Urgent Demand for Accountability on WFP’s Handling of Gaza Humanitarian Data
The Issue
We, the undersigned, express outrage and profound alarm over reports that a cyberattack targeting the World Food Programme (WFP) exposed the personal data of approximately 600,000 households in Gaza, including names, identification numbers, phone numbers, family information, and location data collected through a humanitarian assistance registration platform.
This cannot be treated as an ordinary cybersecurity incident or administrative failure. It was a targeted assault against a humanitarian database containing highly sensitive information on a population enduring genocide, mass displacement, systematic starvation, and pervasive surveillance used to inform the Israeli occupation’s genocidal attacks. In such a context, personal data can expose individuals, families, and entire communities to grave risks. The compromise of this information therefore constitutes a serious protection breach affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The breach is particularly egregious because it concerns information collected for humanitarian assistance in a context where Palestinians have long been forced to surrender personal information to access the most basic necessities of life, such as food, aid, fuel and water, while simultaneously enduring a campaign of engineered starvation.
This incident must therefore be understood within the broader weaponisation of aid in Gaza. We recall the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which turned humanitarian assistance into a tool of coercion, surveillance, and massacring, with reports of Palestinians being killed and injured on a near daily basis while attempting to access food assistance.
We are appalled by reports that concerns regarding vulnerabilities in the system were raised prior to the breach and that affected individuals were informed only after significant delay. This points to serious failures of accountability and institutional responsibility.
These concerns also follow from the WFP’s alarming partnership since 2019 with software firm Palantir, whose products are widely used by military and intelligence agencies. Palantir has publicly supported the Israeli occupation despite its ongoing genocide, boasting a longstanding relationship reinforced by a strategic partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense in 2024. In her 2025 report, From economy of occupation to economy of genocide, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese names Palantir, stating there are “reasonable grounds to believe” the firm has provided predictive policing technology, core defense infrastructure for military software, and an AI platform enabling “real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making.” Palantir CEO Alex Karp himself appeared to affirm this lethal application when he conceded, upon being challenged, that Palantir’s technology is used to kill Palestinians, offering the dehumanising and baseless defence that victims are “mostly terrorists.”
Humanitarian organisations operating in contexts of genocide are obligated to apply the highest possible standards of protection. Partnering with a firm that is plausibly aiding and abetting that genocide stands in complete violation of this, as well as in violation of the basic principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence as set out across UN General Assembly Resolutions 46/182 and 58/114.
With this said, we recognise the dedicated and well-intentioned staff working within WFP, and our call for accountability is directed toward those directly responsible for the security negligence through which this high-stakes data breach has occurred, and such partnerships are permitted.
Accordingly, we demand:
- An immediate, independent, and transparent investigation into this security breach. Affected communities have the right to know exactly what information was compromised, how the breach occurred, who may have gained access to the data, what risks they now face, and what measures are being taken to mitigate harm.
- Full accountability for those responsible for this cyberattack, recognising it as a deliberate weaponisation of humanitarian data in the context of an ongoing genocide.
- Immediate suspension of the WFP’s partnership with US military and surveillance tech firm Palantir, and urgent evaluation and rectification of the security implications, past and present, of this partnership.
- The redressal of institutional gaps that exposed the humanitarian data of Palestinian households in Gaza. These systemic shortcomings must be rigorously evaluated and rectified across all agencies handling sensitive humanitarian information.
- Urgent adoption of stronger safeguards to prevent the exposure and weaponisation of humanitarian data, alongside the re-evaluation of partner vetting processes to guarantee compliance with international law and the relevant UNGA resolutions on humanitarian aid. ###
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8
The Issue
We, the undersigned, express outrage and profound alarm over reports that a cyberattack targeting the World Food Programme (WFP) exposed the personal data of approximately 600,000 households in Gaza, including names, identification numbers, phone numbers, family information, and location data collected through a humanitarian assistance registration platform.
This cannot be treated as an ordinary cybersecurity incident or administrative failure. It was a targeted assault against a humanitarian database containing highly sensitive information on a population enduring genocide, mass displacement, systematic starvation, and pervasive surveillance used to inform the Israeli occupation’s genocidal attacks. In such a context, personal data can expose individuals, families, and entire communities to grave risks. The compromise of this information therefore constitutes a serious protection breach affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The breach is particularly egregious because it concerns information collected for humanitarian assistance in a context where Palestinians have long been forced to surrender personal information to access the most basic necessities of life, such as food, aid, fuel and water, while simultaneously enduring a campaign of engineered starvation.
This incident must therefore be understood within the broader weaponisation of aid in Gaza. We recall the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which turned humanitarian assistance into a tool of coercion, surveillance, and massacring, with reports of Palestinians being killed and injured on a near daily basis while attempting to access food assistance.
We are appalled by reports that concerns regarding vulnerabilities in the system were raised prior to the breach and that affected individuals were informed only after significant delay. This points to serious failures of accountability and institutional responsibility.
These concerns also follow from the WFP’s alarming partnership since 2019 with software firm Palantir, whose products are widely used by military and intelligence agencies. Palantir has publicly supported the Israeli occupation despite its ongoing genocide, boasting a longstanding relationship reinforced by a strategic partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense in 2024. In her 2025 report, From economy of occupation to economy of genocide, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese names Palantir, stating there are “reasonable grounds to believe” the firm has provided predictive policing technology, core defense infrastructure for military software, and an AI platform enabling “real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making.” Palantir CEO Alex Karp himself appeared to affirm this lethal application when he conceded, upon being challenged, that Palantir’s technology is used to kill Palestinians, offering the dehumanising and baseless defence that victims are “mostly terrorists.”
Humanitarian organisations operating in contexts of genocide are obligated to apply the highest possible standards of protection. Partnering with a firm that is plausibly aiding and abetting that genocide stands in complete violation of this, as well as in violation of the basic principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence as set out across UN General Assembly Resolutions 46/182 and 58/114.
With this said, we recognise the dedicated and well-intentioned staff working within WFP, and our call for accountability is directed toward those directly responsible for the security negligence through which this high-stakes data breach has occurred, and such partnerships are permitted.
Accordingly, we demand:
- An immediate, independent, and transparent investigation into this security breach. Affected communities have the right to know exactly what information was compromised, how the breach occurred, who may have gained access to the data, what risks they now face, and what measures are being taken to mitigate harm.
- Full accountability for those responsible for this cyberattack, recognising it as a deliberate weaponisation of humanitarian data in the context of an ongoing genocide.
- Immediate suspension of the WFP’s partnership with US military and surveillance tech firm Palantir, and urgent evaluation and rectification of the security implications, past and present, of this partnership.
- The redressal of institutional gaps that exposed the humanitarian data of Palestinian households in Gaza. These systemic shortcomings must be rigorously evaluated and rectified across all agencies handling sensitive humanitarian information.
- Urgent adoption of stronger safeguards to prevent the exposure and weaponisation of humanitarian data, alongside the re-evaluation of partner vetting processes to guarantee compliance with international law and the relevant UNGA resolutions on humanitarian aid. ###
Photo from Ciphers Security. FOR ORGANIZATIONS, PLEASE SIGN HERE.
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Petition created on August 9, 2026