By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -Switzerland on Wednesday initiated proceedings to dissolve the Geneva branch of the controversial, U.S- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid group, citing legal shortcomings in its establishment.
The GHF began handing out food packages in the Gaza Strip at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid deliveries that has drawn U.N. criticism over a perceived lack of neutrality in Gaza’s war as well as the killings of hundreds of Palestinians in mass shootings near its distribution hubs.
The GHF is registered in the U.S. state of Delaware and had registered an affiliate in Geneva on February 12. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Swiss move to shut down its Geneva office.
“The ESA may order the dissolution of the foundation if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period,” the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) said in a creditors notice published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce on Wednesday.
The ESA told Reuters the GHF had not fulfilled certain legal requirements including having the correct number of board members, a postal address or a Swiss bank account.
“GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland…and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered (branch),” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities issued a separate legal notice to the GHF to remedy within 30 days “deficiencies in the organisation” or face potential action.
More than 500 people have been killed near GHF distribution hubs in Gaza or along access roads guarded by Israeli forces since the GHF started operating, according to Palestinian medical authorities in the territory.
Israel’s military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians have been harmed near the distribution centres and its forces had been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned”.
The GHF has said that it has delivered more than 52 million meals to needy Palestinians in five weeks and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted”.
There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies in Gaza after a nearly two-year war by Israel against militant group Hamas that has displaced most of the enclave’s two million inhabitants and left much of it in rubble.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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