SCOOP: USAID Being 'Forced' to Award Millions to Disastrous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
GHF’s ‘initial’ funding request for $30 million in June comes as Israeli forces continue to kill scores of Palestinians at or near the aid sites.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has requested $30 million from the now beleaguered USAID – a request sources say the agency is being “forced” by higher-ups to quickly approve.
The request comes after Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians at or near the GHF aid sites since the chaotic operation began late last month. On Friday morning, the same day the request came in, Israeli tanks and drones fired at thousands of people near a distribution site, reportedly killing at least 23 people.
Sources, who were granted anonymity to speak freely on the issue, told Zeteo that Jeremy Lewin, the director of foreign assistance at USAID, is pressuring the agency to approve the request. Lewin is a DOGE associate who reportedly has history of making racist remarks.
GHF’s “request” appears to be bypassing normal procedures. The sources say top Trump brass is pushing the proposed funding through, despite any staff concerns on the project’s ability to meet criteria regarding humanitarian principles, neutrality, or independence. Any feedback staffers might have, sources say, can be recorded, but won’t actually have an impact on the proposal. Altogether, sources feel the agency would not approve the request under normal circumstances.
The award, if approved, is set to run from June 1 to June 30 – seemingly as a mechanism for backfunding the project. In its application, GHF included an "estimated budget” that includes $30 million from the US each month, at least until December, which would mean a total of $210 million.
A source within USAID says the unusual process makes it such that it’s unclear whether the request itself is for $30 million or an assumed $210 million. There are existing mechanisms to increase aid awards, but it’s unclear if those would even apply to this type of request.
In its application, GHF also states the organization expects to receive upwards of $1 billion from “other government donors.” It’s not clear which governments it means.
USAID, the State Department, and GHF did not immediately respond to Zeteo’s request for comment.
The developments follow the Trump administration's slashing of thousands of USAID awards, and the jobs of accompanying officers who help manage and roll out those awards. They also come just days before USAID is set to carry out one of its final Trump-mandated "reduction-in-force" job cuts and transition into the State Department, on July 1.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that the State Department was mulling giving $500 million to the GHF. On Friday, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and USAID acting administrator Kenneth Jackson, demanding answers to several questions, including whether USAID was considering awarding any funds to GHF and the terms of a possible agreement.
The funding behind the GHF has remained murky. While it’s maintained that it is an independent nonprofit, it has been trumpeted by the US and Israeli governments. Israel has maintained that it is not funding GHF. An American contractor providing security for GHF sites went as far as to write in an op-ed published by Zeteo, that it’s “bullshit” to suggest that the Israeli government is not involved.
In its request, GHF notes that among its “key implementation elements” is a central warehouse “activated in coordination with Israeli border authorities.”
GHF says in its application that it was established to address the severe humanitarian need in Gaza, and the “constraints on access” to aid by “operating as a conflict-informed humanitarian delivery platform that bypasses traditional chokepoints through private contracting, secure distribution, and field-tested compliance mechanisms.”
GHF has been sharply criticized by the United Nations and other international aid organizations. Jake Wood, the former executive director of the foundation, resigned before operations even began. “It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said.
Others, including Palestinians in Gaza and the UN, have described the current aid distribution sites “death traps,” where those who are starving and desperate for aid go only to be fired on by Israeli forces.
If you are someone who works in or around the US government with relevant information about these developments, please contact me via email or Signal (premthakker.35).
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So in addition to the thousands of children who died day one without USAID, now we are luring starving Gaza citizens to their death with the promise of food, but instead guns.
Butter or Guns!!! How much more do people need to call this a genocide AND a very cruel and inhumane one. Why have you killed women and children? Old people, and why are you doing the worst thing any human can do? Hold out a hard to give food, but instead a bullet.
USA, or Israel? They both do this.
Thank you, so much, for your reporting, Prem.
You're such an asset.