Mohamed Nabil Zeidan swears that his seven remaining children — his eldest son, 22, was killed by an Israeli attack months ago — have gone three months without eating bread. This has been the case since almost March 2, when Israel completely banned the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Last week, someone told them that “the Americans” were distributing food. They were referring to the two food distribution sites opened on May 27 in the center and south of the Gaza Strip by a shadowy organization, with unknown funding, but sponsored by Israel and the United States: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Last Sunday, this family walked eight hours to reach the Rafah distribution center in the south. They hadn’t yet reached the second gate, along with “hundreds of thousands of other people,” when the Israeli military “started shooting,” recalls the 46-year-old bricklayer. A terrified crowd separated the mother, along with two of her children, from the father. “Get down on the ground,” the woman shouted to the children. Ahmad, 12, later saw her lying lifeless with her face pressed against the ground. “The tanks were approaching, and a man told me, ‘Run away! They’ve killed your mother!’” he recalls over the phone, with the incessant sound of shelling and the cries of other children in the background.

Since May 27, attacks attributed to the Israeli army have killed around 100 people near or even inside GHF centers, a claim the organization has repeatedly denied in its statements, which describe its distributions as “peaceful” and “incident-free.” In several of these press releases, they attribute these and other allegations against the organization to “inaccurate news” based on “unverified and unsubstantiated sources” and “fabricated and exaggerated narratives in media coverage.” Meanwhile, the United Nations has described GHF activities as “a militarized food distribution mechanism,” which numerous NGOs accuse of serving the aims of a 20-month-long Israeli invasion in which at least 55,000 people have died.

In what is probably the best version of the contents of the cardboard boxes of food this organization claims to be delivering — which was captured in a photograph released by the Israeli army last week — there are four packages of pasta, one of rice, two kilos of flour, two bottles of vegetable oil, and some cans of, for example, tinned tomatoes. There is nothing fresh, no fruit or vegetables. There are no eggs or dairy products, not even powdered ones, no nutritional supplements, no infant formula, and no hygiene products.

These foods are enough, according to the GHF, to feed five to six people for up to four days. The boxes include, according to GHF statements, between 63 and 65 rations that it describes as “meals,” even though they are unprepared food. While Gaza agonizes, with its 2.1 million inhabitants on the brink of famine, the GHF claims that, as of last Friday, 140,640 food boxes have been distributed at its two distribution sites, equivalent to nearly nine million of these “meals” (8,952,142, to be exact).

Humanitarian organizations, experts, and witnesses consulted by EL PAÍS consider these figures implausible. First of all, due to the high number of packages supposedly distributed by this new organization, which exceeds the number managed by U.N. agencies and NGOs with decades of experience distributing food in conflict zones. On its first day of operation, and already amid reports of chaos and starving Palestinians shot while trying to obtain food, the GHF claimed to have distributed 8,000 boxes in a few hours. A U.N. agency can distribute between 500 and 1,000 packages daily, according to a source from the organization.”

Several witnesses also deny that the number of boxes seen at the GHF centers was high. Mohamed Zeidan, whose wife died at the Rafah distribution site, claims to have seen only “six pallets of boxes” there. A U.N. worker with no relation to Zeidan, who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, cites other testimonies that allude to a similar estimate: “Five pallets of boxes.”

In a statement released Friday on its Facebook page, the GHF asserts, on the contrary, that it is “working to increase the daily quantities [of food],” with the goal “of reaching 4.5 million meals distributed daily.” It then addresses Gazans: “Please be assured that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will continue to ensure the necessary quantities of food for all good residents of Gaza.”

If the quantity of cardboard boxes distributed and the food they contain raises questions, so does the suitability of these foods for a malnourished population like Gaza. The GHF boxes barely include sources of animal protein — except for a few cans of tuna — nor healthy fats, vitamins, or minerals.

There is no infant formula or specific food for children. Nor are there nutritional supplements, even though, since January, humanitarian organizations working under the U.N. umbrella in Gaza have identified more than 16,500 children aged under five with severe acute malnutrition. Around 40% of Gaza’s population is aged under 14.

The flour and rice included in the foundation’s boxes are commercial, not those enriched with iron and B vitamins — such as folic acid, vital for pregnant women — distributed by the U.N. in contexts of malnutrition. The main humanitarian agency in Gaza, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which usually centralizes distributions for other organizations in the U.N. system, distributed these cereals, as well as powdered milk, infant formula, nutritional supplements, more protein-rich foods, and, when possible, fruits and vegetables.

The GHF boxes don’t always contain the same foods, according to witnesses like Zeidan, who describes the contents as much poorer than those depicted in the Israeli army photograph: “Each box contained three kilos of flour, a bag of about 12 crackers, one kilo of semolina [coarse wheat flour], sometimes one kilo of sugar, and one kilo of lentils or chickpeas,” he recalls. “With three kilos of flour, I barely make enough bread to feed my [seven] children for a day. That box isn’t even enough to feed a family of four for a day,” he laments.

The U.N. worker in Gaza claims that some packages only include “tea, sugar, and noodles; others, oil and rice.” According to this aid worker, with extensive experience in humanitarian aid distribution, the GHF’s figures, which include between 60 and 65 rations in each box, “make no sense.”

Unrealistic and insufficient figures

From Ramallah in the West Bank, Bushra Khalidi, advocacy manager for the NGO Oxfam, describes these GHF figures as “a joke” and argues that, even if they are true, the food is barely enough to feed the population of Gaza “for one day.” The GHF distribution centers are also in the southern half of the Gaza Strip, while around “one million people” are in the north, the U.N. worker points out, separated from the southern half by Israeli military corridors that they cannot cross.

The GHF food, he adds, also has a serious drawback: it must be cooked, which requires fire and/or water. Since Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid in March, not a drop of fuel or a gas cylinder has entered Palestinian territory. Wood is practically depleted, and nine out of 10 Gazans have no access to drinking water.

Humanitarian organizations, meanwhile, remain unable to distribute food because the Israeli government continues to block its entry into Gaza and because fear of looting by the starving population prevents them from distributing the little that does arrive. This situation has not changed significantly since May 18, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would allow limited food into the Gaza Strip to appease U.S. criticism.

Israel has presented the GHF as an alternative to the United Nations system and NGOs, who have refused to collaborate with this foundation, which violates the humanitarian principles of independence — it is associated with an invading army — and impartiality, and does not even ensure the traceability of the food it delivers.

In contrast, humanitarian organizations distribute aid following a series of steps to ensure it reaches those in need. First, these organizations identify the beneficiaries and the profile of the family unit — for example, if there are infants who need formula milk — before beginning the distribution of food or hygiene products, blankets, clothing, and materials for shelter such as tents.

Once identified, priority is given to the most vulnerable beneficiaries — children, the disabled, the elderly, and female heads of household — and they are summoned “with a phone call or text message” to one of the 400 distribution points available to the United Nations system throughout Gaza, “usually a five- or 10-minute walk from their homes,” explains the U.N. aid worker. The GHF has only two operational centers, which, moreover, are not open every day due to the chaos that prevails there.

Once at the NGO or U.N. distribution points, the beneficiary shows an ID and signs for the collection of aid. The boxes usually have a label attached to the side detailing the contents.

The U.N. official believes that without the GHF complying with this or a similar protocol, the organization’s activities “cannot be defined as a genuine humanitarian distribution, not even of food.”

“Who is the GHF distributing this food to? How are they doing it? Humanitarian distribution doesn’t consist of leaving boxes of food on the ground, only for a crowd of people, whose rule of law prevails, to fight over them,” he says.

A video from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation itself, broadcast by CNN, shows the Rafah distribution site. Dozens of boxes lie piled up on the ground as a crowd runs around trying to grab some food. Some Gazans open the packages, with no one apparently monitoring who takes what or how many boxes are distributed. In several of its statements, the GHF itself has asked Gazans not to open the packages inside the distribution site. In the sky, flashes emitted by a type of machine gun common to the Israeli army, according to an expert cited by the network, break the darkness. Other recordings show people with two boxes, others with torn and open containers, others with bags, and many with empty hands.

Sean Carroll, president of the NGO Anera, which runs community kitchens in the Gaza Strip, argues that even if the GHF figures are accurate, “just as important as the number of meals distributed are the number of people still starving, and also the dangerous and undignified way in which that food is being distributed.”

Criminal gangs

Both Mohamed Zeidan and the U.N. worker, who do not know each other, told EL PAÍS that those receiving these food boxes from the GHF are often not “ordinary Gazans.” Their testimonies and others reported on social media maintain that criminal gangs are hoarding the food with the complicity of Israel and the U.S. mercenary companies that monitor the distribution sites. The U.N. aid worker argues that these criminals then sell the food outside of these centers.

Zeidan recounts how “a thug” held a gun to his 20-year-old daughter’s head to steal some food she had managed to stuff into a bag. The incident occurred inside the “closed military zone” of the GHF site in Rafah.

On Thursday, former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused the Netanyahu government of supplying weapons to criminal gangs in Gaza. The Israeli prime minister’s office has not denied this.

“This is not help. It’s a place of humiliation, death, and insult,” says Zeidan, now a widower. For UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, the GHF sites are “a death trap.”

Julieta Espín, a professor of Near Eastern International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid, who wrote her thesis on UNRWA, concludes that the establishment of the U.S.-Israeli foundation is not intended to help or feed Gazans. She believes the foundation’s real objective is, in fact, “to put an end to UNRWA and its humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees, which the Israeli government sees as an obstacle to these people settling in other countries and thus [being able to] seize their territory.”

Meanwhile, the destruction of all traces of life in Gaza continues. While Israel defends the GHF as an alternative to U.N. agencies and NGOs, its army continues to raze not only infrastructure and homes, but also the orchards, greenhouses, farms, and fields that allowed the enclave’s population to produce some fresh food.

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“We’re being attacked! A war crime is being committed.” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila sounded the alarm on social media around midnight on Monday: the Madleen ship, carrying the Freedom Flotilla and a symbolic shipment of humanitarian aid for Gaza, had been intercepted by the Israeli army. “Greta Thunberg is currently on her way to Israel, safe and in good spirits,” the Foreign Ministry confirmed in a message on X featuring a photo of the Swedish activist being offered a bun by a soldier.

Several of the 12 activists traveling on the Madleen managed to share videos and brief messages from the moment they claim to have been ‘kidnapped’ by Israeli forces. Ávila emphasized that, as the ship was in international waters, Israel has committed a war crime with this operation and by preventing the legitimate arrival of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, who was also on board, shared an hourly message on X to record when the vessel lost communication due to the Israeli intervention. “As soon as you stop hearing from us, it means the internet has been cut off and Israel is preparing to attack us. This will give you a better idea of ​​the timing,” she explained. The first was at 11:12 p.m. local time on Sunday, and the third and final one at 1:12 a.m. on Monday.

Shortly after, Hassan published a final image of the ship’s deck, covered in paint-like stains. “A drone above us released a white liquid,” she reported on X. The radio had stopped working due to intentional “jamming,” so they could no longer request help from another vessel. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz congratulated the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on their “swift and safe capture of the Madleen flotilla to prevent them from breaking the blockade and reaching the shores of Gaza.”

According to Katz’s statement, he ordered his soldiers to “show passengers the video of the horrors of the October 7 massacre when they arrive at the port of Ashdod.” He also lashed out, as he had the day before, against the Swedish activist: “It is appropriate that antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who this terrorist organization they came to support and whom they are working for is.”

For its part, Hamas has condemned the interception of the ship and called the operation “state terrorism” and a “blatant attack on human conscience.” The volunteers, it argued, intended to “break the siege and expose the crime of hunger.” The Freedom Flotilla’s attempt to deliver aid to Gaza means, according to the Islamist party-militia’s media channels, that “Gaza is not alone.”

On Sunday afternoon, when the ship was less than 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the coast of the Palestinian enclave, Katz warned that he had instructed the IDF to act to prevent “the flotilla of hate” from reaching the shores of Gaza. “I have instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen does not reach Gaza. To the antisemitic Greta and her friends, I say clearly: You should turn back, because you will not reach Gaza,” he added.

In anticipation of the boat’s interception by Israeli forces, the activists had prepared a series of videos in which they stated their names and nationalities, with passports in hand as proof, including that of Spanish volunteer Sergio Toribio. They called on their respective governments to intervene. They also asked citizens to lobby through various channels for their countries’ leaders to take action against Israel.

In this regard, the Freedom Flotilla coalition also emphasized that the Madleen is a UK-flagged civilian vessel and that the UK “has a legal obligation to protect its vessel and the civilians on board from Israeli intervention.” UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese made a similar call: “The UK government must urgently seek a full clarification and ensure the immediate release of the vessel and its crew.” She also requested that the vessel be allowed to continue “its legitimate humanitarian mission.”

The Freedom Flotilla was created in 2010 as a peaceful coalition in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Its humanitarian purpose was to bring aid to Gaza during the Israeli blockade of the enclave. That year, a convoy carrying 10,000 tons of aid to the Strip, consisting of six boats with 750 people, was also intercepted by Israeli forces, resulting in a fatal attack: 10 people died and around 20 were injured in the military intervention.

On this occasion, the Freedom Flotilla’s objective was to bring a symbolic amount of food to the starving population of Gaza, primarily rice and infant formula. But above all, its journey represented a symbolic attempt to “open a humanitarian corridor” after months of blockades and obstruction of the entry of goods.

Israel has been preventing the smooth flow of humanitarian aid to the Strip since March 2, when Benjamin Netanyahu’s government imposed a total blockade that lasted more than 80 days. The hunger and shortage crisis was so severe, with the entire population of the territory (2.1 million people, almost half of whom are children) at serious risk of famine due to lack of food, that Israeli authorities opened the door to a limited number of trucks.

However, the UN has repeatedly denounced the insufficient amount of aid reaching Gaza. Israeli forces only allow access to 100 trucks carrying supplies, despite organizations estimating that between 500 and 600 of these vehicles are needed each day to meet the population’s basic needs.

The U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF)’s militarized distribution of food parcels outside the UN does not address Gazans’ food needs, does not provide acceptable safety conditions — more than 100 people have been shot dead while visiting GHF distribution points — and therefore does not comply with fundamental humanitarian principles, according to NGOs and the UN.

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Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, 82, has since childhood witnessed the turbulent relationship between Arab countries and Israel, whose creation in historic Palestine in 1948 sparked a seemingly eternal conflict. Its latest manifestation — the Israeli invasion and offensive in Gaza — has already left a death toll approaching 54,000. Meanwhile, Arab intellectuals point to the contradiction between their governments’ condemnation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the lukewarm attitude they criticize for a lack of concrete action.

Only five of the 22 Arab League states — Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain — maintain diplomatic relations with Israel; none have broken them off over Gaza. Gheit justifies this by arguing the need to talk to the Israelis to achieve peace. The Cairo-born diplomat participated in the negotiation of the 1978 Camp David Accords, which made Egypt the first Arab country to recognize Israel. He recounts this in Witness to War and Peace, the book he presented on June 2 at the Casa Árabe in Madrid, where he spoke with this newspaper.

Question. The meeting convened by Spain last Sunday to build an international coalition against the Israeli blockade of Gaza, at which you represented the Arab League, ended without a final communiqué. Were there any disagreements?

Answer. No one opposed any of the proposals. The purpose of the meeting was to prepare for the conference on a two-State solution for Israel and Palestine on June 17 in New York. I would emphasize that, in Madrid, countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, and France participated for the first time, and that the Maltese Foreign Minister even announced the recognition of Palestine. The discussions focused on calling for an end to the killings and accusing Israel of causing a famine in Gaza to displace the population. We all agreed that Israel’s actions were criminal under international law, including those European countries I mentioned. Even Germany participated. The change in attitude of some states known to be friendly to Israel, who are now talking about sanctioning it and halting trade if the attack on Gaza continues, is striking.

Q. Concrete measures were mentioned at that meeting. Why haven’t Arab states with diplomatic relations with Israel, such as Egypt, severed them?

A. Severing relations is not a prudent policy when it comes to negotiating with the parties: Egypt and also Qatar [which does not officially recognize Israel] are trying to mediate to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, which requires communicating with both sides, including Israel [the other being Hamas]. If there are no diplomatic relations or communication, it would be impossible to get anything from Israel. Relations between Egypt and that country are merely formal, but very cold. And the same goes for Jordan and the rest of the Arab states [that recognize Israel]. Egypt cannot recall its ambassador to Israel for consultations, because it does not have one [the Egyptian government refused to appoint a new ambassador to Tel Aviv in 2024]. There is hardly any trade or cultural relations. The Israeli Cultural Office in Egypt is closed. There is no life in that relationship, which is normal because the Egyptian people are affected [by Gaza] like never before.

Q. An Arab League country, Jordan, helped Israel intercept missiles that Iran launched at that country in April 2024.

A. Neither the Arab League nor I personally have any confirmation of this. These are claims disseminated by the media. Those missiles flew over Jordanian skies, and some fell on its territory, so that country was defending its airspace.

Q. Does the fear of a new war with Israel weigh more heavily in the Arab states than the majority support for the Palestinians among their populations?

A. We Arab countries do not want war. We aspire to a peaceful resolution to this situation. We Arabs proposed a peace plan in 2002, at the Arab League summit in Beirut, which proposed Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories [Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem] in exchange for all Arab states establishing diplomatic relations with that country. Israel rejected the plan because its objective remains the same as always: to expel the Palestinians from their lands and seize all of historic Palestine. We are witnessing a dramatic history of the use of force against a defenseless, unarmed people.

Q. What is the Arab League going to do now that Israel has launched a new offensive in Gaza?

A. We want to take everything Israel is doing to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court. We also try to defend the Palestinians at the United Nations General Assembly.

Q. Are you referring to the resolution that Spain wants to present to the ICJ ordering Israel to lift the blockade on the entry of aid?

A. We fully support all initiatives to defend the Palestinians. The issue is that the West allows Israel to act the way it does without firm punishment. Spain is taking an ethical stance and has moved ahead of all European states regarding Gaza. That’s why it enjoys impressive standing in the Arab and Islamic region. The problem is that there are European states with great influence that continue to live with the idea that Jews must be defended because they were persecuted in Europe. That persecution happened in the past, while the persecution of the Palestinians is happening right now. Europe should understand this difference and that the Palestinians are paying the price for that past.

Q. Do Egypt and other Arab countries fear a large influx of Palestinians if Israel succeeds in expelling them? Does that influence their position?

A. The forced, or even non-forced, mass displacement of a population is illegal under international law. The international community calls it ethnic cleansing.

Q. Is Israel already committing this ethnic cleansing?

A. I firmly believe it. The forced or voluntary displacement of Palestinians from their land to Egypt or other countries would not prevent Israel from continuing to attack them within those countries, which would provoke wars between Israel and those host states. And then we would return to the situation we had 30 or 40 years ago. Israel is constantly trying to expand its territory at the expense of Arab countries [the Israeli army maintains an occupation of parts of Lebanon and Syria], under the guise of seeking security.

Q. When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plan to build what he called the “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza, Egypt and the Arab League presented an alternative reconstruction plan. Do you think they will be able to implement it?

A. The League completely rejects Trump’s plan. It’s an ethnic cleansing that we will not allow. Not only in the countries surrounding the Strip [Egypt and Jordan], which Trump mentioned as receiving Palestinians, but in any state.

Q. And what about the Arab League plan?

A. That plan has as its priorities a ceasefire, agreeing on a new administration in Gaza and the West Bank, which will be managed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), and providing security to Gaza on a temporary basis through some international arm.

Q. Are you referring to an international military force?

A. Yes. With Arab and international forces. Reconstruction could then begin.

Q. Israel refuses to allow the PA to rule the Strip.

A. Israel rejects anything other than consent to its complete domination of all of Palestine. It’s a country that’s always trying to expand its territory at the expense of its neighbors and behaves like states that did the same in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are many examples in European history that you and I know, but I don’t want to mention names.

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