The Chris Hedges Report

Episode: GHF Contractor Tells All On Genocidal Israeli 'Aid' Plan (w/ Anthony Aguilar)

Date: September 3, 2025
Host: Chris Hedges
Guest: Anthony Aguilar (Retired US Army Special Forces, former UG Solutions security contractor in Gaza)

Overview

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges interviews Anthony Aguilar, a retired lieutenant colonel with 25 years in the US Army Special Forces who became a security contractor for UG Solutions, providing armed security for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Aguilar resigned and turned whistleblower after witnessing and documenting shootings and abuses by both Israeli forces and US contractors at GHF distribution sites.
The conversation exposes the reality behind Israel’s so-called “humanitarian aid” operations in Gaza: according to Aguilar, the plan is not relief, but forced displacement, systematic violence, and data-driven targeting of Palestinians under the guise of aid.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) Structure & Intent

• GHF replaced the UN’s 400 aid sites with just 4 heavily militarized hubs in southern Gaza.
• According to Aguilar, these sites function less as humanitarian centers than as mechanisms for forced displacement, channeling desperate Palestinians into zones where they are corralled and often subjected to violence (00:10).
• “They are not designed to provide food and humanitarian aid to Gaza's desperate population, but are designed to lure hungry Palestinians to the south where they will eventually be held in concentration camps awaiting deportation.” — Chris Hedges (00:21)
• GHF “is this weird cloak and dagger shell of an entity. It doesn’t have any agency or body to it … other than Johnny Moore, the evangelical Zionist ... and a media team.” — Aguilar (16:14)
• Operations are directly coordinated with the IDF, with all aid tightly controlled and subject to military rule.

2. Conditions in Gaza: Starvation & Chaos

• Israel has cut off nearly all humanitarian aid since May 2 (00:54), triggering widespread famine.
• Cake of humanitarian crisis: 500,000+ facing starvation; more than 300 confirmed deaths by starvation, including 112 children (00:44).
• Food distribution is sporadic, minimal, and often a “free for all” riot with lethal consequences.
• “Northern Gaza is in a state of famine. That is, that is an absolute fact. If there was a way to describe beyond famine, I don’t know what that description would be, but it would be that.” — Aguilar (05:44)

3. Motives & Experience: Why Aguilar Went Back

• Despite injuries and a career in conflict zones (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Philippines), Aguilar says nothing compared to the destruction and disregard for humanitarian law he saw in Gaza (05:04).
• Accepted the contractor role believing he’d provide genuine aid; quickly realized the project was a “wild west cowboy” operation under Israeli military command, enacting forced displacement (07:33).
• “I truly felt that the mission, the objective of the mission, not ghf, not the greater Israeli contract, but the mission itself to, to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to people that were dying, starving and in dire need. I wanted to be a part of helping that. I felt that I felt it was a calling.” — Aguilar (11:32)

4. Security Forces: Armament and Force Composition

• GHF’s UG Solutions contractors were heavily armed with Israeli assault rifles (IWI Arad, Jericho pistols), automatic weapons, tear gas, stun grenades, pepper spray designed for crowd control—not humanitarian work (12:26).
• “We were far over equipped for what even a combat unit would have ... I felt that we were equipped to go into war.” — Aguilar (14:10)
• All UG Solutions armed security were American, ex-military, with a starting force of 275, later supplemented (16:46, 22:48).
• Ugandan militia subunit quit out of ethical concerns, replaced by more American contractors (16:52).

5. Pay Structure

• Contractors were paid $1,320/day, later raised to $1,500+/day—a striking contrast to standard US soldier pay, underscoring the privatization-profit motive (22:21).
• “Had I stayed on for that entire year, I would have cleared well over a million dollars. It's insane.” — Aguilar (21:44)

6. Logistics and the Reality of Aid Distribution

• Distribution occurs at night (e.g., 2am), accessible only via IDF-mandated routes, often requiring long treks by foot (25:34).
• Messaging to the population is unreliable (Facebook posts in low-connectivity environments).
• Entry to a site is through a narrow gate (the width of a garage door) for thousands. Distribution sites are staffed by Israeli tanks and soldiers; crowds are kept at bay and "managed" by shooting, pepper spray, and stun grenades (25:34–41:29).
• "Never in my time at all four sites during all the distributions that I had done, did I ever witness an armed Palestinian rifle, pistol, some type of weapon. Nor did I ever experience any hostility, confrontation, anger. ... I experienced a lot of gratitude. ... It was so heartbreaking and dehumanizing." — Aguilar (34:34)
• Vulnerable groups (elderly, pregnant women, disabled) often arrive last, find nothing left, and are systematically brutalized.
• The "free for all" leads to mass confusion, injuries, and often death—sometimes at the hands of GHF security, often by the IDF. Scraps of food are all some manage to collect.

7. Systematic Use of Violence

• Defensive measures are absent; instead, US and Israeli forces apply crowd dispersal techniques that escalate to lethal violence almost immediately.
• IDF rationale for violence: “We shoot to communicate with the crowd. We shoot to keep the animals back.” — Recited from IDF leadership to UGS (44:00)
• "The distribution sites do not serve as a location to get food. They are traps to lure the Palestinians in, to cause death, dehumanization, confusion, and chaos." — Aguilar (39:33)

8. Documented Killings - Human Impact

• Aguilar describes and contextualizes widely shared videos showing the death of a boy, Amir, and others at distribution sites.
• Amir: a starving child, grateful for scraps, killed by IDF gunfire while exiting a site (47:21–53:58).
• “He was alone. You could tell that he was emaciated and hungry ... He wanted to express his gratitude. … The IDF killed him. But the Gaza Humanitarian foundation and the UG Solutions contractors, they played their part. And the story of Amir, this is not just the story of Amir ... That’s what happens every day in Gaza.” — Aguilar (54:26)
• American contractors also killed unarmed Palestinians: “An American contractor in Gaza on a tourist visa killed an unarmed civilian who was not posing a threat. He was leaving the site. … That’s the dehumanization and what’s going on.” — Aguilar, describing the "Woohoo, I think you got one" incident (58:25–59:35)

9. Surveillance, Detentions & Targeting of Journalists

• Security operations included use of biometric facial recognition, built into GHF operations center (with IDF present 24/7), to catalogue “persons of interest” with no clear criteria (61:58–65:30).
• Data was routinely fed to IDF intelligence, enabling targeting of supposed Hamas affiliates and journalists.
• “The most threatening weapon to the IDF is a camera.” — Aguilar (61:58)
• Aguilar confirms that journalists and others were interrogated at aid sites, and that intelligence gathered was shared with the IDF, supporting claims that this led to targeted strikes on Palestinian journalists (65:30).

Memorable Quotes by Timestamps

• “Northern Gaza is in a state of famine. That is, that is an absolute fact. If there was a way to describe beyond famine, I don’t know what that description would be, but it would be that.”
  — Anthony Aguilar (05:44)
• “We shoot to communicate with the crowd. We shoot to keep the animals back.”
  — Recited by Aguilar, quoting IDF leadership (44:05)
• “The distribution sites do not serve as a location to get food. They are traps to lure the Palestinians in, to cause death, dehumanization, confusion, and chaos.”
  — Anthony Aguilar (39:33)
• “He was alone. You could tell that he was emaciated and hungry ... He wanted to express his gratitude. … The IDF killed him. But the Gaza Humanitarian foundation and the UG Solutions contractors, they played their part. … That’s what happens every day in Gaza.”
  — Anthony Aguilar (54:26)
• “Why is a humanitarian relief effort spending thousands of dollars on intelligence analysts and facial recognition?”
  — Chris Hedges, reflecting on Aguilar’s revelations (67:40)

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro & Executive Summary of GHF and Gaza Crisis: 00:10 – 03:15
• Aguilar’s Military Background & Perspective: 03:15 – 06:56
• Entry into GHF & Realization of Its True Operations: 06:56 – 12:01
• GHF Security Armament, Structure & Pay: 12:26 – 22:48
• Aid Site Logistics & Distribution Process: 25:34 – 41:29
• Systematic Use of Force by IDF/Contractors: 41:29 – 44:31
• Killing of Amir & Other Atrocities: 47:21 – 54:26
• American Contractor Shooting Incident (“Woohoo, I think you got one”): 58:25 – 59:35
• Surveillance and Targeting of Journalists: 61:58 – 67:40

Conclusion

This episode is a harrowing exposé of how humanitarian aid can be weaponized as a tool of forced displacement and control. Aguilar’s eye-witness testimony, given from an insider’s perspective as both a US combat veteran and aid contractor, documents a regime not of aid, but of dehumanization, lethal violence, and mass surveillance. The use of biometric databases, the coordination between US contractors and the IDF, and the systematic targeting of both civilians and journalists raise urgent concerns about violations of international humanitarian law.

Recommended for anyone seeking to understand the realities of Gaza’s ongoing crisis, the militarization of aid, and the complicity of Western actors in perpetuating violence against Palestinian civilians.