Umer Bin AjmalWhen a United States charter airline Omni Air’s Boeing 777 touched down at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on May 18, few expected the ensuing scene would capture such attention.
Images soon surfaced of “several hundred American vets” disembarking—a wave of personnel that aviation observers like Avi Scharf noted had arrived via a typical US military charter route: Washington, DC to Sofia, then on to Israel.
The aircraft and logistics bore hallmarks of a military mission, but this operation was dressed in humanitarian garb.
What those veterans had arrived for is now emerging: a controversial aid initiative in Gaza coordinated not by the UN or Red Cross, but by a new, privately-run humanitarian foundation operating under a cloud of secrecy, and guarded by American private military contractors.
And each one of these contractors is getting a compensation of $1,100 per day plus a $10,000 signing bonus during the recent ceasefire, Haaretz and Reuters reported.
Hundreds of Palestinian children have died in Gaza due to starvation as Israel continues to block easy access to aid to the enclave that has been flattened by Israeli bombings.
The aid boxes that would be distributed contain things like sugar, rice, instant noodles, and canned food—just enough for a person to carry in their hands.
“The contents of the box, in normal times before the genocide, would cost less than $40. This makes it impossible to justify the reported $1,100 daily cost per contractor,” says Mohammed AbuNasser, a Palestinian journalist.
“Instead of outsourcing at such inflated rates, they could simply allow international aid organisations to carry out their work effectively,” he tells TRT World.
Two little-known US firms, Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) and UG Solutions, have been contracted to provide security and logistical support to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a freshly-minted NGO with no prior track record in relief work.
While officially tasked with overseeing aid delivery, these contractors are reportedly engaging in activities far beyond mere logistics, raising alarms among international observers and rights groups.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, set up in February, has been highly criticised by the UN, whose officials have said its aid distribution plan would only foment forced relocation of Palestinians.
Humanitarians or spies?
Leaked internal communications reported by Ynet News suggest that SRS is involved in surveillance and intelligence operations within Gaza.
These tasks allegedly include running checkpoints, analysing drone and satellite imagery, and identifying armed actors—roles that suggest close collaboration with the Israeli military.
Yet SRS reportedly lacks its own intelligence infrastructure and is instead expected to rely on data supplied by Israeli forces.
These revelations come as the GHF, which launched operations in Gaza on Monday, faces sharp criticism for its opaque mandate and political alignment.
Backed by the US and Israel and formed only months earlier in February, the foundation has drawn fire from the United Nations for undermining existing humanitarian efforts and enabling further displacement of Palestinians.
Under this plan, aid would be channelled solely through Israel-designated “secure distribution zones” located in southern Gaza, squeezing Palestinians into a narrow territory and forcing them to travel unrealistically long distances to receive aid packages.
Critics argue the setup is engineered to encourage population transfer from north to south, a policy human rights groups warn could amount to forced relocation.
The plan is so shady that even Jake Wood, who was serving as the GHF’s executive director for the past two months, resigned on Sunday, saying he could not “abandon principles of humanity, impartiality, and independence”.
Shrouded in secrecy
According to The New York Times, the idea for a parallel Gaza aid system emerged in late 2023 from a circle of Israeli businessmen, security officials, and government aides.
The plan sought to weaken Hamas’s influence by bypassing traditional aid conduits like the UN and deploying private contractors in areas under Israeli control.
Among its architects: venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg, former Israeli military adviser Yotam HaCohen, and tech entrepreneur Liran Tancman. They envisioned a system to manage Gaza’s humanitarian crisis while avoiding the optics of direct occupation.
The firms behind the curtain
The SRS, one of the lead contractors, was quietly incorporated in late 2023 and publicly launched in January 2025.
According to Haaretz, the SRS played a key role in operational planning for the Netzarim Corridor, a militarised route linking northern and southern Gaza, during a temporary ceasefire earlier this year.
Its origins and financial backers remain opaque, though investigative journalist Jack Poulson has linked it to Two Ocean Trust LLC, a wealth management firm in Wyoming, US.
SRS is led by Phil Reilly, a former CIA paramilitary officer and US Army Special Forces veteran whose past includes the hunt for Osama bin Laden, under the team codenamed ‘Jawbreaker’—recently profiled in a Netflix documentary.
A leaked message from an SRS staffer described the company’s culture as akin to a tech startup, despite its high-stakes mission.
The firm has ramped up recruitment for roles like “Humanitarian Liaison Officers” and “Team Deputies”.
Job listings posted on LinkedIn seek professionals with seven or more years of experience in humanitarian or military operations, ideally Arabic-speaking US citizens with UN or NGO backgrounds, the same institutions GHF is bypassing.
Despite its low profile, interest appears high. One position reportedly drew over 100 applicants in two weeks. Yet the recruiter named “Ali Ali” has no visible online presence, and some listings have vanished without explanation.
SRS is joined in Gaza by UG Solutions, a North Carolina-based security company founded by Jameson Govoni, a former Green Beret who once helped design surveillance programmes for US special operations forces.
Govoni’s resume includes a stint running a hangover remedy startup called Alcohol Armor. In a now-deleted video, he once said: “I joined the army as fast as I possibly could to inflict pain on the people who inflicted pain on us.”
Starvation in Gaza is devastating children’s bodies and minds, with severe malnutrition halting growth, weakening immunity, and causing psychological trauma.
UN out, private sector in
The GHF, for which both SRS and UG Solutions work, describes itself as an independent non-profit.
But critics contend it is a vehicle for US and Israeli strategic interests.
The aid plan it supports excludes experienced international bodies and instead leans heavily on private firms with military pedigrees and limited humanitarian credibility.
And with operations confined to Israeli-defined “secure zones” in southern Gaza, the UN is raising fear that the new aid system is reinforcing displacement rather than mitigating it.
As aid trucks roll into Gaza flanked by American contractors, the broader consequences remain murky.
But what’s becoming clearer is that behind this new model of humanitarian relief lies a complex, secretive network of military veterans, intelligence operatives, and profit-driven firms, blurring the line between charity and covert operation.
