US Considers Giving $500M to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

The State Department is discussing allocating $500 million for funding of the U.S. and Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that has been delivering food to Palestinians in Gaza in recent weeks, a U.S. official and a source with direct knowledge told Axios.

If the U.S. goes ahead with this massive funding, it will become the biggest donor to the foundation and will de facto "own" the operation.

While such a move will increase the U.S. credibility in asking other countries to donate money to the foundation, it would also draw the U.S. deeper into active involvement in the Gaza war and make it more responsible for the humanitarian situation in the enclave.

Without funding from foreign governments, the GHF will have difficulty operating in the coming months. Israeli officials asses that the GHF needs around $100 million a month to continue delivering aid in Gaza.

In recent weeks, the GHF launched a new mechanism aimed at delivering aid to Palestinian civilians without Hamas taking control of or getting credit for it.

The GHF and Israeli officials say hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have already received food, medicine and other supplies at the aid sites.

But over the last week, two mass casualty events took place near the aid centers. In one of the incidents, the IDF confirmed that it fired at Palestinians who were on their way to the aid distribution center.

In several other incident, the distribution centers were overwhelmed by the number of people who came to receive aid.

The shooting and the chaos led the GHF to suspend operations for 24 hours on Wednesday and ask the Israeli military to take steps to avoid similar incidents.

The UN and other aid organizations who refuse to cooperate with the GHF have warned for weeks that exactly these kind of incidents would result from civilians needing to pass through IDF lines to reach the newly established aid centers.

A U.S. official said that State Department officials who oppose the U.S. funding of the GHF are concerned about the U.S. becoming responsible for future mass casualty incidents around the aid distribution centers.

Those who support the idea on the other hand claim that U.S. funding means more U.S. ability to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground.

A U.S. official said the idea of funding the GHF has been discussed in working levels within the State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and president Trump, who will have to make this decision, hasn't been briefed about it yet.

"It will probably happen next week and until then we will see if the situation stabilizes and there are no more incidents and then we will decide," the U.S. official said.

Reuters first reported the discussions in the State Department on possible U.S. funding for GHF.

The funding on the GHF has been kept under a veil of secrecy by its senior leaders and by the Israeli government.

A senior Israeli official said the GHF secured $100 million to launch its operation. The money came from foreign governments and from private sector donors who all asked for anonymity, the Israeli official said.

Israel's public broadcaster Kan reported earlier this week that the Israeli government has given more than $200 million to the GHF in a secret appropriation to the ministry of defense without revealing where the money will go to. The Israeli prime minister's office denied Israeli tax payer money was given to GHF.

Udi Levy, the former head of the Mossad's economic intelligence unit, told Israel's channel 12 last week that Qatar and Turkey are funding GHF. The Qatari and Turkish governments denied that. But the Israeli military censor ordered channel 12 to delete the interview from its website.