Will contractor disgust bring down Israel's 'hunger games' in Gaza?
Another disenchanted American comes forward bearing horror stories at GHF distribution sites
Analysis | RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
Jul 24, 2025
quincyinst.org
Another American contractor has reportedly come forward with horror stories about his time working for the Global Humanitarian Foundation, the outfit responsible for food distribution in Gaza.
The operation has been likened to the "Hunger Games" as the Israeli military has been accused of shooting and killing hundreds of Palestinians, reportedly for not straying out of the lines and other supposed transgressions, if for any reason at all, as they scramble and claw their way desperately for food.
U.S. security contractors hired to work with GHF have been accused of joining in with the lethal and non-lethal crowd control, with reports of live ammunition, stun grenades, and the use of pepper spray. Last week at least 20 were killed in a stampede; the UN says over 1,050 people have been killed trying to get to food since May, over 700 of them at these increasingly violent aid centers.
Last month two contractors from UG Solutions, one of the U.S.-based companies (the other is Safe Reach Solutions), told the Associated Press that fellow Americans were shooting into the crowds with live ammo. Now another has come forward. He claims to be a military veteran who has deployed to multiple conflict zones but “never in my entire military career... have I been a part of, allowed...the use of force against unarmed innocent civilians. Ever. And I’m not going to do it now."
“There is no fixing this. Put an end to it,” the man said in the report, first given to Israel news Channel 12. His identity is not verified and the company he supposedly works for, UG Solutions, has denied earlier reports of lethal tactics by its operators at the sites.
The contractor, his voice and image distorted, told Channel 12: “There was a man who was on the ground. He was on his hands and knees and he was picking up individual noodles. This guy wasn’t armed. He wasn’t a threat. This UG contractor sprayed an entire can of pepper spray on to this guy's face. That’s lethal.”
In another case, he claimed he was standing next to a Palestinian woman hit by a stun grenade. “She collapsed, fell to the ground. That was the moment I knew I couldn’t continue.”
The man also insisted that U.S. contractors were firing live rounds at Palestinians after they had gathered their food.
These kinds of stories are all but corroborated by IDF soldiers who told Haaretz reporters in June that they were ordered to shoot unarmed civilians at the sites even when there was no threat presented. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that IDF soldiers had shot into a crowd of Palestinians holding white flags because they crossed a "red line."
American contractors, many who are former U.S. military, have been working in Gaza since April. They are being paid, reportedly, $1500 a day for the work. That may not be enough to stomach what they are witnessing. As more come forward, it may be that the Israeli government made a big mistake thinking it would put an American face on its barbaric food scheme in Gaza. Those outsiders might eventually help bring the whole thing down.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is the Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft.
The views expressed by authors on Responsible Statecraft do not necessarily reflect those of the Quincy Institute or its associates.
Another American contractor has reportedly come forward with horror stories about his time working for the Global Humanitarian Foundation, the outfit responsible for food distribution in Gaza.
The operation has been likened to the "Hunger Games" as the Israeli military has been accused of shooting and killing hundreds of Palestinians, reportedly for not straying out of the lines and other supposed transgressions, if for any reason at all, as they scramble and claw their way desperately for food.
U.S. security contractors hired to work with GHF have been accused of joining in with the lethal and non-lethal crowd control, with reports of live ammunition, stun grenades, and the use of pepper spray. Last week at least 20 were killed in a stampede; the UN says over 1,050 people have been killed trying to get to food since May, over 700 of them at these increasingly violent aid centers.
Last month two contractors from UG Solutions, one of the U.S.-based companies (the other is Safe Reach Solutions), told the Associated Press that fellow Americans were shooting into the crowds with live ammo. Now another has come forward. He claims to be a military veteran who has deployed to multiple conflict zones but “never in my entire military career... have I been a part of, allowed...the use of force against unarmed innocent civilians. Ever. And I’m not going to do it now."
“There is no fixing this. Put an end to it,” the man said in the report, first given to Israel news Channel 12. His identity is not verified and the company he supposedly works for, UG Solutions, has denied earlier reports of lethal tactics by its operators at the sites.
The contractor, his voice and image distorted, told Channel 12: “There was a man who was on the ground. He was on his hands and knees and he was picking up individual noodles. This guy wasn’t armed. He wasn’t a threat. This UG contractor sprayed an entire can of pepper spray on to this guy's face. That’s lethal.”
In another case, he claimed he was standing next to a Palestinian woman hit by a stun grenade. “She collapsed, fell to the ground. That was the moment I knew I couldn’t continue.”
The man also insisted that U.S. contractors were firing live rounds at Palestinians after they had gathered their food.
These kinds of stories are all but corroborated by IDF soldiers who told Haaretz reporters in June that they were ordered to shoot unarmed civilians at the sites even when there was no threat presented. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that IDF soldiers had shot into a crowd of Palestinians holding white flags because they crossed a "red line."
American contractors, many who are former U.S. military, have been working in Gaza since April. They are being paid, reportedly, $1500 a day for the work. That may not be enough to stomach what they are witnessing. As more come forward, it may be that the Israeli government made a big mistake thinking it would put an American face on its barbaric food scheme in Gaza. Those outsiders might eventually help bring the whole thing down.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is the Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft.
The views expressed by authors on Responsible Statecraft do not necessarily reflect those of the Quincy Institute or its associates.
Beyond Gaza’s shadow: The unseen war for the West Bank’s future
July 24, 2025
MEMO
An Israeli soldier stands guard as demolition vehicles operate in the Al-Jawaya area of Yatta, south of Hebron, West Bank, on May 28, 2025. [Photo by MOSAB SHAWER/AFP via Getty Images]
by Dr Ramzy Baroud
Israel is meticulously following a textbook model of instigating unrest in the occupied West Bank. The latest such provocations consisted of stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron (Al-Khalil) municipality of its administrative powers over the venerable Ibrahimi Mosque. Worse, according to Israel Hayom, it granted these powers to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement, an extremist settler body.
Though all Jewish settlers in occupied Palestine can be qualified as extremists, the approximately 7,500 inhabitants of Kiryat Arba represent a more virulent category. This settlement, established in 1972, serves as a strategic foothold to justify subjecting Hebron to stricter military control than virtually any other part of the West Bank.
Kiryat Arba is infamously linked to Baruch Goldstein, the US-Israeli settler who, in February 1994, unleashed a horrific attack. He opened fire at Muslim worshipers kneeling for dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque, mercilessly killing 29. This bloodbath was swiftly followed by another, where the Israeli army brutally cracked down on Palestinian protesters in Hebron and across the West Bank, murdering an additional 25 Palestinians.
Yet, the Israeli Shamgar Commission, tasked with investigating the massacre, resolved in 1994 that the Palestinian mosque, a site of profound religious significance, was to be grotesquely divided: 63 per cent allocated to Jewish worshipers and a mere 37 per cent to Palestinian Muslims.
Since that calamitous decision, oppressive restrictions have been systematically imposed. These include pervasive surveillance and, at times, unjustifiable, extended closures of the site, solely for exclusive settler use.
The latest decision, described by Israel Hayom as “historic and unprecedented,” is profoundly dangerous. It places the fate of this historic Palestinian mosque directly into the hands of those fanatically keen on acquiring the holy site in its entirety.
But the Ibrahimi Mosque is merely a microcosm of something far more sinister underway across the West Bank. Israel has exploited its war in Gaza to dramatically escalate its violence, carry out mass arrests, confiscate vast tracts of land, systematically destroy Palestinian farms and orchards, and aggressively expand illegal settlements.
Though the West Bank, previously largely subdued by joint Israeli military pressures and Palestinian Authority crackdowns, was not a direct party to the 7 October 2023, assault nor the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, it has inexplicably become a major focus for Israeli military measures.
READ: Deadly malnutrition among children in Gaza is reaching catastrophic level: UN
In the first year of the war, over 10,400 Palestinians were detained in Israeli army crackdowns, with thousands held without charge. Furthermore, hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly ethnically cleansed, largely from the northern West Bank, where entire refugee camps and towns have been systematically destroyed in protracted Israeli military campaigns.
Israel’s overarching aim remains the strangulation of the West Bank. This is achieved by severing communities using ubiquitous military checkpoints, imposing total closures of vast regions, and the cruel suspension of work permits for Palestinian laborers, who are almost entirely dependent on the Israeli work market for survival.
This insidious plan also explicitly targeted all Palestinian holy sites, including the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, and the Ibrahimi Mosque. Even when these shrines were nominally accessible, age restrictions and suffocating military checkpoints make it difficult, at times utterly impossible, for Palestinians to worship there.
In August 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that his relentless violent campaign against the West Bank was part of confronting the “broader Iran terror axis.” Practically, this statement served as a green light for the Israeli army to treat the West Bank as an extension of the ongoing Israeli genocide on Gaza. By mid-July 2025, over 900 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank, while at least 15 were murdered by settlers.
As Palestinians were pushed further against the wall, with no centralised strategy by their leadership to meaningfully resist, Israel exponentially increased its illegal settlement constructions and the brazen legalization of numerous outposts, many built illegally even by Israeli government standards.
Israel’s actions in the West Bank were not a sudden deviation but consistent with a long-standing, insidious scheme. This includes a plan solidified by the Israeli Knesset in 2020 that allowed Israel to officially annex the West Bank. Israel’s ultimate goal has always been to confine the majority of Palestinians into Bantustan-like enclaves, while asserting full control over the vast majority of the region.
In August 2023, extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir articulated this sinister vision: “My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs.”
More coercive measures swiftly followed, including Knesset laws to significantly curtail UNRWA operations, and further legislation to entrench de facto annexation. Last May, Smotrich audaciously announced 22 more settlements. On 2 July 14 Israeli ministers made a public call on Netanyahu to immediately annex the West Bank.
In fact, every action Israel has undertaken, especially since the commencement of its devastating genocide in Gaza, has been carefully calculated to culminate in the irreversible annexation of the West Bank – a process that would inevitably be followed by declaring native inhabitants persona non grata in their own homeland.
This level of systemic pressure and oppression will ultimately lead to a popular explosion. Though suppressed by the brutality of the Israeli army, the terror of armed settlers, and the suppressive actions of the Palestinian Authority, the breaking point is fast approaching.
Those in the West who preach hollow calls for calm and de-escalation must understand the region is hurtling towards the brink. Neither diplomatic platitudes nor sterile press releases will suffice to avert the catastrophe. They are advised to act decisively against Israel’s destructive policies, and they must act immediately.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
An Israeli soldier stands guard as demolition vehicles operate in the Al-Jawaya area of Yatta, south of Hebron, West Bank, on May 28, 2025. [Photo by MOSAB SHAWER/AFP via Getty Images]
by Dr Ramzy Baroud
Israel is meticulously following a textbook model of instigating unrest in the occupied West Bank. The latest such provocations consisted of stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron (Al-Khalil) municipality of its administrative powers over the venerable Ibrahimi Mosque. Worse, according to Israel Hayom, it granted these powers to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement, an extremist settler body.
Though all Jewish settlers in occupied Palestine can be qualified as extremists, the approximately 7,500 inhabitants of Kiryat Arba represent a more virulent category. This settlement, established in 1972, serves as a strategic foothold to justify subjecting Hebron to stricter military control than virtually any other part of the West Bank.
Kiryat Arba is infamously linked to Baruch Goldstein, the US-Israeli settler who, in February 1994, unleashed a horrific attack. He opened fire at Muslim worshipers kneeling for dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque, mercilessly killing 29. This bloodbath was swiftly followed by another, where the Israeli army brutally cracked down on Palestinian protesters in Hebron and across the West Bank, murdering an additional 25 Palestinians.
Yet, the Israeli Shamgar Commission, tasked with investigating the massacre, resolved in 1994 that the Palestinian mosque, a site of profound religious significance, was to be grotesquely divided: 63 per cent allocated to Jewish worshipers and a mere 37 per cent to Palestinian Muslims.
Since that calamitous decision, oppressive restrictions have been systematically imposed. These include pervasive surveillance and, at times, unjustifiable, extended closures of the site, solely for exclusive settler use.
The latest decision, described by Israel Hayom as “historic and unprecedented,” is profoundly dangerous. It places the fate of this historic Palestinian mosque directly into the hands of those fanatically keen on acquiring the holy site in its entirety.
But the Ibrahimi Mosque is merely a microcosm of something far more sinister underway across the West Bank. Israel has exploited its war in Gaza to dramatically escalate its violence, carry out mass arrests, confiscate vast tracts of land, systematically destroy Palestinian farms and orchards, and aggressively expand illegal settlements.
Though the West Bank, previously largely subdued by joint Israeli military pressures and Palestinian Authority crackdowns, was not a direct party to the 7 October 2023, assault nor the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, it has inexplicably become a major focus for Israeli military measures.
READ: Deadly malnutrition among children in Gaza is reaching catastrophic level: UN
In the first year of the war, over 10,400 Palestinians were detained in Israeli army crackdowns, with thousands held without charge. Furthermore, hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly ethnically cleansed, largely from the northern West Bank, where entire refugee camps and towns have been systematically destroyed in protracted Israeli military campaigns.
Israel’s overarching aim remains the strangulation of the West Bank. This is achieved by severing communities using ubiquitous military checkpoints, imposing total closures of vast regions, and the cruel suspension of work permits for Palestinian laborers, who are almost entirely dependent on the Israeli work market for survival.
This insidious plan also explicitly targeted all Palestinian holy sites, including the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, and the Ibrahimi Mosque. Even when these shrines were nominally accessible, age restrictions and suffocating military checkpoints make it difficult, at times utterly impossible, for Palestinians to worship there.
In August 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that his relentless violent campaign against the West Bank was part of confronting the “broader Iran terror axis.” Practically, this statement served as a green light for the Israeli army to treat the West Bank as an extension of the ongoing Israeli genocide on Gaza. By mid-July 2025, over 900 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank, while at least 15 were murdered by settlers.
As Palestinians were pushed further against the wall, with no centralised strategy by their leadership to meaningfully resist, Israel exponentially increased its illegal settlement constructions and the brazen legalization of numerous outposts, many built illegally even by Israeli government standards.
Israel’s actions in the West Bank were not a sudden deviation but consistent with a long-standing, insidious scheme. This includes a plan solidified by the Israeli Knesset in 2020 that allowed Israel to officially annex the West Bank. Israel’s ultimate goal has always been to confine the majority of Palestinians into Bantustan-like enclaves, while asserting full control over the vast majority of the region.
In August 2023, extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir articulated this sinister vision: “My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs.”
More coercive measures swiftly followed, including Knesset laws to significantly curtail UNRWA operations, and further legislation to entrench de facto annexation. Last May, Smotrich audaciously announced 22 more settlements. On 2 July 14 Israeli ministers made a public call on Netanyahu to immediately annex the West Bank.
In fact, every action Israel has undertaken, especially since the commencement of its devastating genocide in Gaza, has been carefully calculated to culminate in the irreversible annexation of the West Bank – a process that would inevitably be followed by declaring native inhabitants persona non grata in their own homeland.
This level of systemic pressure and oppression will ultimately lead to a popular explosion. Though suppressed by the brutality of the Israeli army, the terror of armed settlers, and the suppressive actions of the Palestinian Authority, the breaking point is fast approaching.
Those in the West who preach hollow calls for calm and de-escalation must understand the region is hurtling towards the brink. Neither diplomatic platitudes nor sterile press releases will suffice to avert the catastrophe. They are advised to act decisively against Israel’s destructive policies, and they must act immediately.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
Gaza facing man-made 'mass starvation" says Dr. Graeme Groom
Israel’s Knesset extends law allowing detention of Gazans without charges or legal counsel
Critics say law strips Palestinian detainees of due process, as Israel expands indefinite detentions following Gaza war
Abdel Raouf Arnaout and Tarek Chouiref |24.07.2025 - TRT/AA
Critics say law strips Palestinian detainees of due process, as Israel expands indefinite detentions following Gaza war
Abdel Raouf Arnaout and Tarek Chouiref |24.07.2025 - TRT/AA
Israeli Knesset
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL
The Israeli Knesset (parliament) on Thursday approved the extension of a law that permits the military to detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip without filing formal charges or allowing them to meet with lawyers.
Known as the “Unlawful Combatants Law,” the measure applies to individuals arrested in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, and grants the Israeli authorities broad powers to hold them under administrative detention.
The legislation passed its second and third readings with 30 lawmakers voting in favor and six against, according to a Knesset statement. The extension brings the law into force until Dec. 31, 2025.
Under the revised provisions, authorities can continue to hold detainees for extended periods without trial, delay court reviews of their cases, and block access to legal representation for a set duration.
As of early July, Israel was holding 2,454 Palestinians from Gaza under this designation — nearly a quarter of the 10,762 Palestinians currently in Israeli custody, figures released by the Israel Prison Service showed.
Several detainees from Gaza have reportedly died in Israeli prisons due to torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Israeli and Palestinian rights groups and media reports.
Israel has killed more than 59,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL
The Israeli Knesset (parliament) on Thursday approved the extension of a law that permits the military to detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip without filing formal charges or allowing them to meet with lawyers.
Known as the “Unlawful Combatants Law,” the measure applies to individuals arrested in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, and grants the Israeli authorities broad powers to hold them under administrative detention.
The legislation passed its second and third readings with 30 lawmakers voting in favor and six against, according to a Knesset statement. The extension brings the law into force until Dec. 31, 2025.
Under the revised provisions, authorities can continue to hold detainees for extended periods without trial, delay court reviews of their cases, and block access to legal representation for a set duration.
As of early July, Israel was holding 2,454 Palestinians from Gaza under this designation — nearly a quarter of the 10,762 Palestinians currently in Israeli custody, figures released by the Israel Prison Service showed.
Several detainees from Gaza have reportedly died in Israeli prisons due to torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Israeli and Palestinian rights groups and media reports.
Israel has killed more than 59,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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