Israel considers outsourcing humanitarian effort in Gaza to international security firms amid global criticism

After a year of global criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel is considering the use of private security contractors to oversee deliveries of aid.
Israel has significantly degraded Hamas’s military capabilities and eliminated most of its top commanders, but the militant group maintains authority across large areas of the coastal enclave due to the fact that it controls much of the aid deliveries, according to Israeli officials. The supplies are distributed to Hamas operatives or sold on the black market, inflating local prices and ensuring a critical flow of cash for the organisation, Israel says.
Some of the aid lorries have been commandeered by local clans with criminal links, Israeli officials say. Attempts by the Israeli army or by local officials to supervise the aid distribution have ended badly.
Far-right members of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition want the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to assume full responsibility for the humanitarian effort but this is seen as an attempt to turn Israel’s control of Gaza into a permanent presence. Defence minister Yoav Gallant and the IDF are opposed, wanting to avoid the possibility of soldiers being killed while distributing aid to a hostile population. Israel has also rejected a role for the Palestinian Authority.
The solution under consideration is outsourcing the humanitarian effort to international security firms.
“We aren’t coming to replace the IDF, to search for terrorists or to kill Hamas operatives,” said Moti Kahana, an American-Israeli businessman and chief executive of the US logistics firm Global Delivery Company (GDC), one of those bidding for the contract. “Our job will be to secure the humanitarian aid and to make sure that the civilians in Gaza receive it and that Hamas and criminals don’t steal it.”
Kahane says his plan, which he claims can be implemented in 30 days, would secure “humanitarian bubbles” in walled-in, protected neighbourhoods where the Israeli army has defeated any militant presence. The first pilot humanitarian bubble will be in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, close to the Erez crossing, and if successful will be repeated across the entire coastal strip.
GDC, which has worked on similar projects in Syria and Iraq, employs combat veterans from the US, Britain and France. It says if convoys come under attack its operatives will initially use non-lethal means to repel the assailants but a rapid response force will be on standby, ready to use any means necessary to secure the flow of aid.
Kahane estimates the operation would cost $200 million for six months. “We told the Americans, ‘you wasted $350 million on building a pier that sank into the sea after eight weeks’.”