Senior aid officials met with the head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Wednesday, marking a sharp departure from months of bitterness between the United Nations and the GHF, the Israeli- and U.S.-backed group that has been delivering food to Gaza since late May.
“The conversation was constructive, open, and we believe helpful,” wrote UNOCHA’s Joyce Msuya and InterAction’s Tom Hart in an email following the meeting, which was obtained by Devex. “We agreed it would be good for all to lower the public rhetoric and to focus on moving forward rather than what has happened or said previously.”
Just one day before Wednesday’s meeting, a collection of U.N. experts had called for the GHF’s “immediate dismantling.” But the email — which was sent to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the U.N.’s highest-level humanitarian coordination forum — represented a change of tone, with Msuya and Hart stating that “there was a sense we could and should operate in parallel, complementary ways, each doing what we can.”