US contractor says team ordered pizza to Gaza due to food distribution failure

Roya News

6 days ago

Anthony Aguilar, a retired US Army Green Beret who served for 25 years, is speaking out about his experience as a security contractor with UG Solutions, a private firm working alongside the 'Israel'-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The foundation, which has taken a central role in managing aid distribution in Gaza, is now under intense scrutiny amid allegations of militarization, abuse, and operational failure.
Aguilar worked with UG Solutions between May and June this year and describes the entire operation as deeply dysfunctional.
'Nothing was open. Nobody could figure out how to get food there,' Aguilar said in an interview with France 24's Jessica Le Masurier. 'So we had the idea of calling Domino's Pizza in Beersheba and having them make 27 pizzas and deliver them through Wolt, which is the Israeli DoorDash, to the main operations center in Karem Shalom.'
The pizzas were then transported into Gaza in what Aguilar described as 'an armored convoy,' eventually reaching Distribution Site 1, where they were handed out to Palestinian local workers, referring to the difficulties in feeding local workers who were assisting GHF operations.
His team resorted to a makeshift solution: ordering 27 Domino's pizzas through an 'Israeli' delivery app, picking them up at the Gaza border, and transporting them to a distribution site in an armored convoy.
'Let me get this straight,' Le Masurier asked. 'Safe Reach Solutions was able to bring Domino's Pizza in when the entire population of Gaza is starving and there are UN aid trucks that are unable to enter Gaza and not allowed to distribute aid while people are starving. But SRS was able to bring in Domino's Pizza to one of their sites?'
'It's abhorrent. If it weren't so tragic, it would be comedy. It's not comedy, because it is absolutely tragic,' Aguilar said. His account, partially published by France 24 and Mother Jones, paints a disturbing picture of the aid operation in a region ravaged by over 21 months of war and a growing famine.
The United Nations has raised concerns that GHF is operating in ways that blur the line between humanitarian aid and military strategy. According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 766 Palestinians were killed between May 27 and July 21 near GHF distribution sites.
GHF operates just four distribution centers in southern Gaza, far fewer than the 400 sites and mobile clinics previously maintained by international humanitarian groups before the 'Israeli' blockade restricted aid access, according to Mother Jones.
Aguilar's testimony includes accounts of contractors using both nonlethal and lethal force in ways he claims were unauthorized. He described one incident in which a fellow contractor threw a stun grenade that struck a woman in the head.
In another, on May 29, he witnessed two contractors firing rifles 'in bursts' into a crowd near a GHF site. In footage Aguilar recorded, someone is heard shouting, 'I think you hit one,' followed by another saying, 'Hell yeah, boy!' Aguilar said the reaction from the contractors included 'catcalling and celebrating.'
UG Solutions has denied firing at civilians, stating that warning shots were directed 'upwards, in the air and towards the coastline.' They also claimed that the contractor heard in the video was 'encouraging IDF fire' and has since been removed. GHF, for its part, says the gunfire heard in the video originated from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) outside the area and called Aguilar's claims 'categorically false.'
The company has dismissed Aguilar as a 'disgruntled former contractor who seeks revenge.' Aguilar strongly rejects that characterization.
The IOF released a statement acknowledging incidents of civilian harm near aid distribution points, adding that investigations had been launched and operational guidelines had since been updated. The 'Israeli' government recently announced limited 10-hour daily pauses in fighting to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid.
Aguilar shared one particularly haunting memory with France 24: a barefoot boy at a distribution site approached him, kissed his hand, and then disappeared into the chaos of warning shots and tear gas. 'This young boy had nothing to do with what Hamas did on October 7th,' Aguilar said.