The controversial rules of breach of the Gaza Aid aid group backed by the US

London – The controversial Humanitarian Foundation of Gaza (GHF) backed by the United States and Israel, whose operations had a chaotic start this week in the Palestinian territory devastated by the war, says that it is finishing its Swiss operation after three months. The measure occurs when the Swiss authorities said that GHF was violating the rules for the foundations registered in that country. GHF told News themezone that in the future, its only operations would be based in the United States.

The legal complication for GHF in Switzerland arose when the Ministry of Health of Gaza, directed by Hamas, said that a Palestinian was killed and that another 47 were injured when Israeli forces shot so much People were looking for food in one of their aid distribution centers In southern Gaza on Tuesday. Israel’s defense forces said in a statement on Tuesday that the troops had only fired “warning shots” to restore order on the site. Later, GHF said in a statement that “they did not shoot at the Palestinian crowds” and “There were no victims.” Some injured Palestinians could be seen in video images of the incident verified by News themezone confirmed, which showed hundreds of people around the distribution center.

Little has been made public about GHF, including who finances it. A source has said that News themezone has used at least 300 American contractors, all strongly armed, who have been given “as many ammunition as they can carry.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said, according to a document obtained by News themezone that seems to have been written by the group, which was being registered both in Delaware and in Geneva, Switzerland. The Swiss “affiliate” was established to “go to donors who would prefer to participate outside the American structure,” says the document.

“The Swiss GHF Board and the executive team will closely reflect that of the USA. UU. GHF and adhere to the same principles, missions and values,” says the document.

A separate document was published that sought to register the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Switzerland, dated January 31, 2025, as part of the country’s commercial registry. The Foundation is shown as registered as of February 12.

According to the Swiss registration document, “the Foundation pursues exclusively charitable and philanthropic objectives for the benefit of people who need support for material, psychological or health reasons, and more specifically to provide humanitarian aid to people affected by the conflict in the Gaza Strip, including the safe provision of food, water, medicine, refuge and reconstruction.”

It lists three people as leaders of the Swiss Foundation: David Papazian, who says the document is from Armenia but based in the United Kingdom; Lolk Samuel Marcel Henderson, an American in Arlington, Virginia; and David Kohler, from Switzerland.

Subsequent documents, dated May 19 and May 23 respectively, announced the elimination of Swiss National Kohler of the Board of the Foundation, and then the end of the Swiss accounting firm OGH Expertise Comptentables and Fiscal SA as Auditor of the Foundation.

The Swiss Federal Supervision Authority for Fundamentals, known as ESA, told News themezone on Wednesday that, according to its evaluation, the Swiss branch of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “currently does not meet several legal obligations” in the country.

ESA said that the Swiss branch of the help group does not have the required signatory member of its resident board in Switzerland, which does not have the minimum of three members of the Board required by the Swiss statutes, and that they did not seem to have a Swiss bank account, a valid Swiss address or an auditor, all which are requirements for foundations such as GHF that are registered in the country.

“According to this information, ESA assumes that the Swiss Foundation has not yet begun its activities and, therefore, is inactive,” the authority told News themezone. “ESA has informed the basis of its legal requirements and requested that it clarify the situation. The necessary clarifications are currently underway.”

A non -governmental Swiss surveillance organization, Trial International, said he had presented two legal presentations to the Swiss government on May 20 and 21, with the Federal Authority for Supervision of Foundations and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which seek to evaluate GHF compliance with the Swiss legal system, as well as with the federal act of Switzerland on private security services abroad.

Legal presentations “intended to urgently remedy potential infractions by the GHF of several rules of national and international law, particularly with respect to” private security services “within the framework of the activities of the foundation, such as the militarized security of the distribution points and control of people,” said the NGO in a statement.

Switzerland “has a moral legal obligation but also an individual to ensure that the entities that operate from their territory, themselves, respect Geneva’s conventions. That is enshrined in the first article of Geneva conventions,” said the International Director of Judgment, Philip Grant, to News themezone.

“So we only wanted to understand what they did” through the Swiss entity, he said.

Grant said it was not clear how much GHF activity had really taken place in Geneva, that it was part of the motivation for the presentations of his group. I was also looking to find out if GHF had requested and received the necessary approvals to involve private military services, whose use is closely regulated by the Swiss Law for organizations registered in the country.

In response to the News themezone clarity request, GHF said Wednesday that “the only GHF entity used today is the foundation established in the United States by Loik Henderson in February 2025. That is the only entity through which GHF is operating and operating in the future. The Swiss entity was created as a contingency;

James Smith, a doctor who has worked within Gaza, told News themezone that both the presence of armed contractors in the aid distribution centers and the locations of the GHF centers in South Gaza raised red flags for humanitarian workers. He said that the location of the centers could serve as a way to force the population of Gaza south of the strip.

“They are not signed. They are inhuman. We have seen people cornered in cages in the heat of the baking,” said Smith.

Smith pointed out the concerns raised by the United Nations, which has refused to work with the organization, about GHF’s ​​methods and even “some of the people who, until recent days, worked for GHF and have renounced, saying that they cannot adhere to humanitarian principles if they continue working for this entity.”

“The risks raised by the armed military actors, particularly those that are parties of a conflict, who also provide humanitarian assistance should be and have been flatly convicted and is not something that any humanitarian organization of reputation, academic of humanitarianism or humanitarian professional should support,” said Smith.

In:
• Israel
• Loop
• Palestinians
• Gaza pull
• Middle East

Imtiaz Tyab contributed to this report.