The desperate plight of starving Gazans has captured the world’s attention. Children are dying of malnutrition. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to receive aid. The United Nations World Food Program has found that one-third of Gaza’s roughly 2.1 million residents are not eating for multiple days in a row.

More than 100 international aid organizations — including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and Oxfam — signed a letter last week saying that “restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under [Israel’s] total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.” And more than 30 countries, including Israel’s allies, issued a joint statement earlier this month condemning “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.”

So who is overseeing this disaster? A public relations professional, the Rev. Johnnie Moore, with little experience in humanitarian aid. Moore is the executive chair of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by Israel and the US.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been controversial since it took over aid distribution in Gaza in May. Its first executive director, Jake Wood, resigned after a few weeks and complained of Israeli interference in their operations. The UN had set up 400 distribution sites in Gaza, but the GHF reduced that to four. The shortage of distribution sites has meant that Gazans walk long distances for food, and often leave empty-handed.

Violence has also been prevalent at the aid distribution sites. American contractors armed with live ammunition and stun grenades guard the food alongside Israeli forces, who have opened fire on crowds awaiting aid. Israel denies responsibility and blames Hamas for the violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that there is “no starvation” in Gaza.

Today, Explained co-host Sean Ramewaram spoke with Arno Rosenfeld, enterprise reporter at The Forward, the largest Jewish news outlet in the United States, about Moore’s background and how he’s navigating the crisis.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including

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