In Gaza, US-Israel aid comes in the form of a concentration camp

News earlier this month that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) — two unheard of US-backed contractors — would be sending armed personnel to roll out the distribution of food and other aid to the besieged population was met with much scepticism.

The UN and other aid groups baulked, with UN aid chief Tom Fletcher saying the operation would make “starvation a bargaining chip.” It was very obvious that the militarised aid operation was a trap; the only question that remained was what the specific contours would be.

The origins of the two organisations have been murky. While it has been presented as an “independent” US effort, with US business executives and former defence and intelligence officials at the helm, reports by The Washington Post and the New York Times have now shown that this was very much an Israeli plan conceived back in late 2023. This was, of course, long before the current Israeli-manufactured aid crisis, which supposedly necessitates this intervention.

Documents obtained in the Post investigation show that those involved in the initial planning were well aware of the likelihood of pushback, particularly with regard to apparently now-abandoned plans to force Palestinians to register their biometrics to obtain aid.

The plans called for Palestinians to be moved into guarded compounds; those involved worried would be perceived as “concentration camps with biometrics.”

Early GHF documents cite former World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook as “an invaluable board member,” but he told the Financial Times that he is not on the board. Former World Food Programme chief and South Carolina governor David Beasley was also listed as a potential board member, but sources told the FT that he was only “in conversation” with the organisation. Tony Blair is reported to be in the mix in some capacity.

The Israelis approached Phil Reilly in mid-2024 to head SRS. Reilly is a retired CIA paramilitary officer who cut his teeth training contras in the 80s and was later a station chief in Afghanistan. No red flags there.

Funding remains a mystery. The investigation by The Post stated a GHF spokesperson claimed they had received a $100 million donation, but would not disclose the source.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has claimed that he believes that GHF and SRS were secretly being funded by the state of Israel through a series of shell companies.

His concern was, naturally, not for the well-being of the Palestinians or the feasibility of the operation, but for the prospect of Israel providing any aid to Gaza without getting credit. “If our tax money is buying humanitarian aid, financing food and medicine for children in Gaza, let’s profit from it in the international arena,” he said. Lapid’s is a quintessential Israeli neurosis: carrying out immense cruelty and then chafing at the lack of praise for one’s restraint.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation trap

GHF was initially registered in Delaware and Switzerland; however, following a legal complaint from the NGO TRIAL International in Switzerland and news of a possible investigation by Swiss authorities, GHF announced it would be closing its Swiss arm and operating solely from the US entity.

On May 25, the day before operations were scheduled to begin, GHF’s executive director, Jake Wood, a former Marine and co-founder of the disaster response NGO Team Rubicon, announced he would be leaving the organisation. He claimed that he had realised, “it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”

Safe Reach Solutions began approaching Palestinian businessmen in Gaza earlier in May, asking them to tender bids to staff the distribution centres.

Talking to the FT, Suheil Siqa, head of the Contractors’ Union, said he became sceptical when he saw that the plans were for only four distribution centres to feed two million people, all concentrated in southern Gaza. He told SRS he believed that they “may be linked with political agendas harming the Palestinian cause in Gaza.”

Businessman Ahmed Helo withdrew his interest after realising the implications. “I thought it would hurt people and force them from the north to the south.” To be sure, the geography of the operation aligns with Israel’s plans for forcibly displacing the population of Gaza, which they’ve called Gideon’s Chariots. The contours now seem clear: manufactured starvation, aid in concentrated areas, armed personnel, coordination with Israel.

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But the trap appears to have sprung earlier than anticipated. Rollout of the aid distribution centres went as well as the doomed “humanitarian pier,” resulting in horrifying scenes.

Thousands of starving Palestinians crowded metal pens at the distribution point, causing American personnel to open fire to disperse people. The Americans eventually fled, and Israeli helicopters then fired warning shots over the crowd. Several Palestinians were killed, and dozens were injured.

Terrifyingly, reports emerged of aid-seekers being abducted; the Gaza Government Media Office said that seven people were missing after setting out for the aid distribution centres. The following day, the events repeated with more deaths, injuries, and disappearances.

An aerial photograph of throngs of desperate Palestinians corralled into cages with armed personnel at one end quickly circulated, with many pointing out the obvious historical parallels.

Outlets that have so far been extremely deferential to Israel’s version of events published the image in horror. I translated a few random Hebrew replies under one post of the photo, expecting denials or celebration, but found only concern about the optics. “This looks bad,” one stated simply.

They have reason to be concerned about perceptions in what Lapid called “the international arena.” There definitely seems to be a shift in the discourse surrounding Israel’s genocide, if not yet a shift in actions. Something in the cruelty of dressing up forced displacement as humanitarian aid has outraged those who have been previously unmoved, or perhaps they just feel the winds changing directions.

Piers Morgan, who spent most of the genocide repeatedly interrupting anyone pro-Palestinian with questions of whether they condemn Hamas, is now grilling Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely. German Chancellor Merz has decided that Israel’s genocidal assault is “no longer justified.

Author Zadie Smith, who previously wrung her hands over the student encampments and said, “In the case of Israel/Palestine, language and rhetoric are and always have been weapons of mass destruction,” has signed a letter of condemnation with 379 other authors that uses the word genocide. Apparently that word is no longer a weapon.

For those who have taken on significant personal risk of repression by condemning Israel’s genocide early on, it is tempting to welcome the sudden wave of support. But therein lies another trap. Uncritically accepting these latecomers allows them to launder their reputations, erasing their failure to pass the moral test of our lifetimes when it matters most. Who knows if we would have reached the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plot and Gideon’s Chariots if they had not chosen cowardice.

Alex Foley is a researcher and painter living in Brighton, UK. They have a background in molecular biology of health and disease. They are the co-founder of the Accountability Archive, a web tool preserving fragile digital evidence of pro-genocidal rhetoric from power holders.

Follow them on X: @foleywoley

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.