Two private security firms registered in the U.S. have been contracted to oversee operations in the Netzarim Corridor, a checkpoint separating northern and southern Gaza. The Guardian identified one of them, UG Solutions, as actively recruiting nearly 100 former U.S. special forces soldiers to carry out vehicle inspections on Gazan refugees returning to their homes in northern Gaza. Founded in 2023, the North Carolina-based company has maintained an intentionally low profile, with little public information available about its leadership or history.

Even more opaque is Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), a logistics and strategic planning firm supposedly headquartered in Wyoming. Its website lacks any identifiable personnel, past projects, or concrete details about its work. An investigation would later reveal that the company is, in fact, a front for a generational wealth management firm.

This marks the first time in decades that U.S. private security firms have operated inside Gaza in any official capacity. Yet, according to Axios, more private contractors may soon be headed to occupied Palestine. In early January, before the signing of the Gaza-Israel ceasefire and prisoner-exchange agreement, reports surfaced that the United Arab Emirates had been quietly hosting secret negotiations on a post-war governance plan for Gaza. Among the proposals under consideration was the deployment of private security contractors as a “peacekeeping force” inside the territory—an idea that while not officially adopted, shows that regional actors are willing to consider privatized solutions to one of the most politically charged conflicts in modern history.

Private Military Security Companies (PMSCs) US Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions are said to begin operations in #Gaza tomorrow. As part of the #ceasefire agreement, they are to screen returning Palestinians forcibly transferred by #Israel since October 2023. A reminder that the… pic.twitter.com/KTG0Lfo0Ls

— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) January 25, 2025

Israel’s outsourcing of military duties to foreign private companies is not new. In December of 2023, Spain’s El Mundo published an investigative report featuring an interview with a Spanish mercenary serving in the Israeli army. His account provided compelling evidence that Tel Aviv had been operating a small, privatized force in Gaza, offering foreign combatants approximately $4,300 per week to take part in the war.

On July 15, 2024, Prince took the stage at a Heritage Foundation event in Wisconsin, where he delivered a startling admission. “I provided the Israelis a fully-funded, donated ability to flood Gaza with sea water [sic].” Prince’s enthusiasm for Tel Aviv’s war extended well beyond logistics. In the debut episode of his podcast, “Off-Leash,” he seized the opportunity to pitch his supposedly ultra-secure smartphone to Israeli audiences. Prince has also used “Off-Leash” to advocate for the recolonization of Africa and Latin America, declaring, “It’s time for us to just put the imperial hat back on, to say, we’re going to govern those countries.”

Last May, a private WhatsApp group run by Erik Prince, named after his podcast, was revealed to include some 400 members—among them right-wing media figures, current and former government officials, and private mercenaries. Within the chat, Prince’s business partner at Unplugged, Michael Yudelson, suggested using chemical munitions indiscriminately to destroy Hamas’s tunnel network in Gaza. “I would burn all those bastards, and have everything above ground, everything left of Gaza, collapse into this fiery hell pit and burn!”

Prince launched his podcast Off-Leash two months after October 7, 2023, with Gaza quickly becoming one of its dominant themes—both in his public discussions and within his private Off-Leash WhatsApp group. Notably, the chat’s most represented foreign nationality was Israeli, followed by Emirati and British.

This comes as little surprise given Prince’s well-documented business ties to Israel. In 2017, Haaretz reported that he had maintained a close relationship with Ari Harow, the disgraced former chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More recently, in December 2023, The Times of London revealed that Prince had been actively attempting to sell the Israeli military technology designed to flood Gaza’s tunnel network.

Prince’s involvement in Gaza’s post-war security extends beyond mere speculation. In May 2024, following Israel’s takeover of the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza, Israeli media began discussing the use of private military contractors to control the border. The Times of Israel reported that negotiations were underway with an unnamed firm specializing in securing strategic sites across Africa and the Middle East. The report’s author claimed that both Israel and the United States were prepared to assist the company. Days later, Al-Mayadeen identified the firm as Prince’s Reflex Responses (R2).

By October, discussions had evolved into a broader proposal for post-war governance in Gaza. Israeli officials toyed with the idea of hiring a private military force to control the territory, with Global Delivery Company (GDC)—a U.S.-Israeli security and logistics firm led by Moti Kahana—emerging as the leading candidate. According to Israeli media, GDC presented Tel Aviv with a proposal to “neutralize” Hamas rule in Gaza.

Kahana has also publicly claimed involvement in Prince’s efforts to transfer tunnel-flooding technology to Israel. He maintains, however, that Prince offered the equipment for the operation as a donation rather than seeking to profit from the deal. Notably, among GDC’s former employees and a member of Prince’s Off Leash WhatsApp group is Stuart Seldowitz, a former Obama-era National Security Council official who gained notoriety last year for a widely publicized Islamophobic tirade on a New York hot dog vendor.

Stuart Seldowitz was Deputy Director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003.

He seems nice.pic.twitter.com/nWSrpMIZeB

— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) November 21, 2023

Israel has also explored the use of private security firms to manage the delivery of humanitarian aid brought into Gaza from other countries—discussions that coincided with a vote in the Israeli Knesset to ban the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). That ban has now taken full effect. Meanwhile, the U.S. has withheld funding from the agency since 2024 following unsubstantiated Israeli allegations that UNRWA staff were working with Hamas. President Biden quickly codified the Israeli decision into U.S. law, prohibiting American funding to the agency until at least March 2025.

For Prince, the possibility of returning to U.S. military contracting has never faded. Despite his ousting from mainstream defense work after the 2007 Nisour Square massacre—in which Blackwater operatives killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad—he has remained persistent in seeking new opportunities. The Trump administration, in its final weeks, issued pardons for the Blackwater operatives convicted in the massacre, reportedly at the request of Trump’s incoming Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

While there is no direct indication that Prince will secure a foothold in Gaza, the larger pattern is clear. Israel and the U.S. are increasingly turning to private military forces to operate in the region. The implications are uncertain, but the involvement of mercenaries raises the risk of entanglements that could ultimately draw the U.S. military into yet another prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

Feature photo | Palestinians walk in the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Feb. 6, 2025. Abdel Kareem Hana | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe.’ Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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