Two US aid workers wounded in Gaza ‘attack': GHF
'This morning, two American aid workers were injured in a targeted terrorist attack during food distribution activities at SDS-3 in Khan Younis,' the organization said, adding that reports indicated it was carried out by 'two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans.'
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Arab News
18 hours ago
- Arab News
Why BCG's involvement in Gaza marks an all-time low for consulting firms
LONDON: A Financial Times investigation, published on July 4, found that a consulting firm connected to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation secured a multimillion-dollar contract to help shape the initiative and a proposal for the possible 'relocation' of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The Boston Consulting Group was found to have played a central role in designing and managing the US- and Israeli-backed project, which aimed to replace the UN as the primary coordinator of humanitarian aid in Gaza. Amid growing criticism, BCG denied any ongoing involvement in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. In a June 7 statement, the firm said it initially provided 'pro bono support' in October 2024 to help launch 'an aid organization intended to operate alongside other relief efforts.' The firm said two senior US-based partners who led the initiative 'failed to disclose the full nature of the work' and later engaged in 'unauthorized' activities outside the firm's oversight. 'Their actions reflected a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards,' the firm said. 'We are shocked and outraged by the actions of these two partners. They have been exited from the firm. 'BCG disavows the work they undertook. It has been stopped, and BCG has not and will not be paid for any of their work.' The company emphasized it is strengthening internal controls to prevent future breaches. 'We deeply regret that in this situation we did not live up to our standards,' the statement said. 'We are committed to accountability for our failures and humility in how we move forward.' • A Financial Times investigation examined BCG's role in Gaza aid planning, including controversial proposals for Palestinian relocation. • BCG disavowed the work and fired two senior partners, but documents suggest deeper involvement and lapses in internal oversight. • The scandal underscores wider concerns about consulting firms' ethics, with similar controversies involving PwC, KPMG, EY and McKinsey. Following the FT story, BCG issued another statement on July 6 disputing aspects of the reporting. 'Recent media reporting has misrepresented BCG's role in post-war Gaza reconstruction,' the firm said. BCG reiterated that the initiative was not an official company project and was carried out in secret. 'Two former partners initiated this work, even though the lead partner was categorically told not to,' the statement read. 'This work was not a BCG project. It was orchestrated and run secretly outside any BCG scope or approvals. We fully disavow this work. BCG was not paid for any of this work.' However, individuals familiar with 'Aurora' told the FT that BCG's involvement ran deeper. The report revealed that BCG created a financial model for Gaza's postwar reconstruction that included scenarios for mass displacement. This revelation intensified scrutiny of the consulting industry's ethical boundaries. 'Consulting companies… are held to a higher standard of professionalism and ethics than other lines of work,' Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, wrote in an April opinion piece for Arab News. He warned that without corrective action, major firms risk alienating clients. Indeed, in recent years, top consulting firms like McKinsey, PwC, KPMG, and EY have faced growing scrutiny for putting profit over ethics, with scandals revealing conduct lapses worldwide. McKinsey, for instance, faced heavy backlash for its role in the US opioid crisis. The firm was accused of helping Purdue Pharma and other manufacturers to aggressively market addictive painkillers, including OxyContin, The New York Times reported. Aluwaisheg noted in his op-ed that some of these ethical lapses 'are quite common throughout the consulting business.' However, he added, 'big firms are more likely to commit them,' citing sprawling operations that limit senior management oversight. The industry's core business model may be the issue: consulting firms adopted law firms' high-fee model for expert advice — without their legal liability. Despite this, demand for consulting services remains high. Aluwaisheg believes governments and businesses will continue to need outside expertise. Still, accountability concerns have prompted some governments to take action. In February, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund banned PwC from taking on new advisory and consulting contracts for one year. Some media outlets reported that the decision was related to an ethical violation tied to an alleged recruitment of a senior-level employee from the client's side. The suspension did not impact PwC's auditing work. These events highlight ongoing concerns over consulting firms' roles in controversial actions. In April 2024, KPMG's Dutch arm was fined $25 million after over 500 staff cheated on internal training exams, Reuters reported. Yet the BCG case may represent a new low for the industry. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's model bypassed traditional organizations like the UN, restricted aid distribution to limited sites under Israeli oversight and relied on private security contractors. This move has had deadly consequences. According to Gaza's health authority, at least 740 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,900 injured while attempting to reach aid centers, drawing condemnation from humanitarian organizations and UN officials. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher called the initiative a 'fig leaf for further violence and displacement' of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. In a July 10 letter to the FT editor, BCG's CEO Christoph Schweizer pushed back against the allegations that his firm endorsed or profited from projects related to Gaza. 'None of that is true,' Schweizer wrote, adding that 'a few people from BCG were involved in such work. They never should have been.' Adding another layer to the controversy, FT reported on July 6 that staff from the Tony Blair Institute were also implicated in postwar planning that included scenarios for mass Palestinian displacement — despite being prominent advocates for peace in the Middle East. The plan, seen by the FT, imagined Gaza as a regional economic hub, complete with a 'Trump Riviera' and 'Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone,' based on financial models developed by BCG. While the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change denied authoring 'The Great Trust' blueprint, it acknowledged two staff joined Gaza planning calls and chats. It also denied backing population relocation. Arab News approached the TBI for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. Nevertheless, its involvement has triggered additional concerns about the ethics of postwar reconstruction planning and the role of consulting firms in shaping policies with far-reaching humanitarian consequences.
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
A Father Mourns 2 Sons Killed in an Israeli Strike as Hunger Worsens in Gaza
Three brothers in the Gaza Strip woke up early to run to a local clinic to get 'sweets,' their word for the emergency food supplements distributed by aid groups. By the time their father woke up, two of the brothers had been fatally wounded by an Israeli strike and the third had lost an eye. The strike outside the clinic on Thursday in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 14 people, including nine children, according to a local hospital, which had initially reported 10 children killed but later said one had died in a separate incident. The Israeli military said it targeted a gunman it said had taken part in the Hamas attack that ignited the 21-month war. Security camera footage appeared to show two young men targeted as they walked past the clinic where several people were squatting outside. Hatem Al-Nouri's four-year-old son, Amir, was killed immediately. His eight-year-old son, Omar, was still breathing when he reached the hospital but died shortly thereafter. He said that at first he didn't recognize his third son, two-year-old Siraj, because his eye had been torn out. 'What did these children do to deserve this?' the father said as he broke into tears. 'They were dreaming of having a loaf of bread.' Violence in the West Bank In a separate development, Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. It said Seifeddin Musalat, 23, was beaten to death and Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest in the village of Sinjil near the city of Ramallah. Both were 23. The military said Palestinians had hurled rocks at Israelis in the area earlier on Friday, lightly wounding two people. That set off a larger confrontation that included 'vandalism of Palestinian property, arson, physical clashes, and rock hurling,' the army said. It said troops had dispersed the crowds, without saying if anyone was arrested. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence, which has spiked — along with Palestinian attacks and Israeli military raids — since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. 'Sharp and unprecedented' rise in malnutrition Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks while trying to get food, according to local health officials. Experts say hunger is widespread among the territory's 2 million Palestinians and that Israel's blockade and military offensive have put them at risk of famine. The deputy director of the World Food Program said Friday that humanitarian needs and constraints on the UN's ability to provide aid are worse than he's ever seen, saying 'starvation is spreading' and one in three people are going for days without eating. Carl Skau told UN reporters in New York that on a visit to Gaza last week he didn't see any markets, only small amounts of potatoes being sold on a few street corners in Gaza City. He was told that a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour now costs over $25. The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said it has recorded a 'sharp and unprecedented rise" in acute malnutrition at two clinics it operates in Gaza, with more than 700 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and nearly 500 children, receiving outpatient therapeutic food. 'Our neonatal intensive care unit is severely overcrowded, with four to five babies sharing a single incubator," Dr. Joanne Perry, a physician with the group, said in a statement. 'This is my third time in Gaza, and I've never seen anything like this. Mothers are asking me for food for their children, pregnant women who are six months along often weigh no more than 40 kilograms (88 pounds).' The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza says it is allowing enough food to enter and blames the UN and other aid groups for not promptly distributing it. Risking their lives for food Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its offensive in March. It eased a 2 1/2 month blockade in May, but the UN and aid groups say they are struggling to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting. A separate aid mechanism built around an American group backed by Israel has Palestinians running a deadly gantlet to reach its sites. Witnesses and health officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward the distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner. The Israeli- and US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denies there has been any violence in or around its sites. But two of its contractors told The Associated Press that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations denied by the foundation. The UN Human Rights Office said Thursday that it has recorded 798 killings near Gaza aid sites in a little over a month leading up to July 7. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the office, said 615 were killed 'in the vicinity of the GHF sites" and the remainder on convoy routes used by other aid groups. A GHF spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the group's policies, rejected the 'false and misleading stats," saying most of the deaths were linked to shootings near UN convoys, which pass by Israeli army positions and have been attacked by armed gangs and unloaded by crowds. Israel has long accused UN bodies of being biased against it. No ceasefire after two days of Trump-Netanyahu talks Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza's Hamas-run government, doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties. US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But there were no signs of a breakthrough this week after two days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Aware of Reported Death of American after Beating by Israeli Settlers
The US State Department said on Friday it was aware of the reported death of a US citizen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after reports emerged of Israeli settlers fatally beating a Palestinian American. Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing the local health ministry, said Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Musallat, aged in his 20s, died after he was beaten by Israeli settlers on Friday evening in an attack that also injured many people in a town north of Ramallah. Relatives of Musallat, who was from Tampa, Florida, were also quoted by the Washington Post as saying he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers. "We are aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the West Bank," a State Department spokesperson said, adding the department had no further comment "out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones" of the reported victim. The Israeli military said Israel was probing the incident in the town of Sinjil. It said rocks were hurled at Israelis near Sinjil and that "a violent confrontation developed in the area", reported Reuters. Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the state of Israel in breach of international law, the UN human rights office said in March. Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids, has intensified since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in late 2023. Israel's military offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza's health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations and says it is fighting in self-defense after the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israeli killings of US citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. The United Nations' highest court said last year Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
