The New Humanitarian obtained a read-out of the confidential meeting emailed on 7 August to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) – the highest-level coordination forum in the international humanitarian system, composed of UN agencies and major NGOs.

The read-out was co-signed by Joyce Msuya, the second-most senior official at the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The officials’ willingness to pursue cooperation marks a significant shift in position for aid groups and the UN, whose relief chief warned in May that the GHF model exposes thousands of people to harm, and sets an “unacceptable precedent” for aid delivery around the world as it violates core humanitarian principles.

US news website Axios reported that the meeting took place on Wednesday (6 August) afternoon at the US mission to the UN in New York. It took place under the Chatham House Rule, meaning participants could not be quoted publicly. Axios, which did not publish on the email read-out, reported that no phones were allowed and participants had to commit to be respectful and polite.

The meeting comes days after UN experts called for the dismantling of the GHF, describing it as a “disturbing example” of humanitarian aid being exploited for military and geopolitical agendas in violation of international law, while rights groups have labelled Israeli killings at distribution sites as war crimes.

GHF began operations in May and has become Israel’s preferred aid delivery mechanism in Gaza, allowing it to bypass the established UN-led system, which Israeli officials accuse of enabling Hamas to divert aid – an accusation disputed by relief groups and US assessments.

GHF operates four distribution sites — down from 400 under the UN-led system — staffed by armed US security contractors and monitored by Israeli forces. Massive crowds, funnelled through caged corridors, often at night, have repeatedly been fired on by Israeli soldiers. The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) called the distribution scheme a “sadistic death trap”.

GHF operations have been widely rejected by the global humanitarian community, yet the meeting was described in the email as “constructive” and “open”, with participants expressing a sense that “we could and should operate in parallel, complementary ways, each doing what we can”.

The meeting was organised by the US ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, and was attended by GHF executive chairman Johnnie Moore, alongside several US diplomats and officials from the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the UN’s migration agency (IOM), OCHA, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and InterAction. Participants agreed not to comment publicly.

The read-out states that several concerns were raised about the GHF model based on humanitarian principles, but participants acknowledged that humanitarian need on the ground was far outpacing the response and that the crisis required “all-hands-on-deck”.

The meeting is a massive departure as leading humanitarian figures have publicly sought to distance themselves from GHF and its toxic operations.

Attendees agreed that “flooding the zone” – rapidly and substantially increasing aid in Gaza – could bring multiple benefits, including easing desperation at GHF sites and UN convoys, and reducing the risk of diversion to Hamas, a claim Israel has made but which relief groups say lacks evidence of being widespread. Some reports have also found that Israel supported gangs in Gaza that looted aid.

Though no clarity was reached on how to develop a “fuller collaboration”, participants agreed to continue discussions, and to “lower the public rhetoric” – likely a reference to dialling down the criticism GHF has faced from aid agencies since it began operations.

The meeting is a massive departure as leading humanitarian figures – including some whose organisations were represented at the meeting – have publicly sought to distance themselves from GHF and its toxic operations.

For example, Tom Fletcher, the UN relief chief who heads OCHA, described GHF in May as a “cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement”. Msuya, who attended the meeting and co-signed the read-out, is Fletcher’s deputy at OCHA.

The other co-signatory was Tom Hart, president of InterAction, which describes itself as the largest US-based alliance of international NGOs. Several member organisations of InterAction signed a joint statement on 30 June and 1 July calling for immediate action to end what they described as the “deadly Israeli distribution scheme”.

The New Humanitarian has also contacted InterAction for comment.

On 7 August, Médecins Sans Frontières published a particularly damning report based on what its staff had witnessed from early June to late July 2025 at two of MSF’s healthcare centres, which are in direct proximity to GHF distribution sites.

“As described by MSF’s medical coordinator, our teams were mentally prepared for responding to conflict – but not to civilians killed and maimed while seeking aid,” the report said. “They were not prepared for treating starving and unarmed Palestinians who had been gunned down as if they were animals, often while penned into metal-gated areas. The medical data is clear. This is not aid. It is orchestrated killing.”

The GHF sites opened after Israel had imposed an 11-week blockade including on food, fuel, and medicine entering Gaza. GHF says it has since distributed over 100 million meals, yet the world’s foremost body of experts on food insecurity says famine is now unfolding across the Strip.

According to the UN, since 27 May, more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, including over 800 in the vicinity of the GHF sites. MSF said the sites are operated “on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis” with supplies accessed by the fittest rather than those who are most in need.

“What has been branded as ‘aid distribution’ is in fact a system of institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation,” MSF said.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has been exerting increasing pressure on the UN and other aid agencies – for whom it is typically the largest donor – to work with the GHF, amid reports the foundation will dramatically scale up its operations.

On 5 August, Shea called during a UN Security Council meeting in New York for those “who have professed concern” about starvation in Gaza to work with the foundation. In a briefing the day before, John Acree, GHF’s executive director, urged the UN to join forces with his group to stave off civilian starvation.

Acree, Shea, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee have all indicated in recent days that the GHF is planning to rapidly expand its operations, with Huckabee saying it would soon be running 16 distribution sites instead of four.

More than 60,000 people, the majority of them women and children, have been killed since Israel began its military operations in Gaza in October 2023, not including victims of starvation or people whose bodies have not been recovered from rubble.

Human rights organisations and legal experts have widely described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

Israeli security officials approved a plan on 8 August to take over Gaza City, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Israel would take military control over all of Gaza.