[News] US Consulting Firm Ends Contract with Israeli-Backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Amid Mounting Criticism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 US Consulting Firm Ends Contract with Israeli-Backed Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation Amid Mounting Criticism: Report
June 3, 2025 -
https://qudsnen.co/us-consulting-firm-ends-contract-with-israeli-backed-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-amid-mounting-criticism-report/
Palestinians near the GHF facility distribution center in western Rafah on
Tuesday.Hatem Khaled / Reuters

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Boston Consulting Group, which helped design and
run the business operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a
controversial US-backed group assigned to deliver aid to Gazans, has
withdrawn its team from the program amid mounting criticism and reports of
mass killings of starving aid seekers by Israeli forces.

According to a Tuesday report
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/03/gaza-humanitarian-fund-bcg/>
by The Washington Post, the leading US management consulting firm hired
last fall to help design the program and run its business operations
withdrew its team operating on the ground in Israel.

A spokesperson for Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said the company had
terminated its contract with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and
placed one of the senior partners leading the project on leave, pending an
internal review.

The Post, citing three people closely connected to both the GHF and BCG,
said that it would be difficult for the foundation to continue to function
without the consultants who helped create it.

In addition to helping develop the initiative in close coordination with
Israel, BCG set the prices for paying and equipping the array of
contractors who built four distribution points in southern Gaza and to
deliver the aid.

“They are actually making the wheels turn,” said one of the people involved
of BCG’s involvement.

A spokesperson for BCG stated that the firm had provided “pro bono” support
to the operation and will not get paid for any of the work it has done on
behalf of the foundation.

Another person familiar with its operations contradicted the firm’s
account, saying that BCG had presented monthly invoices of more than $1
million.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office on Tuesday, 102 starving Gazans
<https://qudsnen.co/mass-death-traps-and-bloodshed-102-starving-aid-seekers-killed-by-israeli-forces-near-u-s-backed-distribution-points-in-gaza-media-office/>
have been killed and 490 others injured by Israeli fire near GHF aid
distribution points in southern Gaza’s Rafah and the so-called Netzarim
Corridor in central Gaza since Israel’s new aid mechanism was launched on
May 27.

The Office accused
<https://qudsnen.co/mass-death-traps-and-bloodshed-102-starving-aid-seekers-killed-by-israeli-forces-near-u-s-backed-distribution-points-in-gaza-media-office/>
Israel of “a horrific, intentionally repeated crime”, saying it has been
luring starving Palestinians to its US-backed aid distribution centres and
then opening fire on them.

“The so-called ‘aid’ distribution centres, which are located in exposed and
dangerous red zones under the control of the occupation army, have turned
into mass bloodbaths, luring starving civilians to them as a result of the
crippling famine and the tightening siege,” the Office said.

“They are then deliberately and coldly shot, in a scene that epitomises the
malice of the project and exposes its true objectives,” it added.

The Office called on “the United Nations, its Security Council and human
rights organisations to assume their moral and legal responsibilities, take
immediate action, and exert pressure using all available means to open
official crossings without interference or conditions from the occupation”.

The latest attack occurred early Tuesday morning, when Israeli fire killed
27 aid seekers and injured 90 others as they waited for food distribution
in the al-Alam area of Rafah.

Drone footage, eyewitness videos, and testimonies from medical teams in
Rafah all confirmed that Israeli forces opened fire directly and
intensively on civilians, with many of the fatalities receiving gunshot
wounds to their head or chest.

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting
off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian
crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights
organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war
against Palestinains.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report last month
warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face
catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming
months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing
international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed since
last week by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and
Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure
in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced
themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian
principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring
Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing
limited aid, among other critiques.

The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving
Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza last week.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner
may constitute crimes against humanity.”

“Today’s events have shown once again that this new system of aid delivery
is dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective,” Claire Manera, MSF’s
emergency coordinator, said in a statement on Sunday.

“It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been
prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian
organisations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and
effectively,” she added.

Moreover, two senior officials of the foundation resigned in the first week
of its operations. Jake Wood, who resigned as executive director, said in a
statement that the group’s plans could not be consistent with the
“humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and
independence.” The chief operating officer, David Burke, also resigned,
according to The Post.
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