Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is being made worse by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which works to get aid into the city.
The congresswoman criticized the program alongside Doctors Against Genocide, a human rights advocacy group made up of healthcare professionals, as well as Veterans for Peace, a military veteran organization that promotes peace over war, during a press conference on Thursday.
“It’s a deadly sham, a trap backed by the Israeli government and the Trump administration,” Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to Congress, said about the GHF. “The United Nations even calls it a death trap.”
The U.N. has come out with various reports blaming Israel for sustaining the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Much of their information relies on sources embedded within Hamas, such as the Gaza Health Ministry, and is not independently verifiable.
Stacy Gilbert, a former State Department employee who worked in humanitarian assistance, said the situation is unprecedented.
“I have never in my 30 years working in this field seen a situation where there has to be a category to enumerate the number of people regularly killed on their way to get humanitarian assistance. That has never happened,” she said.
The State Department approved $30 million in funding for the GHF in June to provide food and aid to civilians in Gaza. Based in Delaware, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was founded this past May and is led by the Rev. Johnnie Moore. It is a nonprofit group backed by the U.S. and Israeli governments and has delivered over 50 million meals to civilians in Gaza.
The organization has faced criticism from the U.N. and media outlets for the alleged lack of safety around its aid distribution sites in southern and central Gaza. The U.N. claimed that as of July 21, 766 of the 1,054 civilians killed seeking aid were in the vicinity of GHF sites.
Moore responded to claims made against the GHF, calling them “a disinformation campaign” and arguing Hamas is to blame for the casualties, accusing the group of “intentionally harming people for the purpose of defaming what we’re doing,” according to the American Jewish Committee.
The foundation had to pause efforts in June to reassess its security blueprint following initial reports of Israel Defense Forces soldiers shooting toward those getting aid.
The U.N. has reportedly struggled to deliver aid due to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups stealing its convoys, with shipments containing 2,500 tons of food sitting at the Kerem Shalom Crossing waiting to be delivered, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“We’ve been sounding the alarm for weeks on the need for more aid in Gaza while we’ve seen aid by the UN and other organizations being piled near the borders but not being delivered,” said John Acree, interim director of the GHF, in a post on X.
The U.N. denied that Hamas is intercepting its aid shipments, claiming there is no evidence of this as of May 28, instead blaming “criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces.” Hamas has been found to do the same before, intercepting aid shipments to Palestinians in Gaza in 2009, forcing the U.N. to halt imports, and hijacking shipments to Gaza in 2024 as well.
Several doctors at the news conference came forward to share the testimonies of Palestinian civilians who are suffering in Gaza.
“One girl whose hair fell out, almost completely as a result of nutritional edema, kept asking me, ‘Doctor, will my hair grow back? Am I still beautiful?’” said Dr. Dannie Ritchie, a family physician from Rhode Island, reading the testimony of a doctor in Gaza.
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John Rohrer, a retired emergency physician, outlined five actions he, Tlaib, and other supporters want to see from Congress and President Donald Trump: open the crossings to Gaza for humanitarian aid, dismantle the GHF, provide unrestricted access to food, fuel, medicine, and water via organizations such as the U.N., international protection for humanitarian aid and aid workers, and a complete and permanent ceasefire.
Tlaib has been vocal about her criticism of Israel during the conflict in Gaza. She was censured in November 2023 over her use of the chant “from the river to the sea,” which is considered antisemitic. After the House censured her, her campaign contributions skyrocketed to one of the highest in the party.