by Paul Braterman

Paul Braterman is Professor Emeritus in Chemistry, University of North Texas, and Honorary Research Fellow (formerly Reader) at the University of Glasgow. His research has involved topics related to the early Earth and the origins of life, and received support from NSF, NASA, Sandia National Labs, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is now interested in sharing scientific ideas with the widest possible audience, and was involved in successful campaigns to persuade both the English and the Scottish Governments to keep creationism out of the science classroom. He blogs at  Primate’s Progress, paulbraterman.wordpress.com.

Blockade has brought Gaza to the brink of famine. The aid system recently imposed by the US and Israel is unfit for purpose. People trying to get to the aid centers are being killed. None of this was necessary. [1]

Trump is an effective mafioso, and as such he is at pains to reward those who have brought him to power. Among them, the vaccination conspiracy theorists, rewarded with the appointment of RFK Junior to the position where he can do the most harm. Intellectual nihilists, rewarded with the appointment of one of their own as Vice President, and the onslaught on the intellectual independence of the Universities. Lunatic fringe Christians with the establishment of Paula White’s Faith Office within the White House.

For Christian Zionists, Trump’s reward is the appointment of Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, and now the appointment of Johnnie Moore as head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Huckabee does not even recognize that the Israeli presence on the West Bank is an occupation. He describes the area in biblical terms as Judaea and Samaria, and regards Israel as having a natural right of possession, by virtue of what God told Abraham in Genesis 15. 

Another self-proclaimed Christian Zionist is Johnnie Moore, chosen to lead the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been responsible for the distribution of aid since 26 May 2025. GHF seems to have the backing of the US and Israeli governments. However, it is a private not-for-profit based in Delaware, and as such is not responsible to Congress and is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. Its funding sources have not been made public and it is not clear who is in charge. Trump had earlier appointed Moore to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. 

Moore began his career at Liberty University, which is an explicitly six day creationist school, where he became a Professor of Religion. He was at one time a supporter of Ben Carson’s presidential run (Carson regards evolution as a lie from the pit of hell), butbecame co-chair of Trump’s 2016 Evangelical Advisory Board, was a strong supporter of Trump’s 2017 moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, advised the first Trump administration that “those that bless Israel will be blessed,” and welcomed Huckabee’s appointment as ambassador. He has long described himself as an advocate for Israel because of his religious beliefs, sayingthat “Israel has impacted me far, far more than almost anything else. I almost can’t think of my life as inseparable from Israel in some ways.”. He has no relevant organizational experience, and has echoed Israeli claims (see below) that reports of Palestinians being shot by the IDF are terrorist-inspired lies. 

Reporting on Gaza is difficult, with BBC and other journalists complaining about lack of access. As The Guardian reports, since 7 October 2023 foreign journalists have only been allowed entry to Gaza under Israeli military escort, have no freedom of movement, and are not allowed to directly address Palestinians. Mortality has been high among Palestinian journalists and media workers, with over 180 dead,  at least 19 of whom, according to the US non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists, were directly murdered by Israeli forces.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in the current conflict (as of 4 June 2025), more than 15,000 of them children. The Israeli authorities invariably dispute such figures, claim that their forces have acted in self-defense or as necessary for purposes of combat, or (especially with regard to the events discussed here) believed themselves to be threatened by unauthorized moving crowds, and have attributed deaths to shooting by Hamas, but as explained above it is difficult to verify these claims. The horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023 had left 1,175 dead, including 800 civilians, with Hamas claiming to have taken some 200 hostages, with 50 more being held by other groups.

The delivery of adequate supplies of food and other essentials to Gaza is the responsibility of Israel, as the occupying power. This is not in dispute. Until March of this year, aid was distributed by UNRWA, which the Israeli government has long accused of being infiltrated by Hamas. In March, this was shut down, to be replaced by GHF, which did not begin operations until the very end of May. 

There was a good report on the immediate effect of this change by Sky News, while the Guardian has described the related organizational tumult. There are only four aid distribution centers, compared to hundreds when the UN was in charge. They are poorly positioned, and aid recipients have to walk at least a mile and a half through the combat zone.

It is almost as if the main function of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is to ensure that as little humanitarian aid as possible actually reaches the people in Gaza who need it. The day before GHF began distributions, the director, a former Marine, Jake Wood, resigned, having found his position impossible. Boston Consulting Group, involved in managing the logistics, has also withdrawn, citing lack of “buy-in from multilateral stakeholders.” A recent (8 June 2025) Sky News interview with a British doctor just returned from Gaza describes the effects of the two-month interruption of aid, the effect of malnutrition on patients’ wound healing, and the inadequacy of GHF compared with the UN-based system that it replaces. Sky News is preparing a documentary, based on the experience of outside doctors working in Gaza. (Disclosure: I support their work, by donating to Médecins sans Frontieres.)

I have done my best to unravel a chaotic series of events, using several accounts from what I judged to be reliable sources. [2] There is already severe malnourishment, and according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, nearly 71,000 children in Gaza under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months. GHF has been overwhelmed, with chaotic scenes as hungry crowds pushed over the wire fences meant to control them. On three (update; now apparently four) separate occasions during GHF’s first ten days of operation, Israeli troops fired on people seeking aid, killing 30 on June 1, and 27, including children, at the same site on June 3, with hundreds wounded. Médecins Sans Frontières has independently reported on the June 3 incident as evidence of GHF’s structural inadequacy. According to a Gaza civil defense spokesman, the IDF opened fire using tanks and drones. After this incident, GHF announced that it would temporarily be closing its centers, to avoid further casualties and for update and efficiency improvement. That same day, Tammy Bruce, US State Department spokesman, said that inquiries should be addressed directly to GHF, and that the Department would not speculate about its plans. On June 4, the US vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire, release of hostages, and full resumption of aid, although all other Council members, including (unusually) the UK, had voted in favor. That day GHF was urging civilians to follow routes that had been designated as safe, while at the same time the IDF was designating the same routes as a combat zone. On June 5, the German Foreign Minister asked Israel to admit more aid. This is noteworthy because German criticism of Israel is highly unusual.

As I finished writing this, there was news that, after more shootings, GHF is now planning to use its own vehicles to distribute food. It is difficult to see how such a system could be established on a scale sufficient to prevent widespread starvation.

(Disclosure; I have two cousins in Israel, at opposite ends of the political spectrum there, and both of them inside Kibbutz Sa’ad next to the Gaza border, whose defenders came close to being overwhelmed by the terrorist onslaught of October 7, 2023.] 

1] Dr Victoria Rose, interviewed on Sky News as discussed below, said she had never seen military uniforms or weapons when working in Gaza, other than IDF, and spelled out the fact that maintaining adequate food supplies would in any case pre-empt the possible problems of looting and control by Hamas, ostensive reasons for the new system.

2] U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Demanding Immediate Gaza Cease-Fire https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/middleeast/un-security-council-gaza-cease-fire.html

US vetoes UN Security Council demand for Gaza ceasefire https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-backed-gaza-aid-group-halt-distribution-wednesday-un-vote-ceasefire-demand-2025-06-04/

Israeli troops open fire as US-backed food logistics group loses control of Gaza centre https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/27/israeli-troops-open-fire-aid-group-loses-control-distribution-centre

Starving Palestinians fear being shot dead for a bag of lentils as Gaza aid points close

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/starving-palestinians-fear-being-shot-dead-for-a-bag-of-lentils-as-gaza-aid-points-close/ar-AA1GdDcA

2025 Gaza Strip aid distribution incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Gaza_Strip_aid_distribution_incidents (Wikipedia is frequently accused of bias by special interest groups, but gives detailed citations for its claims)

In Emaciated Children, Gaza’s Hunger Is Laid Bare https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/world/middleeast/gaza-children-hunger.html

More Than 20 Killed Near Aid Distribution Site in Gaza, Health Officials Say https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/world/middleeast/gaza-aid-distribution-site-attack.html

Palestinians gunned down while trying to reach food aid site in Gaza, hospital says https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/palestinians-gunned-down-while-trying-to-reach-food-aid-site-in-gaza-hospital-says

Israeli Soldiers Open Fire Near Gaza Aid Site. Gaza Officials Say 27 Are Killed. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/world/middleeast/gaza-aid-site-shooting-israel.html

At least 27 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire at food point, Gaza officials say https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/03/palestinians-killed-israeli-fire-aid-point-gaza-officials-say

Dozens of Palestinians massacred at US-Israel backed food distribution sites https://www.msf.org/dozens-palestinians-massacred-us-israel-backed-food-distribution-sites

Israeli-Backed Aid Sites in Gaza Close Temporarily After Deadly Shootings https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/middleeast/israeli-aid-sites-gaza.html

Gaza food hub stops operations for second day as access routes remain ‘combat zones’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/04/israel-warns-palestinians-against-travel-on-roads-to-gaza-aid-hubs-labelling-them-combat-zones

See also embedded links. Coverage certainly incomplete. Information as of June 9, 2025