Israel, Hamas talks drag as aid group chair tells UN to stop acting like the ‘mafia’

Negotiations to secure a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seem to have hit an impasse amid hopes from top mediators, including President Donald Trump’s Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, that a deal can be reached soon.

There are several issues that remain major hurdles in securing lasting peace in the Gaza Strip and the return of all the hostages, according to multiple sources that Fox News Digital has spoken with. 

But one of the top sticking points has reportedly been the question of aid to the Palestinians and who exactly should be distributing the direly needed support. 

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"This is a complex political environment right in the middle of a ceasefire negotiation," Chairman for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) Rev. Johnnie Moore told Fox News Digital. "I understand on the first night of the ceasefire negotiation, one of the primary issues that Hamas and their negotiators brought up was they wanted to see the elimination of the GHF. 

"Which ought to tell you something," he continued. "Hamas didn't want 70 million meals of food in the Gaza Strip for the people they allege they care about – this is absurd."

Following Israel’s near-three-month blockade on aid to the Gaza Strip, the GHF – a U.S. and Israeli-backed aid mechanism – was, in late May, permitted to initiate food delivery with the assistance of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) as a means to ensure food trucks were not overrun and ransacked by the Hamas terrorist group. 

The GHF, which has faced stiff backlash for its divergence from traditional humanitarian assistance methods, has argued that its convoys have been far better secured from Hamas attacks than United Nations’ delivery trucks, and therefore ensured the aid has actually ended up in the hands of Palestinian civilians. 

Hamas has long used humanitarian assistance as a means of control over Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and as a tool for recruitment, going so far as to threaten starving civilians from accepting GHF food aid for their families in late May, telling them they "will pay the price, and we will take the necessary measures."

The GHF has delivered some 70 million meals to between 800,000 and 1 million Palestinians, Moore confirmed. 

But reports have repeatedly surfaced claiming that Palestinians flocking to the four distribution sites have faced insurmountable dangers and on Friday the U.N. Human Rights Office said it believed nearly 800 people had been killed near aid sites. 

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The office based in Geneva said it had recorded some 615 people were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 183 near other aid convoys, and according to spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, the majority of these deaths were caused by "gunshot injuries."

The U.N. did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about whether it was the IDF or Hamas that was on the firing end of the gun, and whether these deaths occurred as a direct result of civilians seeking aid, chaotic eruptions that ensued outside of distribution centers, or if these were deaths occurred amid the continued war as civilians were in the process of heading to distributions centers. 

The IDF earlier this month said that following an investigation into civilian casualties reported at aid distribution sites, it had issued new orders to its South Command based on "lessons learned."

The GHF this week announced a second phase in its aid delivery system that could lower the threats civilians face when seeking aid, by distributing supplies directly through community leaders across Gaza – meaning there could be less travel involved for civilians in need.

But the GHF also fervently rejects the U.N. death toll figures and Moore maintains that no deaths have occurred on or near their distribution sites.

"The U.N. is lying. They're just lying. They're taking statistics that originate from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, and they're sharing those statistics without any scrutiny at all," Moore told Fox News Digital.

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"We know Hamas has routinely lied about civilian death numbers from the beginning of this conflict. We know that Hamas doesn't distinguish between the death of Hamas militants and between civilians, and…we know that from the very beginning of the operation of GHF, Hamas made an intentional decision that the best way to see the end of GHF was to say that our sites were these death traps," he added.

The U.N., on the other hand, maintains that it vets its own informants and obtains evidence through "various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organizations."

But critics of the U.N. continue to question its trustworthiness following the apparent discovery of at least nine employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), who were reportedly involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, which saw the death of some 1,200 Israelis and the abductions of another 250 – 50 of whom remain hostage. 

Though Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, terminated those employees in October 2024, there remains open hostility between the U.N. agency and Israel, and now the GHF.

Lazzarini, along with more than 200 other humanitarian organizations, has also personally called for the removal of the GHF from the Gaza Strip.

Moore accused the U.N. of employing "mafia"-like tactics by ganging up on the aid program despite the success it has seen by supplying millions of meals. 

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"We want to work with these organizations, but instead of engaging with us, what they've been doing is they've been working behind the scenes to sabotage us," Moore said. "There's no other way to describe it. The U.N. is behaving like a mafia."

While the U.N. has not officially called for the removal of the GHF, it has criticized the organization’s "militarized" approach to delivering aid, which is not viewed as acceptable by the Sphere Association, which sets the international standards for humanitarian aid.

Both the GHF and the U.N. have said more aid is not only needed, but it would help eliminate the intense security risks affiliated with obtaining humanitarian supplies. 

"I have been very clear that the U.N. cannot do humanitarian work alone in Gaza, we need partners," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Fox News Digital. "All that we ask is that these partners operate under the globally accepted humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence."

Though both sides ultimately have the same goal, there appears to be an increasing impasse over how to provide stable aid for Palestinians who continue to live in extremely dire situations.

"My mission, and the mission of GHF is really, really simple. It's just to feed people. And it should not be as controversial as it has been," Moore said. "My interest has always been in the in the ‘day after’. We have to do both."

"We have to plan for the ‘day after’, and we have to address the emergency, and it's time for the United Nations to stop playing political games," he continued. "We can solve the problems together.

"But we have to make the decision to work together. GHF has already made that decision, and we've reiterated again and again and again that we want to work with the international community to reach these people. The decision is now theirs, and we'll be here waiting, our hand extended," Moore said.