US: Protesters descend on home of GHF's executive director
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, the United Nations says
Protesters
lay out a demonstration of aid packages splattered in blood outside the
home of John Acree, the interim executive director of the Gaza
Humanitarian Foundation, in Vienna, Virginia, on 25 July 2025
(Palestinian Youth Movement/Telegram)
Several dozen protesters on Friday, calling attention to Israel's starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, made
their way to the doorstep of the man running the scandal-plagued and
US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), demanding the organisation
be dismantled.
"GHF only aids ethnic cleansing," they chanted as they marched to the
home of interim executive director John Acree in Vienna, Virginia, just
a half-hour drive from Washington, DC.
"Gaza needs medicine, food, and housing," they continued, according
to a video shared by the Palestinian Youth Movement advocacy group, and
posted to its Telegram account.
Protesters draped in keffiyehs banged pots and pans as they gathered
on the public sidewalk outside Acree's doorstep and laid out props
showcasing GHF food parcels splattered in blood, symbolising more than
1,000 Palestinians - according to the United Nations - who have been
gunned down by Israeli forces or American military contractors at four different aid distribution sites in Gaza.
The irony was not lost on the crowd when, at one point, a woman
opened the door of Acree's home, smiled, and waved at the protesters
before picking up what appeared to be a food delivery drop-off.
Nearly 150 Palestinians have died as a direct result of starvation,
Gaza health officials have said. The vast majority of them were young
children, given that baby formula is banned by Israel from entering Gaza
and is confiscated if brought in by volunteer doctors in their
luggage.
Rights groups as well as the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah have
referred to the GHF sites as "death traps" after videos emerged of what
appeared to be a kettling process, whereby military contractors from the
US and UK funnelled thousands of Palestinians waiting for aid into
narrow fencing that resembled a long cage under the scorching summer
sun.
As they moved to obtain what they described as meagre rations of
rice, oil and pasta, the Israeli military would then open fire on them.
Doctors in Gaza have recounted a pattern of gunshots to the groin in
young men in particular.
GHF began operations in May as the only entity approved by Israel to distribute aid inside Gaza.
Israel imposed a total siege there in mid-March and blocked
operations by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (Unrwa) and other
aid groups such as Anera, despite their decades-long expertise, embedded infrastructure, and trust among locals.
Even World Central Kitchen was barred from making hot meals for several months until its slow return on Friday.
Despite a mounting death toll and gruesome testimony from survivors,
the Trump administration approved $30m in funding for the GHF, even
after a report from the now-defunct United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) said the plan lacked basic details for an initiative of this scale.
Who is John Acree?
Acree's career has largely been spent at USAID or USAID-funded initiatives, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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Since at least 1999, he has mostly worked from the Washington
headquarters in project leadership and senior advisory roles, managing
what he described as "development" programmes in Afghanistan and Iraq
targeting internally displaced and high-risk populations.
Acree also served as the point person for the US Department of
Defence at USAID in Kabul, and repeatedly talked about building a
"civilian-military partnership" with groups such as US special forces in
the country.
Until USAID was dismantled by President Donald Trump in March, Acree
was the head of its regional disaster assistance programme in Costa Rica
- a shift from most of his previous work in war zones where the US
military was operating.
Since May, he appears to be "on site" at GHF's headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel.
In a post he shared on LinkedIn in June, Acree said he accepted the
position to be interim leader of GHF because "the needs on the ground
would be staggering, and the operational environment would be among the
most complex and constrained I’ve seen in my career".
"I’ve worked in humanitarian emergencies for over two decades. I’ve
seen what happens when systems break down under pressure," he wrote.
"But I’ve also seen what becomes possible when organizations are willing
to challenge the status quo - with focus, integrity, and an openness to
doing things differently."
That difference, however, may have caused far more harm than
longstanding aid groups would be willing to risk or tolerate, given that
a group of US Senate Democrats is now calling on Trump to defund the GHF.
Aside from the $30m provided by the US government, GHF has never
disclosed any of its funding sources, and its first executive director resigned before aid distribution even began.
"GHF does not control the war," Acree wrote on his LinkedIn account in response to the criticism lobbed at the organisation.
"We do not control the borders, the checkpoints, or the broader
circumstances in which aid must flow. But we are working within those
constraints".