Israel Plans U.S. Security Contractor-Led Aid Distribution in Gaza Amid Legal and Humanitarian Outcry
Controversial Israeli Plan to Use American Private Security Firms Sparks Global Condemnation Over Risks to Aid Workers and Breaches of International Law.
Watan-In a detailed report by The Washington Post, journalists Karen DeYoung, Jerry Smith, and Cate Brown revealed Israel’s controversial plan to use U.S. private security contractors to distribute humanitarian aid inside Gaza. This move has sparked outrage from humanitarian organizations, the United Nations, and legal experts, who say the plan is logistically unworkable, legally questionable, and puts both aid workers and civilians at serious risk.
According to Israeli and Western sources, the plan—set to be launched by the end of May and possibly aligned with Donald Trump’s mid-May visit to the region—was designed to bypass Hamas and control aid flows. But UN agencies and over a dozen international NGOs have outright rejected the proposal.
The plan proposes:
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Entry of 60 trucks daily (just 10% of previous ceasefire levels)
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Aid distribution centers under armed American security firms (SRS and UG Solutions)
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Facial recognition technology at centers for aid recipients
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Exclusion of Hamas and full control over beneficiary interactions
UN Condemns Israel’s Militarized Gaza Aid Plan as “Cruel” and Legally Perilous
Critics, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, condemned the Israeli system, calling it a “cruel restriction of aid down to the last calorie.” The plan also violates neutrality principles key to humanitarian work, as aid would be distributed under military oversight and exclude many civilians based on Israel’s arbitrary criteria.
Meanwhile, extremist voices in the Israeli government—including Likud MK Moshe Saada—have openly called for the starvation of Gaza’s population as a form of warfare, further fueling charges of war crimes under international law.
Over 400 humanitarian workers have been killed since the war began in October 2023, most by Israeli forces. Aid groups fear the new biometric tracking and militarized delivery will lead to more targeted violence.
A dozen NGO leaders described the aid model as not only discriminatory, but a likely trigger for new waves of displacement and civil unrest, warning that the real objective appears to be the military administration of Gaza, not relief.
UN officials and third-party states have also raised the alarm that facilitating such a system could expose partners to legal liability for participating in war crimes.
