According to The New Arab, the State Department is considering a massive distribution to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The new Israeli and US-backed agency has been accused by human rights groups of being a tool of Tel Aviv to complete the ethnic cleansing of Gaza rather than an organization attempting to feed the starving people of the Strip.

Citing two current and two former officials, the outlet reported that the State Department is considering a $500 million transfer to the GHF. The money would fund the organization for about six months.

Responding to an inquiry by the Libertarian Institute, the State Department press office declined to confirm the report, only stating that the GHF is “an independent organization” that “currently does not receive [US government] funding.” It directed further questions to the organization itself, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some US officials have opposed the large grant, raising concerns related to incidents when Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians near GHF aid sites.

The GHF has met intense criticism for being unprepared to provide food and other desperately needed supplies in Gaza. UN and other aid agencies previously used established distribution networks to feed the millions of people languishing under the Israeli blockade. However, since the GHF was established in February, Israel has refused to allow UN and international agencies to bring aid into Gaza in favor of the new organization.

In the first weeks of the GHF operations in Gaza, Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians attempting to get food, prompting top officials and firms to cut ties with the agency. GHF’s previous executive director, Jake Wood, resigned just hours before the organization began operating in the Strip, arguing the group’s plans were not in line with “humanitarian principles.”

Reverend Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical Christian leader and staunch Zionist, took over Wood’s role last week.

Additionally, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a major US firm that had provided free services to the GHF, recently cut ties with the org over so-called “process failures.” BCG chief executive Christoph Schweizer fired two partners who were said to have carried out “unauthorized work” on the GHF project, though the firm offered few other details about their termination.

Schweizer later issued an apology after ending involvement with the GHF. “I deeply regret that in this situation, we fell short – of our own standards and of the trust that you, our clients and our broader communities place in BCG,” he wrote. “I am sorry for how deeply disappointing this has been to many BCGers around the world.”

Former CIA officer Phil Reilly’s Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) is providing security for the GHF aid sites. Reilly was a consultant with BCG until December.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed near GHF sites during the group’s first 10 days of operations, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with Israel’s military acknowledging that it fired on civilians on at least one occasion. A large number of Gazans have been killed in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs throughout the conflict, including at least 112 shot dead in a single incident near an aid site in Gaza City last year.