Who are the mercenary companies delivering Trump Foundation aid to Gaza?

BarcelonaThe United States and Israel have launched a new humanitarian aid distribution system in Gaza with the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which works with US private military companies. The United States has announced that a third center will open and that the plan is designed to force the displacement of Palestinians from the north and center of the Strip to the South. They will deliver a box of food.

Two mercenary companies had already begun operating in Gaza during the January-March ceasefire, an agreement reached 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. When the ceasefire was agreed upon and Israel allowed the return of forcibly displaced Palestinians south to what remained of their homes in the north, these contractors were deployed at the corridor checkpoints to inspect 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 rules of engagement of conventional armies.

According to the details that have been made public, the operation is based on four distribution points for food, water, and hygiene products for some 1.2 million Palestinians, 60% of Gaza's population. Lack of funds, operational costs, Israeli interference, logistical problems, 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.

One of Israel's stated objectives is to end the operational structure of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which addresses the humanitarian needs of the population of Gaza, 80% of whom have been refugees since 1948, the year the State of Israel was created.

Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, warns ARA that "UNRWA has been the straw man of Gaza's humanitarian infrastructure, and this is above all an attempt to erase not only a vital humanitarian actor, but also a symbol of the Palestinian refugee issue." 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 needs beyond food and hygiene. He also warns that "there is no guarantee against arrests, violence, or inhumane treatment at distribution points." And above all, he believes it will only 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 aid distribution."