Amid Dithering in Washington, an American Philanthropist Steps up in Sinai

As the Biden administration pulls back, Amed Khan scales up support for Gaza relief

Newsletter subscribers and podcast listeners may remember my interview with Amed Khan, an American who has pioneered a unique kind of philanthropy in humanitarian crises. Khan travels to the frontlines of crises around the world and uses his personal wealth and networks to deliver all manner of humanitarian relief. When we last spoke in June Khan had been in Ukraine for most of the past 18 months, personally purchasing and facilitating relief for Ukrainians.

Since the October 7th terrorist attacks and Israel’s assault on Gaza, Khan has spent much of his time in Sinai, where he’s facilitated the delivery of food and medical supplies into Gaza. When the Biden administration suspended funding to UNRWA at the end of January, Khan immediately began making substantial donations to the agency. “I was doing my own thing in Gaza as I usually do around the world, but the unfair and unjust hit on UNRWA compelled me to donate to them,” he tells me.

In our conversation, Khan discusses his humanitarian work in Gaza, explains how this crisis is so different than all others in his career — and reveals why he went from being a major Biden donor to no longer supporting the President’s re-election.

Our conversation took place via text message on February 13 and is edited for clarity.

Are you in Sinai right now?

Yes

How long have you been there?

I’m in and out every few days. I’ve been here like 15 times since October 7. My first trip was October 10.

You’ve spent most of the last two years in Ukraine. Why did you decide to shift your focus to Gaza?

I’m still operating in Ukraine, with daily deliveries of humanitarian supplies, generators for elderly civilians in front line villages, etc. I’ve been going back and forth between Egypt and Ukraine.

Are you willing to say how much you’ve donated to humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza thus far?

Well over a million dollars. Several million dollars between donations and delivered supplies.

What humanitarian relief operations are you directly supporting?

Food and medicine in trucks to hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent, as well as supporting local Gaza-based organizations who do food and medical distribution. In the beginning, it was possible to procure basic food stuff locally, but now it all needs to be sent in. Currently, about 10 percent of needs are met. And of course nearly zero percent of many medical needs like anesthesia are met.

[Khan sends me a photo of an invoice showing the procurement of medical supplies including syringes, tourniquets, and glucose monitors.]

I started in humanitarian work in the Rwandan refugee camps where I lived for two years just after the genocide. I’ve personally delivered humanitarian support in almost every conflict zone since then, globally. This is the worst situation I’ve ever seen.

What makes it so uniquely dire compared to other humanitarian crises?

There is no safe place and no place to escape to. The 2.3 million people of Gaza have suffered in ways that no one else on earth has for the last 130 days. Being relentlessly bombed from land, sea and air, being moved around like human pinballs — and each and every time having to move again. This is unprecedented in the history of modern warfare. There is an obvious targeting of civilians leading to an unheard of ratio of civilian-to-military deaths, particularly among children.

From a humanitarian supply perspective, this is the first time that all borders are controlled by one entity. So, for example, I brought in tens of millions of dollars of supplies into Ukraine through Poland and Romania. That’s just not possible in Gaza. Even Syria was much simpler to get aid into through Turkey.

Amidst all this, the US suspended funding to UNRWA at the end of January. To the extent that aid does get in, what makes UNRWA so important to humanitarian operations in Gaza?

UNRWA is irreplaceable in terms of shelter, food and medical support in Gaza. More than 1.2 million people, the majority of whom are women and children, are currently housed in UNRWA shelters. The US suspended UNRWA support based on unsupported claims — and perhaps even more sinister with no plan in place to provide the services they provide.

It’s insane that unsubstantiated claims about 12 employees of a 30,000 person organization that supports 1.2 million Gaza residents, largely women and children, would result in an immediate suspension of US support for UNRWA. Who exactly is supposed to support these people as they are relentlessly bombed, killed, and injured? I’d love to know who is making these decisions, and based on what exactly?

We spoke in September, not long after you attended a private fundraiser for Biden. You had high praise for his remarks on Ukraine. However, you since said you would no longer support Biden. Can you explain your thinking?

Everyone has their own priorities for who they vote for, whether it’s abortion, healthcare, crime, etc. For me, given that I’ve spent the majority of my adult life doing humanitarian work, my top priorities are American foreign policy, human rights, etc. I think that the entrenched foreign policy elites on both sides have no idea what they are doing. So, at this point my priority is to just focus on trying to help people in need. I did that in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and now Gaza.

The administration has talked about caring for civilians in Gaza and increasing humanitarian aid since almost the beginning — yet neither has happened to date. So it begs the question: are they lying to us or are they just ineffective? Neither is great. The pivot to talking about the humanity of people in Gaza is revolting. If you can say that while sending weapons to kill them, then you’re perhaps worse than the people who consider Palestinians sub-humans. Bombing and starvation have never worked, and somehow this administration has signed up to exactly that.

But in our binary system, the choice is either Biden or Trump. We know that Trump is both hostile to supporting Ukrainian defense and also more likely to align with right-wing elements in Israeli politics that are more explicitly racist and hostile to Palestinians. Don’t you think Trump would be much worse?

I’m certainly not here to say I support Trump. But I don’t really subscribe to the lesser-of-two-evils. I think as Senator Robert F Kennedy said in his great University of Kansas speech in 1968, “we can do better.”

I think we need to hold our leaders accountable however we can. It’s the only way to get better leaders and better policy.