U.S. aid money to Gaza trickles in, belying Trump’s claims, as U.S. officials visit
Despite President Donald Trump’s repeated assertion this week that the United States has contributed $60 million for food to Gaza, U.S. pledges have been half of that amount, only a fraction of which has been actually disbursed.
A State Department spokesperson said Friday that “we have approved funding for $30 million” to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the controversial U.S.-Israeli backed food distribution system, adding that “an initial amount has been disbursed as of this week.” The spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the State Department, declined to address Trump’s remarks, first made during his visit to Scotland last weekend.
The pledged $30 million is to be drawn from the department’s International Disaster Assistance fund.
Trump’s assertions come as the GHF has cited difficulties in expanding its current operations in Gaza without a substantial influx of money. While there are plans to add to the four distribution sites in southern Gaza, a GHF spokesman said they cannot move forward without additional funding and Israeli approval to open more sites farther north in the enclave.
As international criticism of Israeli limits on food access has escalated amid hundreds of reported civilian deaths near the GHF distribution sites, many countries seen as possible donors have instead called for the foundation’s operation in Gaza to be shut down in favor of United Nations aid distribution.
Trump has only recently given voice to the urgent need to provide more aid amid reports of growing starvation in Gaza. But the administration has made clear that the GHF, rather than the United Nations or other international aid organizations whose movements in Gaza have been restricted by Israel, is its chosen vehicle.
Using nearly identical wording, Trump has at least three times this week made the $60 million claim, disparaging what he said was media inattention to his administration’s generosity. “We gave $60 million a couple of weeks ago,” he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “Nobody said anything about it. … Nobody said thank you.”
“I just wanted to get the people fed,” Trump said.
The White House referred questions to the State Department.
PolitiFact first reported that only $30 million in U.S. aid, rather than $60 million, had been approved. At that time, none had been disbursed; about 10 percent, or $3 million, had been sent to GHF by Friday.
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, along with U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, visited a GHF distribution site inside Gaza on Friday. Their five hours there, Witkoff wrote on social media, were spent “level-setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions and meeting with GHF … and other agencies.” Witkoff said he spent Thursday meeting with Israeli officials. The United Nations said there had been no request for Witkoff to meet with any of its officials in Gaza or Israel.
The purpose of the visit, Witkoff said, was to give Trump “a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”
A U.S. Embassy photograph of Witkoff and Huckabee showed them in flak jackets at a distribution site. They were accompanied on the trip by State Department security and U.S. security contractors, within a protective outer bubble of Israeli troops who did not enter the site, where Gazans were picking up food.
Israel has barred reporters from entering Gaza since the war began, following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Asked Friday afternoon about Witkoff’s trip, Trump told reporters, “He had a great meeting with a lot of people, and the primary meeting was on food. And he also had some other conversations that I’ll tell you about later, but he had a meeting on getting the people fed, and that’s what we want.”
Neither Trump nor Witkoff has specified a new plan to deliver aid to Gaza or an expanded vision of food delivery. On Wednesday, as Trump said that his administration had sent “a lot of money for food” in the enclave, he noted “we want to make sure it’s going to be, it’s going to be spent properly.”
Both the United States and Israel have said that GHF distribution sites are far better at delivering food aid than U.N. convoys, which they charge are regularly looted by Hamas. Most of the looted food, U.N. officials have said, is seized off trucks by desperate Gazans.
The White House first approved the $30 million funding in late June. Reuters reported Friday that two Witkoff aides, Aryeh Lightstone and Charles Leith, briefed House and Senate committees early this month on the GHF operation and said that Israel had agreed to match $30 million from the United States.
The State Department declined to comment on a possible Israeli match. The Israeli government and its embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to questions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has previously said Israel was not providing financial support to the GHF.
The United States has assured those involved in the GHF that it is not going to allow the foundation to run out of money, according to a person close to the aid operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue.
“We’re looking at additional sites in the north, going through the planning but none of that stuff can happen overnight,” the person said. “We don’t want to continue to support the narrative” that the GHF is only operating in southern Gaza in support of the Israeli military push to isolate Gaza’s population there as it occupies the rest of the enclave.
Adding at least four new distribution sites involves building materials, more trucks to carry the aid, additional armored vehicles, weapons and protective gear for more contractors, and facilities for the paid Gazan volunteers who work in the site. That is in addition to the contractor salaries and the cost of the food aid itself, estimated at about $6 million a day to feed all 2.2 million people in Gaza.
Current contracts for the American contractors providing logistics and security for the GHF run out in three weeks.