by MAX BLUMENTHAL & WYATT REED
Top Israeli lawmakers have accused their government of laundering massive sums through a shadowy network of US humanitarian and mercenary orgs. The weaponized aid initiative is the linchpin of Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza by forcing the starving population into concentration camp-like hubs.
Israel’s scheme to commandeer aid distribution in Gaza ended in chaos on May 27, with Israeli soldiers reportedly opening fire on stampeding crowds of hungry Palestinians after just 8000 boxes of rations were handed out by an opaque organization calling itself the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Thousands of starved Gazans stormed the dystopian Israeli-American aid complex in west Rafah after being forced to stand in endless queues under the scorching sun inside a fenced camp, subjected to biometric surveillance.
The US-Israeli backed “Gaza Humanitarian… pic.twitter.com/DaYbaOblxb
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) May 27, 2025
Founded this February in Switzerland under a cloud of mystery, GHF serves as an umbrella for a network of private mercenary firms which Israel is using to supplant the role of the United Nations in feeding Palestinians after bringing them to the brink of starvation.
At the moment, the public has no idea who is funding the opaque aid boondoggle. A GHF spokesman told the Washington Post “the foundation has already secured $100 million from an undisclosed donor.”
Right-wing Israeli opposition figure and Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman proclaimed that GHF’s mysterious financial angel was, in fact, the Israeli government. “The money for humanitarian aid comes from the Mossad and the Ministry of Defense,” Lieberman wrote on Twitter/X, complaining, “Hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of Israeli citizens.”
Israeli opposition figure and former Deputy PM Avigdor Lieberman says the Mossad and Israeli Defense Ministry are covertly funding the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the aid boondoggle founded in Switzerland and run by a former USAID administrator with Trump admin political cover pic.twitter.com/tOWa8E6HzM
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 27, 2025
Yair Lapid, a Member of Knesset and de facto leader of Israel’s loyal opposition, has accused the Israeli government of funding two “shell companies,” pointing to GHF and the private mercenary firm, Safe Reach Solutions, which was founded by former CIA field operative Phillip Reilly. Two former US officials told the Qatari-owned outlet Middle East Eye that Reilly “had won the trust of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several Israeli businessmen close to him.”
If true, this would mean Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus is effectively laundering massive sums of money through a weaponized aid scheme that forms the linchpin of its plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza. A leaked internal GHF document acknowledged that the food distribution centers and residential compounds it was constructing in Gaza could be perceived as “‘concentration camps’ with biometrics.’”
The GHF model appears integral to Israel’s stated plan to occupy 75% of the Gaza Strip, forcing starving and homeless Palestinians into what its military has branded as “humanitarian islands” designed to “divide and rule” the decimated enclave. It is also a clear attempt at replacing UNRWA, the United Nations agency that has tended to the needs of Gaza’s refugee population since 1949, and which the Israeli Knesset designated as a terrorist organization in 2024.
GHF’s creation can be traced directly to the Israeli government’s COGAT office, which presides over the siege of Gaza, as well an Israeli entrepreneur named Liran Tancman, who was described in one report as “a reservist in the IDF’s 8200 signals intelligence unit, who called for using biometric identification systems outside the distribution hubs to vet Palestinian civilians.”
The Gray Zone for more