The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has disclosed that Hamas had placed bounties on American security workers in the enclave and that 12 of the organization’s local staff members had been murdered in its latest update on the situation in Gaza.
The GHF, an Israeli and US-backed NGO, began operating in Gaza in May to distribute humanitarian aid.
“Hamas has placed bounties on both our American security personnel and Palestinian aid workers, offering cash rewards to anyone who injures or kills them,” the Sunday GHF statement said.
The aid organization acknowledged the reports that the Hamas terror group has been targeting its personnel, staff, and aid workers.
It announced that 12 of its local staff have been murdered, and others have been tortured.
“The targets of Hamas’s brutality are heroes who are simply trying to feed the people of Gaza in the middle of a war,” the GHF stated.
“Our US security personnel – some of America’s most elite and decorated veterans – are on the ground to protect people. And our local staff, who keep these operations running, have already paid the ultimate price: 12 murdered, others tortured, and now more threats emerging by the day,” it continued.
The GHF added that in recent days, Hamas has also “pre-positioned armed operatives near humanitarian zones in an effort to disrupt the only functioning aid delivery system in Gaza.”
GHF turns to UN to condemn targeting of workers in Gaza
Last week, the aid group urged the UN to “publicly condemn the targeting of humanitarian workers in Gaza.”
It also called on the UN to partner with the group on a new system for getting food “straight to Palestinian families,” according to a letter delivered to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“The time has come to confront, without euphemism or delay, the structural failure of aid delivery in Gaza,” Rev. Johnnie Moore, GHF’s executive chairman, wrote in the two-page letter seen by The Jerusalem Post.