Controversial aid organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is financially backed by Israel, current and former Israeli officials have alleged.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid hinted on Monday that Israel is financing the agency through shell companies abroad to hide funding from the Israeli government.
There has been huge criticism of the GHF-led humanitarian response in Gaza,with a stampede at one aid point on Tuesday injuring dozens and NGOs saying the supplies reaching the enclave are a fraction of what is needed.
Speaking at the Knesset, Lapid questioned whether Israel is behind two shell companies, GHF and Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), based in Switzerland and the United States, to organise and fund humanitarian aid in Gaza and questioned whether Israeli taxpayers were financing this.
Responding to Lapid, Prime Minister's spokesman, Omar Dostri, asserted that Israel does not finance humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's former minister of finance, claimed that the funds for humanitarian aid originate from Mossad and the Ministry of Defence.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of Israeli citizens," Lieberman said in a tweet on Tuesday
There is little information available about GHF, who funds it, or any contacts for the organisation. GHF does not have a website and a Wikipedia page for the group was only established on Tuesday, shortly after the stampede at the aid point.
While it is unclear how the GHF is funded, the foundation said it would set up "secure distribution sites" in Gaza, as well as coordinating with the Israeli military and private military contractors would provide security.
The New York Times reported that an Israeli-backed private food distribution programme was discussed in December 2023, with Israeli officials collaborating with American security contractors, primarily CIA veteran Philip Reilly, who had launched SRS, to develop a plan for 2024.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, established in February, was created to distribute humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip with the support of Israel and the US, and began distributing aid on Tuesday.
Videos and photos showed lines of people walking through a corridor made of wire into a large open field where aid was stacked, sparking humanitarian concerns among online users. The distribution was also met with thousands of Palestinians breaking into the centre.
At least 47 Palestinians have been injured, including from Israeli gunshot wounds while trying to receive aid, while seven are missing. The Israeli army claims it did not open fire on the crowd, but "fired warning shots".
Origins of controversy
The GHF has been met with scrutiny from aid groups and the United Nations itself, being accused of politicising and weaponising aid, threatening mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel claims the GHF is a solution to prevent aid from falling into the hands of the Palestinian group Hamas, despite many humanitarian organisations saying the majority of aid goes to Gaza civilians.
The UN and humanitarian aid agencies assert they already have the means to distribute aid to the millions of Palestinians in Gaza, while the GHF lacks experience or capacity to deliver supplies and lacks any Palestinian involvement.
At the same time, aid is initially being distributed only in southern Gaza, which is under control by the Israeli army, forcing thousands of Gazans outside of the area to move for provisions, affecting people who cannot reach distribution points.
There are also concerns surrounding the foundation's "screen procedure", where aid recipients will be checked for ties with Hamas and exclude those with links.
Anyone accessing aid will have to submit to facial recognition technology something many Palestinians fear will be used to track or target them by Israeli forces.
Its director, Jake Wood, also resigned on Sunday over concerns about impartiality, neutrality, and humanitarian principles, further fuelling uncertainty over the effort's future.
Wood said he "unequivocally...will not be part of anything that forcibly dislocates or displaces the Palestinian population."