'Murky' US Gaza aid distribution scheme slammed over Israeli-linked contractors

The legitimacy of US aid schemes has been questioned after a US military contractor working on a controversial distribution initiative in Gaza has reportedly turned to a company with Israeli ties.

Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), a US-based private security company run by a former CIA officer, recently signed a deal with a firm called Three Brothers, led by Mohammad Khozandar, to staff a new food distribution centre in Tal al-Sultan, Rafah.

Several Gaza business figures claimed they were approached by SRS in recent weeks, but refused to take part in its controversial takeover of aid operations in the besieged enclave.

Leading contractor and head of Gaza's Contractors' Union Suheil Siqa said his company was invited in mid-May to submit a bid to staff the distribution hubs, but rejected the offer. SRS then turned to Three Brothers, a company accused of having long-standing ties to the Israeli security forces.

He told the Financial Times: "This is not a humanitarian mission, it's a farce. Two million people, and you want to feed them through four centres in the south?"

Staff from Three Brothers reportedly act as the first point of contact for desperate Gazans at the centres, processing individuals, distributing food, and managing lines under the supervision of SRS and Israeli forces.

The new aid scheme is being led by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a criticised US-backed company registered in Switzerland earlier this year.

The programme, launched this week, is overseen jointly by SRS security teams and Israeli forces. It was created after Israel imposed a full siege on Gaza for more than two months, choking off all deliveries of food, medicine, fuel, and other critical supplies. Only a trickle of aid has entered the territory since.

Under the scheme, Palestinian families must be vetted and summoned to one of four designated centres, set up without UN involvement, to receive rations.

The first day of operations under the GHF-led initiative in Rafah ended in deadly chaos after Israeli forces shot at large crowds of desperate Palestinians storming the site, killing at least 23 people and wounding 13.

GHF accused of misleading local aid

In a further blow to the initiative, GHF CEO Jake Wood, a US military veteran and co-founder of disaster relief group Team Rubicon, resigned a day before the scheme launched, saying the plan could not be executed in line with humanitarian principles.

The organisation has also been accused of diverting aid from other NGOs. Ramy Abdu, chairman of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said aid distributed this week at one of the centres had been misappropriated from Rahma Worldwide, a US-based charity with ongoing operations in Gaza.

Ramy tweeted: "The aid distributed today was stolen by the American-Israeli company and the Israeli army from Rahma Worldwide. The organisation was misled, and several of its trucks were taken, which were then used by them to distribute the aid themselves."

The UN and almost all major international humanitarian organisations have refused to take part, saying the programme violates humanitarian principles and risks being used as a political weapon.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said "the new food distribution does not meet the needs".

"There are four centres, most of them in the south, and one that is supposed to operate in central Gaza. We do not consider this humanitarian. Humanitarian means providing aid wherever people are," he added.

Phillipo Lazzarini, the chief of the UN's agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), also said that the new mechanism for aid distribution "is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities".

Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that in the last 24 hours, 28 Palestinians have been killed, and 179 have been wounded by Israel. The ministry added that 54,084 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, with a further 123,308 wounded.

The New Arab has attempted to contact the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and Safe Reach Solutions.