UN data on Gaza deaths 'disinformation', claims head of controversial aid group

The chief of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called figures by the United Nations on people killed at aid hubs "disinformation".

The UN said at least 410 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on 19 May, while the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 549 people have been killed. Johnnie Moore, executive director of GHF, told Sky News there is a "disinformation campaign" that is "meant to shut down our efforts" in the Gaza Strip, fuelled by "some figures" coming out every day.

Mr Moore, an evangelical preacher who served as a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said his aid group has delivered more than 44 million meals to Gazans since it began operations in May. The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the UN and other aid groups, which have refused to cooperate with the GHF.

The aid agencies claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system using the GHF will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians. They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.

The GHF is distributing food packages, which they say can feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days, in four locations, with the majority in the far south of Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the aid hubs and have to move through Israeli military zones, where witnesses say the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.

Both figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say hundreds of people have been killed or wounded. In response to Mr Moore's comments, Rachael Cummings, Save the Children's team leader in Gaza, told Sky News that people "are being forced into the decision to go to retrieve food from the American- and Israeli-backed, militarised, food distribution point".

A Gazan man said about the GHF aid sites: "This is a trap, because the plan is to displace us, not to distribute food and drink. If they wanted to organise it, they would have done so.

They deliberately made it chaotic." Read more: Doctors on the frontline - British surgeons on life in Gaza "We're not contesting at all that there have been casualties in the Gaza Strip. I mean, there's no ceasefire.

This is an active conflict," Mr Moore said. "I think people may not understand as clearly what it means to operate a humanitarian operation on this scale, in an environment this complex, in a piece of land as small as the Gaza Strip, and may not appreciate that almost anything that happens in the Gaza Strip is going to take place in proximity to something." Mr Moore said the GHF was not denying that there had been "those incidents.