GHF contractor reveals 'horrific' details of US-Israeli 'aid traps'
At least 245 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces at GHF aid sites since the controversial plan was launched late last month
JUN 12, 2025
An anonymous US security contractor employed at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) aid sites in the Gaza Strip has slammed the entire initiative as “pure chaos,” calling it “absolutely horrific” while accusing Israeli forces of continuously firing at unarmed Palestinians.
“I thought I was signing up for an aid mission. But what I've witnessed in Gaza is horrific,” the anonymous contractor wrote in a Zeteo article published on 12 June. “I am one of hundreds of security contractors who have been in Gaza to facilitate aid under the new US-backed GHF project. And it’s all bullshit,” the contractor added.
The contractor said his group of 300 people who were deployed to Gaza were provided with machine guns and pistols, and that while some of them had a military background, others did not – stressing “no one was tested to ensure they had proper training.”
“We were later issued less lethal options: pepper spray, flashbang grenades. You guessed it: no one was tested to see if they knew how to properly use them. How close to people can you throw a flashbang? If you're going to pepper-spray someone, where do you spray? For how long? Nobody knows because nobody told us. We're talking about people who don't have access to water, and we're ready to spray them in the face with pepper spray,” he said.
The contractor also stressed that no cultural awareness training was offered.
He confirmed that on the second day after the GHF was launched, the site he operated at was completely overrun by starving Palestinian civilians. “They were never aggressive towards us,” the contractor made sure to emphasize.
After falling back a second time, the contractor confirms that his group was ordered to expel all the aid seekers from the area, and that he witnessed other contractors firing live ammunition into the air.
One even pushed a Palestinian to the ground.
“We all got in a line and began pushing these people out. We’re telling crying women trying to pick up food for their families that they had to go. They were looking at this food on the ground that they desperately needed, and they couldn’t take it. It was absolutely horrific.”
“I was later told that the Israeli military needed to clear those people out because they were going to come through. They soon showed up with tanks, as some sort of security presence, but we had pushed people out by then,” he went on to say, adding that “This idea that the Israeli military isn't involved is bullshit.”
The contractor confirmed that the Israeli military has set up offices in the GHF compounds.
While they are not directly “on-site” during the aid operations, their tanks and sniper units are just hundreds of meters away, and “You can hear them shooting all day.”
The contractor notes one specific episode where hundreds of Palestinians approaching an aid site came under Israeli artillery fire.
“Tanks fire all day long near these aid sites. Snipers fire from what used to be a hospital. Bombs and bullets fly all day long in one direction – toward Palestinians … But never any fire from the opposite direction,” he added, calling the distribution sites “aid traps.”
“The west doesn’t really want to believe the Palestinian media,” the contractor also said.
Just two days ago, at least 36 aid seekers were killed and another 208 injured by Israeli attacks on GHF sites.
A video circulating online shows Israeli artillery shelling a group of civilians on the morning of 10 June as they attempted to reach the Netzarim Corridor aid site.
Since GHF was launched on 27 May, at least 240 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed and 2,152 injured by Israeli forces at aid sites.
The Gaza Government Media office has referred to the GHF sites as “death traps.”
GHF has been repeatedly condemned by the UN and other international humanitarian groups for being designed to reinforce further displacement of the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Most of the distribution centers are located in southern Gaza, with one in the center near the Netzarim Corridor. Palestinians are forced to travel long distances under bombardment and gunfire, before being crammed into extremely tight spaces and subjected to intensive restrictions.
Meanwhile, Israel’s recent ongoing operation – dubbed Gideon’s Chariots – continues to kill dozens and displace thousands across Gaza on a daily basis.