US-Backed GHF Appoints Pro-Israel Evangelical Leader as New Chief
Gaza (Quds News Network)- The controversial, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has announced Johnnie Moore, a US evangelical leader known for his strong support of Israel, as its new executive chairman. Moore has previously praised President Trump’s plan to expel all Palestinians from Gaza and transform the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Moore succeeds Jake Wood, who resigned last month, saying it is not possible to implement a private aid distribution plan “while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence”.
Moore denied Israeli attacks near the GHF’s aid distribution sites, which have killed at least 102 starving aid seekers since its operations started on May 27.
“We urge extreme caution against sharing unverified information from sources that have repeatedly issued demonstrably false reports. False reporting of violence at our sites has a chilling effect on the local population,” he claimed.
& too many people in the press spread the rumor immediately as truth‼️
It wasn’t even a rumor. It was disinformation!
All of this is exactly why GHF is so important. It’s the only source of aid which cannot be weaponized, manipulated or monetized by the terrorist mafia. https://t.co/pQmn6lYJfK
— Rev. Johnnie Moore ن (@JohnnieM) June 1, 2025
In February, Moore praised Trump’s plan to expel all Palestinians from Gaza and turn the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
“President Trump always sees war through the eyes of its human cost, & he thinks creatively – never bound by conventional wisdom. He stops wars & makes peace,” Moore wrote on X.
“The USA will take full responsibility for future of Gaza, giving everyone hope & a future”.
President Trump always sees war through the eyes of its human cost, & he thinks creatively — never bound by conventional wisdom. He stops wars & makes
🕊️ peace 🕊️The USA will take full responsibility for future of Gaza, giving everyone hope & a future
— Rev. Johnnie Moore ن (@JohnnieM) February 5, 2025
According to his biography, Moore is a “noted evangelical friend” of Israel and has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also played “a significant role” in the development of the Abraham Accords, the normalization deals signed between Israel and Arab countries.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office on Tuesday, 102 starving Gazans 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 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.
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. 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 Washington Post.
