Follow us on social

Israel to use US military contractors in new Gaza aid scheme

Israel to use US military contractors in new Gaza aid scheme

Americans — presumably reporting to Netanyahu — will be operating inside the Gaza Strip

Reporting | QiOSK

As Israel moves to expand military operations in Gaza, even approving plans to capture the entire strip, it also wants to seize control of humanitarian aid distribution there — with the help of private U.S. military contractors.

As reported by the Washington Post, the contractors will be supplied by UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions — the same American contractors previously involved in checkpoint and security maintenance in the Gaza Strip during the since-broken ceasefire, as Axios reported back in January.

Israel’s push for control of aid distribution in the Gaza Strip is a condition for lifting its more than two-month blockade, leading Gaza toward famine. According to its proposal, Israeli soldiers would guard the periphery of the aid distribution hub, where about 60 trucks of food would be allowed into the strip per day — a mere tenth of the volume permitted during the ceasefire. Under the plan, the American military contractors would handle the aid distribution from there. All existing soup kitchens and distribution centers would be shuttered.

In general, having outside private military contractors in a war zone comes with a host of legal ambiguities. The rules governing their conduct — and the legal framework protecting them — are often poorly defined. That these American contractors would apparently report to Israel, a foreign government, in a territory it reportedly plans to capture and occupy no less, only further muddies the waters.

“Private military contractors continue to push the legal boundaries of using civilians in combat zones. The ambiguity of which jurisdiction cover these contractors — Israeli, Palestinian, U.S. — is being hidden by who is paying the contract,” former Blackwater contractor Morgan Lerette, the author of Guns, Girls, and Greed: I Was a Blackwater Mercenary in Iraq, told Responsible Statecraft.

“Aside from the danger, putting armed U.S. civilians in an active battlefield to feed locals, is reminiscent of Somalia in 1993. We can only hope it doesn’t end in a similar fashion,” Lerette explained, referencing the infamous “Black Hawk Down” battle where clashes between U.S. and Somali forces in a densely populated Mogadishu neighborhood lead to heavy civilian casualties.

Speaking anonymously, a former U.S. official told NPR that Israel attempted to roll-out a similar aid plan in Gaza during the last administration. They alleged that the Biden administration, understanding the Israeli plan as manipulating humanitarian aid for military purposes, rejected it as a breach of international law.

The United Nations and some aid partners involved in Gaza rejected the latest Israeli aid plan in a joint statement yesterday, alleging it “contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic — as part of a military strategy.”

"We will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” the statement read.

For its part, Israel is moving full speed ahead toward complete domination of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli officials hope Palestinians will feel compelled to leave. At the time of writing, at least 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7.

"We are conquering Gaza to stay — no more in-and-out. This is a war for victory, and it's time to stop being afraid of the word 'occupation.' We are defeating Hamas — we will not surrender, they will surrender,” Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said of Israel’s current Gaza operations.

UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions did not answer RS’ requests for comment in time for publication.


Top image credit: Palestinians in Gaza are facing a serious hunger crisis due to Israel's ongoing attacks on the territory. In Gaza, where there are great difficulties in obtaining food, civilians waiting for aid in front of charitable organizations often return empty-handed. Photo by Omar Ashtawy apaimages (Reuters)
Reporting | QiOSK
Ukraine war
Top image credit: HC FOTOSTUDIO via shutterstock.com

Should a Russia-Ukraine peace leave territorial control for later?

Europe

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, there have been ongoing diplomatic efforts to broker a peace settlement in the three-year-long war between Russia and Ukraine. So far, however, negotiations have failed to bridge the stark divide between the two sides.

Two of the key contentious issues have been post-war security guarantees for Ukraine and the political status of Ukrainian territory claimed or annexed by Russia. Specifically, regarding territorial sovereignty, Ukraine and Russia have rejected the United States' proposal to “freeze” the war along the current line of conflict as a de facto new border. Ukraine has refused to renounce its claims of sovereignty over territories occupied by Russia (including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014). Russia, in turn, has demanded Ukraine’s recognition of Russia’s territorial claim over the entirety of the four Ukrainian regions, which Russia annexed in 2022.

keep readingShow less
Submarine based cruise missiles
Top photo credit: An official USN rendering of an Ohio-class submarine VLS system firing Tomahawk missiles (Wikipedia/US Navy)

Navy pushing billions for sea-based nukes that nobody seems to want

Military Industrial Complex

Sea-launched, nuclear-armed cruise missiles, or SLCM-Ns, were considered unnecessary for U.S. national security for years. But now, the Navy’s pushing to bring SLCM-Ns back — even if doing so costs taxpayers billions.

Indeed, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe told House Armed Services Committee members on May 7 that the Navy was fast tracking the development of the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile - Nuclear, known as the SLCM-N, along with the Trident II D5 Strategic Weapons System and hypersonic missiles.

keep readingShow less
lockheed martin
Top photo credit: The Lockheed Martin Corporation on display during the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition(ADEX) 2023 at the Seoul Air Base on October 18, 2023 in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Photo by Chris Jung/NurPhoto)

Bipartisan bill seeks to put arms sales lobbyists on ice for 3-years

Military Industrial Complex

President Donald Trump announced some $200 billion in potential arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Qatar a week ago — this is huge potential business for major U.S. defense contractors like RTX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, all of which deploy armies of lobbyists in Washington each year to influence such contracts.

A new bipartisan bill dropping this week will impose some of the strictest bans to date to make sure former government officials aren’t lobbying on behalf of those big companies or foreign countries to get their share of this massive federal pie. In fact, the legislation will make it a crime to do so.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.