US officials ignored dozens of objections and waived several required safeguards to rush millions of dollars to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Amnesty International has labeled the GHF a tool of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Reuters reports that the acting director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance, Jeremy Lewin, overrode nine mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards and ignored 58 objections identified by State Department staffers to expedite a $30 million payment to the GHF. Lewin worked with so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) before moving over to State.
In an email, Lewin told staffers at USAID that the payment needed to happen “ASAP,” and it had strong support within the White House.
A report by Amnesty International found the GHF has been used as a tool used by Tel Aviv to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. “In the month following Israel’s imposition of a militarized ‘aid’ scheme run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured either near militarized distribution sites or en route to humanitarian aid convoys,” it said. “All the evidence gathered, including testimonies which Amnesty International is receiving from victims and witnesses, suggests that the GHF was designed so as to placate international concerns while constituting another tool of Israel’s genocide.”
The organization is run by Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Christian Zionist and ally of Benjamin Netanyahu. He has argued that the ICC is anti-Semitic for seeking to arrest the Israeli prime minister over war crimes committed in Gaza.
Nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and contractors near the GHF distribution sites in Gaza.
Lewin acknowledged that the payment to GHF could be a controversial issue in a June 25 email to USAID officials, in which he said he was “taking the bullet on this one.”
While the journey to GHF aid sites can be lethal, many Palestinians risk the danger as it is the only source of food in Gaza. However, the GHF distribution process is erratic and dehumanizing.
One Palestinian explained that the aid distribution system has created a catastrophe resembling the dystopian “Hunger Games.” Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi writes:
The aid distribution takes place in a fenced area near Salah al-Din Street, close to the eastern edge of Gaza – in a zone so dangerous, locals call it the death corridor. It is surrounded by sand and guarded by foreign military contractors. There are Israeli tanks and soldiers stationed nearby.
There is no clear schedule for the aid deliveries. Sometimes, the GHF opens the gates at 4am and sometimes later. Palestinians wait starting at sunset the night before.
When the gates finally open, the crowd floods in. There are no queues, no staff, no signs. Just noise, dust and fear.
Overhead, drones circle like vultures. Then, a voice from a loudspeaker shouts: “Four minutes! Take what you can!”
Food boxes are left in the middle of the sand, but there is not enough of them. They are never enough. People rush towards the pile, shoving and climbing over each other. They push each other. Knives come out. Fistfights erupt. Children scream. Men fall. Women crawl through the sand. Few people are the lucky ones who are able to grab a box and hold onto it. Then gunfire starts. The sandy square becomes a killing field.
People run for their lives. Many get hit. Some manage to crawl out with injuries. Others are carried by friends or relatives or even strangers. Others bleed alone into the sand.
Between his posts at DOGE and the State Department, Lewin briefly served as acting director of USAID, the same federal agency he appeared to pressure in the June 25 email. Soon after he assumed the latter position last March, Rolling Stone spoke with 10 of his former colleagues who claimed the 28-year-old official had a history “violent outbursts and racist remarks.”
Far more concerning, the magazine also cited police records which showed that Lewin was “once accused of threatening a girl with a knife” during a party at his parents’ home in 2015. The girl – who he accused of stealing – “told police she feared for her life,” and while officers recommended charges for “assault by means of a dangerous weapon,” no further action was taken.
A great pick by the Trump administration.
