Two US contractors describe chaos and gunfire as Palestinians seek food in Gaza | AP News
BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) — American contractors guarding aid
distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as
hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos
obtained by The Associated Press.
Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of
anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations,
said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they
considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. They said the security staff
hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an
open license to do whatever they wished.
They said their colleagues regularly lobbed stun grenades
and pepper spray in the direction of the Palestinians. One contractor said
bullets were fired in all directions — in the air, into the ground and at times
toward the Palestinians, recalling at least one instance where he thought
someone had been hit.
“There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,”
the contractor said.
He said American staff on the sites monitor those coming to
seek food and document anyone considered “suspicious.” He said they share such
information with the Israeli military.
Videos provided by one of the contractors and taken at the
sites show hundreds of Palestinians crowded between metal gates, jostling for
aid amid the sound of bullets, stun grenades and the sting of pepper spray.
Other videos include conversation between English-speaking men discussing how
to disperse crowds and encouraging each other after bursts of gunfire.
The testimonies from the contractors — combined with the
videos, internal reports and text messages obtained by the AP — offer a rare
glimpse inside the
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American
organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population. Last month,
the U.S. government pledged $30 million for the group to continue operations —
the first known U.S. donation to the group, whose other funding sources remain
opaque.
Journalists have been unable to access the GHF sites, located
in Israeli military-controlled zones. The AP cannot independently
verify the contractors’ stories.
A spokesperson for Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics
company subcontracted by GHF, told the AP that there have been no serious
injuries at any of their sites to date. In scattered incidents, security
professionals fired live rounds into the ground and away from civilians to get
their attention. That happened in the early days at the “the height of
desperation where crowd control measures were necessary for the safety and
security of civilians,” the spokesperson said.
Aid operation is controversial
Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians are living through a
catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,
setting off the 21-month war, Israel has bombarded and laid siege to the strip,
leaving many teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security
experts.
For 2 1/2 months before GHF’s opening in May, Israel blocked
all food, water and medicine from entering Gaza, claiming Hamas was stealing
the aid being transported under a preexisting system coordinated by the United
Nations. It now wants GHF to replace that U.N. system. The U.N. says its Gaza
aid operations do not involve armed guards.
Over 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the
war erupted, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not
distinguish between civilians and militants.
GHF is an American organization, registered in Delaware and
established in February to distribute humanitarian aid during the ongoing Gaza
humanitarian crisis. Since the GHF sites began operating more than a month ago,
Palestinians say Israeli troops open fire almost every day toward crowds on
roads heading to the distribution points, through Israeli military zones.
Several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded, according to
Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses.
In response, Israel’s military says it fires only warning
shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm. It denies deliberately
shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce
“friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution
centers.
AP’s reporting for this article focuses on what is happening
at the sites themselves. Palestinians arriving at the sites say they are caught
between Israeli and American fire, said the contractor who shared videos with
the AP.
“We have come here to get food for our families. We have
nothing,” he recounted Palestinians telling him. “Why does the (Israeli) army
shoot at us? Why do you shoot at us?”
A spokesperson for the GHF said there are people with a
“vested interest” in seeing it fail and are willing to do or say almost
anything to make that happen. The spokesperson said the team is composed of
seasoned humanitarian, logistics and security professionals with deep
experience on the ground. The group says it has distributed the equivalent of
more than 50 million meals in Gaza in its food boxes of staples.
GHF says that it has consistently shown compassionate
engagement with the people of Gaza.
Throughout the war, aid distribution has been marred by
chaos. Gangs have looted trucks of aid traveling to distribution centers and
mobs of desperate people have also offloaded trucks before they’ve reached
their destination. Earlier this month, at
least 51 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 wounded while
waiting for the U.N. and commercial trucks to enter the territory, according to
Gaza’s Health Ministry and a local hospital. Israel’s military acknowledged
several casualties as soldiers opened fire on the approaching crowd and said
authorities would investigate.
Videos, texts, internal reports document havoc at food
sites
AP spoke to the two contractors for UG Solutions, an
American outfit subcontracted to hire security personnel for the distribution
sites. They said bullets, stun grenades and pepper spray were used at nearly
every distribution, even if there was no threat.
Videos of aid being dispensed at the sites seen by the AP
appear to back up the frenetic scenes the contractors described. The footage
was taken within the first two weeks of its distributions — about halfway into
the operations.
In one video, what appear to be heavily armed American
security contractors at one of the sites in Gaza discuss how to disperse
Palestinians nearby. One is heard saying he has arranged for a “show of force”
by Israeli tanks.
“I don’t want this to be too aggressive,” he adds, “because
this is calming down.”
At that moment, bursts of gunfire erupt close by, at least
15 shots. “Whoo! Whoo!” one contractor yelps.
“I think you hit one,” one says.
Then comes a shout: “Hell, yeah, boy!”
The camera’s view is obscured by a large dirt mound.
The contractor who took the video told AP that he saw other
contractors shooting in the direction of Palestinians who had just collected
their food and were departing. The men shot both from a tower above the site
and from atop the mound, he said. The shooting began because contractors wanted
to disperse the crowd, he said, but it was unclear why they continued shooting
as people were walking away.
The camera does not show who was shooting or what was being
shot at. But the contractor who filmed it said he watched another contractor
fire at the Palestinians and then saw a man about 60 yards (meters) away — in
the same direction where the bullets were fired — drop to the ground.
This happened at the same time the men were heard talking —
effectively egging each other on, he said.
In other videos furnished by the contractor, men in grey
uniforms — colleagues, he said — can be seen trying to clear Palestinians who
are squeezed into a narrow, fenced-in passage leading to one of the centers.
The men fire pepper spray and throw stun grenades that detonate amid the crowd.
The sound of gunfire can be heard. The contractor who took the video said the
security personnel usually fire at the ground near the crowds or from nearby
towers over their heads.
During a single distribution in June, contractors used 37
stun grenades, 27 rubber-and-smoke “scat shell” projectiles and 60 cans of
pepper spray, according to internal text communications shared with the AP.
That count does not include live ammunition, the contractor
who provided the videos said.
One photo shared by that contractor shows a woman lying in a
donkey cart after he said she was hit in the head with part of a stun grenade.
This photo, provided by an American contractor on condition
of anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations,
shows a woman slumped over in a donkey cart after the contractor said she was
hit in the head with part of a stun grenade at a food distribution site in Gaza
run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in June 2025. (AP Photo)
An internal report by Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics
company subcontracted by GHF to run the sites, found that aid seekers were
injured during 31% of the distributions that took place in a two-week period in
June. The report did not specify the number of injuries or the cause. SRS told
the AP the report refers to non-serious injuries.
More videos show frenzied scenes of Palestinians running to
collect leftover food boxes at one site. Hundreds of young men crowd near low
metal barriers, transferring food from boxes to bags while contractors on the
other side of the barriers tell them to stay back.
Some Palestinians wince and cough from pepper spray. “You
tasting that pepper spray? Yuck,” one man close to the camera can be heard
saying in English.
SRS acknowledged that it’s dealing with large, hungry
populations, but said the environment is secure, controlled, and ensures people
can get the aid they need safely.
Verifying the videos with audio analysis
To confirm the footage is from the sites, AP geolocated the
videos using aerial imagery. The AP also had the videos analyzed by two audio
forensic experts who said they could identify live ammunition — including
machine-gun fire — coming from the sites, in most cases within 50 to 60 meters
of the camera’s microphone.
In the video where the men are heard egging each other on,
the echo and acoustics of the shots indicate they’re fired from a position
close to the microphone, said Rob Maher, a professor of electrical and computer
engineering at Montana State University and an author and research expert in
audio forensic analysis. Maher and the other analyst, Steven Beck, owner of
Beck Audio Forensics, said there was no indication that the videos’ audio had
been tampered with.
The analysts said that the bursts of gunfire and the pop
sequences in some of the videos indicated that guns were panning in different
directions and were not repeatedly aimed at a single target. They could not
pinpoint exactly where the shots were coming from nor who was shooting.
GHF says the Israeli military is not deployed at the aid
distribution sites. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said the army
is not stationed at the sites or within their immediate proximity, especially
during operating hours. He said they’re run by an American company and have
their own security.
One of the contractors who had been on the sites said he’d
never felt a real or perceived threat by Hamas there.
SRS says that Hamas has openly threatened its aid workers
and civilians receiving aid. It did not specify where people were threatened.
Palestinians carry boxes containing food and humanitarian
aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed
organization approved by Israel, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May
27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana,File)
American analysts and Israeli soldiers work side by side,
contractors say
According to the contractor who took the videos, the Israeli
army is leveraging the distribution system to access information.
Both contractors said that cameras monitor distributions at
each site and that American analysts and Israeli soldiers sit in a control room
where the footage is screened in real time. The control room, they said, is
housed in a shipping container on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing
into Gaza.
The contractor who took the videos said some cameras are
equipped with facial recognition software. In live shots of the sites seen by
the AP, some videos streams are labeled “analytics” — those were the ones that
had the facial recognition software, said the contractor.
If a person of interest is seen on camera — and their
information is already in the system — their name and age pops up on the
computer screen, said the contractor. Israeli soldiers watching the screens
take notes and cross-check the analysts’ information with their own drone
footage from the sites, he said.
The contractor said he did not know the source of the data
in the facial recognition system. The AP could not independently verify his
information.
An internal SRS report from June seen by the AP said that
its intel team would circulate to staff a “POI Mugs Card,” that showed photos
of Palestinians taken at the sites who were deemed persons of interest.
The contractor said he and other staff were told by SRS to
photograph anyone who looked “out of place.” But the criteria were not
specified, he said. The contractor said the photos were also added to the
facial recognition database. He did not know what was done with the
information.
SRS said accusations that it gathers intelligence are false
and that it has never used biometrics. It said it coordinates movements with
Israeli authorities, a requirement for any aid group in Gaza.
An Israeli security official who was not named in line with
the army’s protocol, said there are no security screening systems developed or
operated by the army within the aid sites.
It was a rushed rollout, the contractors say
The several hundred contractors hired by UG Solutions landed
in Israel in mid-May, not long before the first GHF site opened on May 26.
The rollout was jumbled and lacked leadership, the two
contractors told the AP. Some of the men had been recruited only days prior via
email asking if they wanted to work in Gaza. Many had no combat experience and
were not properly trained in offensive weapons, they said.
SRS did not provide the staff with draft rules of engagement
until three days after distributions started, they said. The draft rules, seen
by the AP, say deadly force may be used only under extreme necessity and
non-lethal weapons may be used in an extreme situation on unarmed individuals
who are physically violent.
The Palestinians seen in the videos don’t appear to be
physically aggressive. SRS says there have been occasional altercations at the
sites between aid seekers, but none have involved its staff.
Each contractor was equipped with a pistol, stun grenades,
tear gas and an Israeli-made automatic rifle capable of firing dozens of rounds
within seconds, said the contractor who took the videos.
In an email from May shared with the AP by a third party,
one high-ranking contractor wrote to the head of UG Solutions and called the
operation “amateur hour.” He wrote that the sites did not have enough staff or
resources making them “not sustainable” and “not safe,” according to the email,
seen by the AP.
The two contractors said none of the men in Israel working
for UG Solutions were tested to see if they could handle a gun safely. One said
the rushed rollout also meant not everyone could “zero” their weapon — adjust
it to one’s personal specifications to ensure proper aim. Military experts say
not zeroing a weapon poses a significant risk.
A spokesperson for UG Solutions, Drew O’Brien, said UG has
an extensive recruiting and training process, including “a detailed application
process, screening by experts, reference checks, background checks and weapons
proficiency.” The group said it prides itself on repeated quality control
checks once missions are underway.
O’Brien said the group was unaware of video showing gunfire
from someone believed to be a UG Solutions contractor. He said he couldn’t
comment on the allegations without seeing the videos.
The two contractors warned that if the organization
continues as is, more lives will be at risk. “If operations continue in this
manner, innocent aid seekers will continue to be needlessly injured,” said the
contractor who took the videos. “And possibly killed.”
___
Associated Press reporter Josef Federman contributed.
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