longstanding NGOs in Gaza,” Wood said.
“However, it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, which I will not abandon.”
Wood’s departure also comes as investigations in the Washington Post and the New York Times over the weekend raised further questions about the origins of the organization and its ties to the Zionist regime’s officials.
GHF emerged in the public eye earlier this month as Israeli officials began briefing the UN and international NGOs about their new detailed plan to take over - and restrict - aid distribution in Gaza.
According to a memo of those briefings, aid would be distributed from up to five logistic hubs set up in southern Gaza, run by private security contractors and with facial recognition technology to vet beneficiaries.
It quickly arose that GHF, a hitherto unknown organization which was registered in Switzerland earlier this year, would be administering the new plan, although a GHF pitch document leaked around that time showed that its proposed plan was slightly different from that unveiled by the Israelis.
For example, the GHF pitch did not mention biometric technology being used at the distribution hubs, with Wood saying publicly he would not have signed up to a plan that fed information back to the Israelis.
The pitch also revealed that GHF appeared to be run by a curious mix of American disaster relief, security and financial experts with little or no experience in Gaza.
Meanwhile, as plans for the takeover of aid distribution in Gaza unfolded rapidly, starvation loomed across the enclave amidst an Israeli blockade on all aid that began on 2 March.
Top humanitarian officials and aid organizations have been highly critical of GHF, saying that a new mechanism for aid delivery was not needed, but rather that Israel should stop obstructing the current UN-led system to function.