Trump's plan: to leave humanitarian aid to Gaza in the hands of mercenaries

BarcelonaSince its devastating began Offensive on Gaza on the same day as Hamas attacksOn October 7, 2023, Israel has turned food and international humanitarian aid into weapons of war. And it has subjecting the population to extreme food shortages and hunger. A policy that has intensified after 18 years of blockade with strict control of all passages of goods as collective punishment after the electoral victory of Hamas in 2006.

After a year and a half of indiscriminate bombings and all kinds of attacks and impediments to the entry into the Strip of food, drinking water, medicines and medical equipment, fuel, tents and other basic supplies, which aggravated a humanitarian crisis of shocking proportions, causing the death by starvation of at least 52 children and threaten the lives of 14,000 babies, according to Gazan health authorities. Thousands of children, pregnant women, infants, and the elderly have died from injuries, infections, or illnesses that could be cured with basic supplies. A self-made humanitarian disaster.

This week, due to international pressure, Netanyahu's government has allowed the entry of some trucks in dribs and drabs. Only 400 vehicles have been authorized to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and of these, only 115 have been able to deliver the cargo, despite great difficulty. None have reached the north of the Strip.

And this Friday, António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said that "a spoonful of aid has come in, but what is needed is a flood." "Families are deprived of the bare minimum, with the world watching," he denounced. Israel continues to starve the more than 2 million Palestinians who have not succumbed to the bombs. Guterres has rejected Trump's plan to hire mercenary companies to distribute humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Food, in the hands of mercenaries

Israel has agreed with the United States on a new humanitarian aid distribution system through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which works with American private military companies. The agreement between the United States, Egypt, and Qatar, specifically in the Netzarim Corridor, which the Israeli army opened to separate the north from the rest of the Strip. Vehicles. Israeli soldiers watched from a short distance.

As far as is known, the two companies that carried out this work and that have been contracted in Trump's plan for Gaza They are Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) and UG Solutions. Their staff were armed with M4 rifles, used by both the Israeli and US militaries, and Glock pistols.

SRS, which was founded this January, is run by Philip Reilly, a former CIA officer who had served in Afghanistan and with US special forces. Reilly had also been vice president of Constellis, the result of another company's merger with Academi, the new brand of Blackwater, the US contractor accused of committing a massacre in Iraq in 2007. Another senior official at SRS is Joe L'Etoile, who had run the US Department of Defense's elite group.

UG Solution, the other company contracted in Trump's plan for the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, was founded by Jameson Govoni, a member of the Green Boins (the American special forces) who according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz He presented himself as "a Boston pervert": "I joined the army as soon as I could to inflict pain on people who inflicted pain on us," he said in a promotional video for his hangover drink, which is no longer available.

Who pays?

One of the big unknowns is who is footing the bill for these mercenaries, and whether it could be the Israeli government directly or private pro-Israeli actors in the United States. It is also unclear whether they are operating on their own terms or on Israel's.

UG Solutions hired 100 US special forces veterans on January 30 to guard a checkpoint in Gaza, offering them $1,100 a day and an additional $10,000 in advance, according to an emailed job posting obtained by the agency. According to plans obtained by NGOs, their role would be to monitor the perimeter of an aid distribution point through which between 2,000 and 3,000 Palestinians would pass daily under biometric screening and other security measures.

"For the Palestinian population, this will be militarized and sufficient aid. To obtain aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, Palestinians will have to cross Israeli army lines, go through an armed checkpoint, collect what they are given, and go through the same thing again," Jeremy Kony told ARA.

The use of mercenaries in wars is ancient, but these types of ventures have become vital in the contemporary era, especially following the United States invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The main advantage for governments, as in the case of Wagner's Russian mercenaries, is that they are not subject to the strict combat rules of conventional armies. Logistical issues and, above all, the fact that Trump's priority is not humanitarian have led the UN and all NGOs on the ground to reject the plan outright. Eighty percent have been refugees since 1948, the year the State of Israel was created. Shawa adds the logistical problems: "It only offers a small part of what is needed in this catastrophe" because it doesn't take into account water, medical aid, shelter, or any other basic need other than food and hygiene. He also warns that "there is no guarantee against arrests, violence." It will serve to perpetuate the humanitarian disaster: "Instead of lifting the blockade or stopping the war, it maintains the humanitarian crisis and on top of that, gives Israel control over the distribution of aid."