U.S. consulting firm quits Gaza humanitarian aid effort amid criticism
Boston Consulting Group, which helped design and run the business operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, withdrew its team from the aid delivery program.
A U.S.- and Israeli-backed initiative to feed starving Gazans has struggled during its first week of operations, with the resignation of two top executives, allegations that the Israeli military has shot into crowds of civilians rushing to pick up aid packages, and the ongoing refusal of the United Nations and humanitarian partners to join the effort.
On Friday, a leading U.S. management consulting firm hired last fall to help design the program and run its business operations withdrew its team operating on the ground in Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for the firm, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), said the company had terminated its contract with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and placed one of the senior partners leading the project on leave, pending an internal review.
Three people closely connected to both the GHF and BCG, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said that it would be difficult for the foundation to continue to function without the consultants who helped create it. In addition to helping develop the initiative in close coordination with Israel, BCG set the prices for paying and equipping the array of contractors who built four distribution hubs in southern Gaza and to deliver the aid.
“They are actually making the wheels turn,” said one of the people of BCG’s involvement.
A spokesperson for BCG stated that the firm had provided “pro bono” support to the humanitarian operation and will not get paid for any of the work it has done on behalf of the foundation. Another person familiar with its operations contradicted the firm’s account, saying that BCG had presented monthly invoices of more than $1 million.
The foundation said in an email early Tuesday that it had distributed more than 7 million meals during its first eight days of operations. “It proves our model is functional and is an effective means to deliver lifesaving assistance to the Gazan people under emergency conditions,” wrote John Acree, named last week as the GHF’s interim director.
Since the war in Gaza began following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — which killed about 1,200 people and saw around 250 taken hostage — deliveries of lifesaving humanitarian assistance have been sporadic and woefully inadequate for the enclave’s more than 2 million inhabitants. Israel, which has tightly controlled humanitarian access through its border crossings, has charged — without evidence — that much of the distribution by the U.N. and other aid organizations in the past has been seized by Hamas.
The architects of the GHF plan, including the Israeli government, private entrepreneurs, consultants and some humanitarian actors, have said that the new aid mechanism was designed to protect against looting and seizures by the militant group. Armed U.S. contractors have been hired to secure the aid convoys and oversee the distribution hubs.
The start of distribution followed an 11-week blockade, during which Israel prohibited any aid from entering Gaza. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to relocate virtually all of Gaza’s population to the southern part of the 141-square-mile enclave as it launches a new offensive in the north to eliminate Hamas’s remaining fighters. So far, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in the 19-month war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatants.
Three out of four distribution hubs are now operating in the south, usually only for several hours in the morning until the day’s packaged food deliveries have been exhausted.
No violent incidents have been reported inside the distribution hubs themselves, although Gazan health workers have reported dozens of people shot nearby.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said that they were investigating an incident resulting in casualties, in which Israeli troops fired on “several suspects … deviating from the designated access routes” to the distribution sites. Gaza’s Health Ministry and the International Committee of the Red Cross said that 27 people were killed and dozens more injured near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza.
Previously, IDF spokesmen have said soldiers fired above the heads of crowds to disperse them but denied shooting directly at civilians, and they charged that reports of dead and wounded were Hamas disinformation. The IDF has distributed its own videos that it says show Hamas militants shooting at civilians.
In a statement Tuesday, the GHF said that “while the aid distribution was conducted safely and without incident at our site today,” it was aware of the IDF investigation. The incident, the statement said, occurred in “an area well beyond our secure distribution site and operations area. We recognize the difficult nature of the situation and advise all civilians to remain in the safe corridor when traveling to our … sites.”
The U.N. and other aid professionals, as well as some foreign aid donors, have long expressed concerns about the viability, morality and safety of the GHF’s model, which confines food distribution to limited sites in the south and leaves Israel in control of how much aid enters the enclave.
Nearly all major humanitarian organizations have refused to participate on the grounds that it violates their rules of neutrality and appears designed to further Israel’s war aims. Even some senior Israeli defense officials have questioned the GHF model, anticipating that long lines could lead to stampedes, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Calling the overall situation a “tragedy,” the World Food Program’s executive director, Cindy McCain, told ABC News on Sunday: “What we need right now is an immediate ceasefire, complete, unfettered access, along with the safe … roads, every gate open, to feed people and stop this catastrophe from happening.”
Although Israel has allowed a limited number of U.N. aid convoys to enter Israel in the past week, the World Food Program has reported that desperate Gazans have stopped and looted them before they could reach WFP distribution points.
“Whether we like it or not, Israel is calling the shots in Gaza right now. We can either posture and be outraged, or accept it: Aid will never be provided in a neutral manner because of the heavy hand of the Israelis,” said one aid professional who was approached to assume a leading role in the GHF but ultimately declined to join the foundation.