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Bloodshed at Gaza aid sites 'a great sin,' says former top UN official

Iran Press TV

Friday, 01 August 2025 5:08 PM

A former senior UN aid official has censured the bloodshed at aid sites of the notorious US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Martin Griffiths, director of the Mediation Group International and the former Under Secretary General of the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office, said "all of this was a deep betrayal of humanitarian values."

"I think it's a catastrophe more than a disappointment," he said. "I think it's a great sin. I think it's a great crime."

Griffiths said the aid sites are now massacre grounds for the starving Gazans.

"It was clearly militarized. They'd have their own security contractors."

"They'd have [Israeli military] camps placed right beside them. We know now that they are, in fact, under instructions by [the Israeli military]."

The number of aid seekers killed continues to climb daily beyond 1000, he said.

"The 1,000 killed are an incredible statistic. I had no idea it would go that high and it's going on daily. It's not stopping."

Since May, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,330 Palestinian aid seekers, and over 8,810 others have been wounded in Israeli attacks, mainly at GHF sites run by the United States.

Griffiths said the US-Israeli backed system was flawed from the beginning.

"I think when many of us saw the first plans of the GHF to launch this operation in Gaza, we were immediately appalled by the way they were proposing to manage it."

"But what I at least did not sufficiently anticipate was the killing and was the absolutely critical result of this operation, this sole humanitarian operation allowed by Israel in Gaza," Griffiths said.

Commenting about US envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee's planned visit to GHF-run aid distribution sites in Gaza, he said this was "likely to be choreographed."

France, a close ally of Israel, on Thursday said the US and Israel-backed aid distribution system in Gaza had generated a "bloodbath" and had to cease activity.

The International Criminal Court (ICC).has already issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former war minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on November 21, 2024.

Netanyahu is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and committing other inhumane acts during his genocidal military campaign in the besieged Palestinian territory.