GHF says ready to resume aid in Gaza

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American non-profit tasked with providing aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, told AFP on Saturday it stands ready to resume shipments under a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.

The U.S. and Israeli-backed private organisation was given the task of feeding starving Gazans in May after Israel placed tight restrictions on international agencies, but U.N. experts and traditional aid agencies criticized its work.

Hundreds of Palestinians are were killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid at GHF distribution sites according to the U.N. human rights office and in August, United Nations special rapporteurs called for it to be disbanded.

GHF spokesman Chapin Fay said the foundation had paused operations during the first phase of Gaza's cease-fire while remaining Israeli hostages are released by Hamas, and was now awaiting orders to get back to work.

"While the situation remains fluid on the ground, GHF has been instructed to remain ready to re-engage and specifically not to take any actions that would preclude us from resuming operations immediately," Fay said.

"GHF has trucks of aid loaded up and ready to resume delivering aid directly to the Palestinian people, including women, children and the elderly," he said.

"Our mission will evolve to meet the needs on the ground."

In August, the U.N.-mandated expert panel alleged that under the GHF aid was "exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas."

The GHF had four distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, while the U.N. system it replaced had 400.

After the release by Hamas of the remaining living hostages held in Gaza to Israel on Oct. 13, the GHF told AFP that the "SDS4" site, a secured distribution site in Khan Yunis, had been dismantled.

Two weeks ago the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel signed on to a U.S.-backed plan for a cease-fire and prisoner exchange.

It is the first phase in what international mediators hope will be a process to end the war and kickstart reconstruction.