GHF chief Rev. Moore slams 'fake' reports of violence at Gaza aid sites, says IDF 'faces incredibly difficult challenge'

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) chairman Rev. Johnnie Moore disputed claims related to violence at his group's aid distribution sites, defended the IDF, and called for the UN to cooperate on aid in the Gaza Strip in an interview with Israel’s Ynet News on Monday.

Moore particularly rejected the recent UN claims that around 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers at GHF’s aid distribution sites while seeking aid. 

“Over 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating," UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP.

"As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations' aid convoys."

The UN claimed its data is based on “multiple reliable sources on the ground.” 

“That figure is fake,” Moore stated. “Hamas uses a tactic of lumping together civilians and terrorists when reporting casualties. They just release a number and attribute all of it to us.” 

He noted that the Gaza Strip is “in an active war zone.” 

“Not a single person has been shot inside our aid centers,” he noted. “And when people have been hurt nearby, usually one to two kilometers away, we reported it officially.” 

He also said that hundreds of Gazans have been “killed near UN facilities or by Hamas,” which are then “blamed on GHF or the IDF.” 

Citing recent evidence of injuries during stampedes, as hundreds of Gaza residents swarmed aid trucks heading to UN distribution sites, Moore said that in the past 24 hours since the aid trucks resumed entering in larger numbers, “more Gazans were harmed than during our entire two months of work.” 

The difference between GHF’s aid distribution and the @UN's…

The Palestinian people deserve humane, orderly, and secure access to desperately needed food. And that’s exactly what GHF is giving them.

We call on the international community to do better for the people of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/17P6bZJpmy

— Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (@GHFUpdates) July 28, 2025

GHF has not downplayed the need for food security in Gaza. On Monday, GHF Interim Executive Director John Acree said more aid is needed and called on the global community to work with GHF in getting more aid to Gazans. 

“The scale of suffering in Gaza remains staggering. Families are exhausted, hungry, and desperate – and for far too many, aid is still not arriving fast enough. That’s why our teams are pushing harder every single day. More than 96 million meals have been delivered since May, including more than one million today alone,” Acree said in an operational report. 

Moore said that despite the criticisms it has received from the UN and other NGOs, GHF still hopes to work with them to ensure food reaches more Gazans. 

“We don’t want to criticize the UN – we want to work with them. We never intended to replace any international agency,” he stated. 

“GHF was never created to solve this problem alone. And we can’t.

"We would love to work with the @UN to get more food out. We want to scale up at additional sites and bring as
much food to people as possible and create new humanitarian corridors."

— GHF's Chapin Fay in… pic.twitter.com/zvVkvtOAex

— Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (@GHFUpdates) July 28, 2025

Asked why GHF doesn’t open more aid centers, Moore responded that “there was never an expectation that GHF would replace all humanitarian actors in Gaza. We exist to accelerate the effort. GHF was designed to deliver hundreds of thousands of food boxes daily.” 

The aid trucks entering Gaza using the UN’s method.

This is how Gazans get killed.

And afterward, the UN dares to claim that the aid distribution method at the American GHF aid distribution centers is what endangers Gazans, even calling them (together with journalist Muhammad… pic.twitter.com/iwk97quXHy

— Israel News Pulse (@israelnewspulse) July 26, 2025

He also admitted that opening more aid sites “requires more resources.” 

“There’s still much we could do, but the problem lies with the UN and international organizations, which act as if they’re humanitarian but behave like politicians,” he noted. 

He reiterated that the GHF offered to help the UN distribute around 950 trucks of aid, which were sitting on the Gaza side of the border, but the UN refused the offer. 

“We offered to distribute that food on their behalf, and they refused. I don’t know why,” he related. “I believe they played politics with human lives, right in the middle of the hostage deal negotiations.”

The GHF chairman pushed back against claims that the IDF is deliberately shooting at civilians at or near its aid sites, saying, “We have seen no indication that the IDF is failing to comply with international law or its obligations.” 

“The IDF faces an incredibly difficult challenge, and I do not wish to pass judgment – especially considering Hamas is a terrorist organization that violates all international norms and hides behind civilians,” Moore explained. 

He also denied the claims of a former employee, Anthony Aguilar, who told the BBC that he witnessed “war crimes” in Gaza committed by IDF forces. In an interview with the BBC, Aguilar said that he “witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians.” 

“That’s a personal matter, and I’m limited in what I can say,” Moore told Ynet, but he said that Aguilar "is not a credible individual, and these are not credible accusations. I’m more than confident we have a great deal of evidence to refute them.”