UN says Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has failed in its mission

GENEVA - The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been a failure from a humanitarian standpoint of view, the United Nations said Friday.

The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

"GHF, I think it's fair to say, has been, from a principled humanitarian standpoint, a failure," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a press briefing in Geneva.

"They are not doing what a humanitarian operation should do, which is providing aid to people where they are, in a safe and secure manner.

"We have the operation ready to roll with food and other supplies ready. We have them in the region, they are pre-cleared by the Israelis.

"We need the borders open to get in and of course we need the safety and security and some resemblance of law and order inside Gaza in order to distribute it."

An officially private effort with opaque funding and backed by Israel, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.

GHF claimed Thursday it had distributed nearly 2.6 million meals on Thursday and more than 18.6 million to date.

The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory's last fibre optic cable which it blamed on Israel.

"There was and there still is a massive comms blackout," said Laerke.

"If there is no communication it really is damaging" for aid services, he said.

"There is an active effort to try to fix it, of course, and everybody is looking into that, because things kind of ground to a halt when these things happen."