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An American private security company is seeking to hire dozens of U.S. special forces veterans to staff and run a key checkpoint in Gaza, aiming to arm the group to monitor and search Palestinians there, new reporting finds.
Reportedly as part of the ceasefire deal in Gaza, three private companies have been chosen to screen Palestinians traveling from southern to northern Gaza: North Carolina-based UG Solutions, Wyoming-based Safe Reach Solutions, and an Egyptian company.
Contractors are reportedly already in place at the checkpoint, where they are tasked with searching the vehicles of Palestinians who are headed to northern Gaza, supposedly to confiscate weapons — as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flood to the north after having been forcibly displaced by Israel’s genocide over the past 15 months.
As part of this arrangement, Reuters reports that UG Solutions is seeking 96 green berets to staff the checkpoint. The company is reportedly offering a $10,000 advance and pay starting at $1,100 a day.
Over the course of ceasefire negotiations, Israel had repeatedly insisted on Israeli control of the Netzarim Corridor, which Israel created to bisect Gaza, and other areas of the Strip. This insistence had been a major wrench in negotiations, with Israeli officials doubling down on military occupation of parts of Gaza and delaying a deal for many months.
The use of third parties, rather than the Israeli military, at the central checkpoint in Gaza was reportedly a compromise in the agreement. A representative for UG Solutions told The Washington Post that their mandate is to allow people to go through the checkpoint, and only stop them when they “carry anything deemed unsafe” — but it’s unclear what that means, and Israel has long banned simple necessities from entering Gaza, including items like food, claiming that they can be used by armed Palestinian forces.
“Of course there is a threat they will face,” Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official, told Reuters, speaking of the contractors. “We have the right to defend ourselves,” he added — parroting a phrase often used by Zionists to justify wanton violence against and oppression of people across Palestine.
U.S. private military servicers have a reputation across the world for fomenting violence, particularly in the context of the U.S.’s imperialist projects in the Middle East, while operating under even less transparency than the already-secretive U.S. military.
Prominent U.S. private security companies include contractors like CACI, which carried out horrific acts of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; and Blackwater, most well-known for opening fire on and killing 14 civilians and wounding 17 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, in 2007. Commentators have noted that the U.S.’s heavy use of private military contractors over the decades has created an international industry centered on the practice.
Israel has long used checkpoints to suppress Palestinians and enforce its regime of occupation and apartheid. Israeli authorities claim that the checkpoints are in place for safety reasons — but their most typical use by Israeli authorities is to arbitrarily detain Palestinians for hours; severely restrict Palestinians’ movement; and surveil Palestinians as part of Israel’s system of total control over Palestinians’ lives.
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