Whistleblower Accuses UN of Blocking Aid to Gaza

An international aid worker who worked in Gaza in July has accused United Nations agencies of inhibiting the delivery of aid to Gaza, as well as blocking the efforts of the Israel Defense Forces and Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to deliver food and aid. He also questioned whether the refusal to coordinate with Israel Defense Forces was at the direction of the UN Secretary General.

The whistleblower’s report to the Inspector General of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) alleged “gross misconduct and misuse of humanitarian funds by the World Food Programme and other U.N. Agencies,” Fox News Digital reports. The whistleblower also attested that there was “no evidence of ‘starvation’ or ‘famine’ in Gaza. There are pockets of severe hunger, but they are not systematic or pervasive.”

The report delineates “a firsthand eyewitnessing of senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials offering any support necessary, including security protection and coordination, to representatives from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) only to have WFP and OCHA respond that they were not prepared to discuss such coordination.”

“The IDF is actively helping the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation get food into the hands of civilians while U.N. agencies, including WFP and OCHA, through their unwillingness to coordinate with the IDF, are inhibiting the distribution of such aid,” the whistleblower reported, adding, “As has been recently shown through openly available imagery, the IDF has provided clearance for thousands of tons of U.N. humanitarian goods that are now sitting inside of Gaza, awaiting distribution. The U.N. must be held accountable to pick up and distribute such aid. I urge you to launch an independent investigation into this matter to determine the extent to which U.N. agencies, by refusing to coordinate with the IDF on essential issues, including security, are abusing U.S. taxpayer funds rather than using them to deliver the aid the American people are donating – and whether such actions are being taken independently by U.N. officials in Gaza or at the direction of the U.N. Secretary General or other senior U.N. officials in New York.”

“There is a concerted effort to discredit GHF and any attempts to provide aid out of [the] U.N.,” the whistleblower informed Fox News Digital.

“The fact of the matter remains that GHF is a threat to how Hamas functions and enriches itself because GHF provides meals to those in need with safeguards to minimize Hamas from stealing. This is why Hamas continues to attack GHF aid sites,” a senior U.S. State Department official told Fox News Digital. “Aid diversion to terrorists frequently occurs in conflict zones under Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) control. It is a moral and legal obligation, and our duty to the American taxpayer, to work with our partners to ensure this ends immediately. There is endless video evidence of Hamas looting, not to mention members of the aid-industrial complex who have admitted that looting exists by reporting it as ‘self-distribution,’ in a poor attempt at an aid corruption coverup.”

Former White House and National Security Council official Richard Goldberg commented:

The U.N. is playing hunger games with the people of Gaza to drive a crisis, try to get the GHF to fail and resuscitate UNRWA as the dominant aid facilitator. We are talking about an enormous amount of taxpayer money being provided to WFP and the U.N. writ large with an expectation that aid be delivered in coordination with Israel. The allegations here suggest a directive from the Secretary General himself across the U.N. system to cause aid disruptions for the benefit of Hamas, which would be the biggest U.N. scandal since oil for food. Secretary Rubio would be more than justified in calling the Secretary General and telling him that the U.N. won’t get another dime from U.S. taxpayers unless he submits to an independent investigation and orders all agencies to cooperate with Israel.

The UN’s Oil-for-Food program, initiated in 1996, was intended to feed the Iraqi population after the first Gulf War. But the program was used by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to generate billions in illegal revenue.