(RNS) — The Rev. Franklin Graham confirmed Saturday (Oct. 25), that Samaritan’s Purse, the international humanitarian relief organization he heads, is ramping up its role in delivering aid to Gaza as the embattled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is being shut down.

“I don’t have all the specifics, because these details about the plan are still being developed,” Graham told RNS in a phone interview from Greensboro, North Carolina, where the organization’s new Boeing 767 took off for Israel loaded with humanitarian supplies.

But Graham said he understood that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was being phased out.

“It’s being folded,” said Graham, a longtime supporter of President Trump who has served as one of his evangelical advisors. “They operate with government funding, and I think their government funding has run out. It’s not going to be carried forward.”

The GHF, created by Israel and the U.S. to deliver aid in the ravaged Gaza Strip, had come under heavy criticism for its militarized distribution sites where more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces guarding the distribution sites from the perimeters. Reuters recently reported that many European nations were opposed to GHF having any future role in Gaza.

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay responded, in an email that “GHF was asked to pause operations during the hostage release phase which is still ongoing.” The outfit, which began delivering aid to Gaza in March, stopped all distribution of aid since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was signed nearly two weeks ago.

While acknowledging the GHF was being paused, Fay did not say the GHF is shuttering.

“While the situation remains fluid on the ground, GHF has been instructed to remain ready to re-engage and specifically not to take any actions that would preclude us from resuming operations immediately,” Fay said.

Johnnie Moore, the evangelical PR guru who served the GHF chairman, recently stepped down.

RELATED: Aid to Gaza resumes, with UN and established faith-based agencies leading the way

The fragile ceasefire deal, brokered by the U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators, has been strained by violent flare-ups and tensions over the exchange of deceased Israeli captives. All the living captives have been returned to Israel and Israel has released some 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians.

The Gaza Strip remains in ruins after a devastating two-year campaign that damaged or destroyed 90% of buildings, razing hospitals, universities, mosques, water and sewage plants. Israel has killed more than 67,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and thousands of corpses remain buried under the rubble.

The Gaza ceasefire plan names the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other international institutions as the entities responsible to deliver aid to some 2 million Palestinians. Immediately following the ceasefire, Israel allowed more aid to enter Gaza, where a global hunger monitor warned in August that famine had taken hold. But that aid has since been restricted in the wake of ongoing clashes.

Graham told RNS that Samaritan’s Purse would prefer not to work with the UN to deliver aid.

“If we have to, we can work with anybody,” he said. “But they have such a bureaucratic organization, it just really slows you down. We don’t like to be tethered to incompetence.”

For a while Samaritan’s Purse joined with the GHF to provide supplemental food packets and first aid at its distribution sites in Gaza. But Graham said relief supplies on its 13th humanitarian airlift would not be distributed by the GHF.

The new Boeing 767 airlift carrying 200,000 packets of Ready-to-use Supplementary Food, used to treat acute malnutrition, as well as blankets and solar lights, was due to land at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport later Saturday.

It was not clear how the supplies would be delivered to Gaza.

Graham said in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, Samaritan’s Purse began assisting Israel’s recovery, as well. It donated 42 ambulances and is building eight community centers and several bomb shelters in the north of the country.

It has also deepened its relationships with the Israeli government and is now working with the U.S. State Department to assist Gaza in a larger way. The Boone, North Carolina, based operation, one of the U.S.’s largest humanitarian relief organizations, also benefits from its close ties to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor. Graham said Huckabee’s wife, Janet, is a longtime volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse.

Graham confirmed that all the aid donated to Gaza was privately funded. But he said Samaritan’s Purse would be open to accepting government funds. It is also considering building an emergency field hospital in Gaza, a service in which it has developed unique expertise. It has erected temporary hospitals in Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar among other hotspots in the past.

RELATED: How Johnnie Moore, evangelical PR guru, became the face of Gaza’s embattled aid effort