With over half a million people in Gaza on the brink of starvation and aid groups warning of an “imminent famine,” Israel has agreed to allow a token number of relief trucks into the besieged enclave. But what’s entering Gaza now isn’t humanitarian aid, it’s a Trojan horse.

A new, U.S.-backed private aid scheme staffed by former CIA operatives, ex-Marines, and mercenaries tied to Israeli intelligence and Wall Street elites has been deployed in Gaza under the guise of relief. The project is led by a shady NGO registered in Switzerland just months ago, and human rights groups are calling it what it is: a hostile corporate takeover of the aid sector, designed to militarize relief, displace civilians, and profit from Gaza’s agony.

At the heart of this scheme is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a nonprofit created in February and backed by Israeli authorities. Despite Gaza requiring a minimum of 500 aid trucks per day to meet basic survival needs, the Israeli military allowed just 1% of that to enter this week.

GHF, which now controls the operation, was launched by individuals with no background in humanitarian work—David Papazian, formerly with the Armenian National Interests Fund; Samuel Marcel Henderson; and David Kohler. They are corporate executives, not aid workers.

According to a leaked internal proposal circulated in May, GHF plans to establish four “secure distribution sites” in Gaza capable of feeding just a fraction of the population (300,000 people), while giving the Israeli military and its contractors full operational oversight.

This privatized model was fast-tracked with Israeli cabinet approval and immediately condemned by Amnesty International’s Swiss branch, which called it an attempt to “militarize the distribution of humanitarian aid” and warned that the planned distribution sites resembled Israel’s “safe zone” blueprint for ethnic cleansing.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said GHF threatened the UN with expulsion if it refused to cooperate. “They’re coming to take over, weaponizing aid,” Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

A U.S. government source speaking to France 24 called the project “very much an Israeli idea,” adding that it was “less secure” and “deadlier” than the Biden administration’s failed floating aid pier, a costly boondoggle ultimately used to support an Israeli military operation that slaughtered nearly 300 Palestinian civilians.

GHF’s newly appointed executive director is Jake Wood, a former U.S. Marine sniper turned disaster entrepreneur. After tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Wood founded Team Rubicon, an NGO that made its name in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.

But Team Rubicon is no ordinary aid group. It is closely partnered with Palantir Technologies—a CIA-backed data surveillance firm that equips the Israeli military with advanced targeting capabilities. Its board includes former CIA Director David Petraeus and financial backers from Goldman Sachs. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have publicly endorsed its work.

The GHF proposal reveals plans to work with both Truist Bank and JPMorgan Chase, and suggests Goldman Sachs is facilitating the organization’s financial infrastructure.

As for security, GHF is outsourcing protection of its aid zones to U.S.-based private military firms, some of which have direct ties to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. Two firms are already confirmed.

One, Safe Reach Solutions, is run by Philip F. Reilly, a former CIA paramilitary chief who also worked for Constellis, the rebranded face of Blackwater. While Erik Prince, Blackwater’s notorious founder, has not been directly linked to GHF, his newer mercenary firm, Reflex Responses, was previously proposed to secure Gaza’s Rafah crossing.

The second firm, UG Solutions, hired approximately 100 former special forces soldiers earlier this year to perform vehicle inspections in Gaza. They were reportedly paid $1,000 per day with a $10,000 upfront bonus. UG Solutions is headed by Jameson Govoni, a former special ops operative and co-founder of the Sentinel Foundation.

These contractors were also reportedly involved in staffing the Netzarim corridor, a road that bisects Gaza, during a recent ceasefire. Their presence on the ground—and the opacity around their funding—marks a new phase in the U.S. and Israeli campaign to dominate Gaza not just by bombs, but through control of the most basic elements of life: food, water, and movement.

Even Israel’s closest regional ally, the United Arab Emirates, has refused to participate in the project, likely due to the plan’s political toxicity.

This scheme doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For years, the U.S. and Israel have worked to undermine UNRWA, the UN’s primary aid agency in Palestine. The Biden administration froze its funding, while Israel moved to outlaw the agency entirely. In the vacuum, GHF and its army of private contractors have emerged—not to serve Palestinians, but to manage their displacement more efficiently.

With American taxpayer dollars flowing into the hands of former intelligence agents, globalist financiers, and mercenaries, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation represents the convergence of Silicon Valley surveillance, Wall Street speculation, and Zionist military objectives.

Editor’s note | An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified David Kohler, mentioned in relation to Gaza relief efforts, as the CEO of Kohler Co. This was a sourcing error; the individual referenced is not affiliated with Kohler Co. The article has been updated to reflect this correction. We regret the error.

Feature photo | A Palestinian mother holds her starving child in Gaza as famine deepens under Israeli siege. NurPhoto | 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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