New executive chairman of US-backed aid for Gaza hits back at criticism
Talking with ABC News for his first-ever interview, the new executive chairman of the controversial United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) discussed dozens of people being killed near the aid distribution centers and one of the sites being shut down within 10 days of opening.
Reverend Dr. Johnnie Moore -- who has twice been appointed by President Donald Trump as a commissioner on the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom -- said the organization "can't control what happens outside" the distribution points and added that there have been incidents, "as one would expect, in a war, outside of our distribution sites."
Israel Defense Forces said that its troops opened fire on both Sunday and Tuesday of this week in areas near GHF aid distribution sites in Gaza, stating it has fired shots "towards" people but not at them. The IDF said "suspects" had deviated from specific routes towards the aid hub.
According to Moore, "some" deaths in one of the incidents did "come from the IDF" although he also blamed "some" of the deaths on Hamas.
At least 57 people were killed and nearly 300 injured, health officials said, between Sunday and Tuesday's shootings, leading GHF to pause its distribution for 24 hours.
When asked if GHF's aid plan was part of the problem, given that desperate, hungry people had been killed on their way to pick up food, Moore answered, "No, I think that's a quite cynical point of view."
"I fundamentally disagree with the premise that our operation is somehow disproportionately imperiling people," he said.
According to Moore, GHF -- since it was set up 10 days ago -- had distributed "10 million meals to Gazans, to thousands and thousands and thousands of people."
The population of Gaza is around 2.2 million.
Addressing the two incidents, Moore said, "Somehow people veered off the secure corridor," and referred to the deaths as "a tragedy."
In the wake of such deadly incidents, GHF has since closed its distribution centers. Moore said his organization was "working with others" to make such incidents "less likely to happen" in the future.
"I'm not doing this for anybody to die," GHF's executive chairman said.
Moore pushed back on the implication that the new aid plan, which was set up at the behest of Israel to counter the alleged looting of aid by Hamas, had been mismanaged.
Moore confirmed that Gazans arriving at the aid distribution points didn't need to show any form of ID to get access to aid. When asked by ABC News how he could be sure that Hamas would not profit from aid distributed under his plan, he said there was "no evidence" any of their aid had been seized.
The GHF executive said his organization was "very much solving the problem" and, over time, GHF would "put more energy on verification."
International aid agencies have refused to participate in GHF's aid distribution operation, stating that it breaches fundamental humanitarian principles, such as the notion that aid should always be distributed at the point of need.
The GHF operation has been accused by multiple U.N. organizations of forcing people to have to travel long distances through a perilous war zone to reach the distribution points, which are located in tightly restricted areas. The most vulnerable people in Gaza would appear to be the least likely to be able to access the aid.
Moore rejected that premise and said, "over time" he believed they would be able to get aid to the most vulnerable people.
International aid agencies have also accused GHF's aid distribution operation of being part of Israel's military strategy, which Moore said was "simply not true."
"Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This militarized system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution, as the United Nations has repeatedly warned," Turk's statement continued.
Moore said GHF was communicating with the IDF to "manage" the "secure corridors," but he described GHF as an "American organization" with "American contractors."
When asked if Israel was funding the organization, at least to some extent, he refused to comment.
"There's certain things that we're not gonna talk about or focus on now," Moore told ABC News.
GHF has been mired in controversy from the beginning, and it lost Executive Director Jake Wood, a U.S. military veteran, who resigned just before the aid plan launched nearly two weeks ago. Wood cited concerns over the group's impartiality.
In an interview days before his resignation, Wood had suggested on CNN that GHF would only be able to scale up its operation to the necessary level to cater for Gaza's population if major aid agencies were to join the operation, something they have all refused to do.
As a new executive, Moore said he believed they could scale up the operation to the necessary degree, but said it was not their goal to do it without the cooperation of major aid agencies.
"I mean, they're the ones who have said that they won't work with us," he added. "My message to them [international aid agencies] is like, stop criticizing us, just join us, and we can learn from them if people have better idea."
As of Thursday, the aid sites were shut down and then briefly re-opened and then closed again at two sites in Rafah, Gaza, GHF said. The GHF says that some sites have been reopened on Saturday but it is currently unclear how much aid is being distributed.
Moore said the ultimate aim was to have significantly more than eight distribution centers and said he thought that "big organizations" would eventually cooperate with GHF.
