An American former contractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in an interview that aired Friday that during his time working in Gaza, he saw Israeli soldiers and US contractors use “indiscriminate” force against civilians at aid sites, in what he described as “war crimes.”
The GHF questioned Aguilar’s motives, saying he had recently been fired for “inappropriate behavior” and accusing him of making “false claims with no basis in reality.”
The interview came as international pressure and criticism mounted surrounding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as reports of Palestinians suffering and dying from hunger and from gunfire near GHF aid sites continue to grow daily.
In an interview with the BBC, former US special forces soldier and GHF aid worker Anthony Aguilar described the US- and Israel-backed aid mechanism as “amateur,” saying GHF conduct was “inexperienced, untrained,” and had “no idea how to conduct operations of this magnitude.”
“That would be my most benign assessment,” he said.
“My most frank assessment — I would say that they are criminal,” he continued.
“In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population,” he said.
“I have never witnessed that in all the places that I have been deployed to war, until I was in Gaza — at the hands of IDF and US contractors,” he said.
Displaced Palestinians at the Nuseirat refugee camp haul food parcels and other items they managed to get from a GHF aid distribution point at the Netzarim corridor, in the central Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2025. (Eyad Baba/ AFP)
“Without question, I witnessed war crimes,” Aguilar claimed, saying they were committed “by the Israeli Defense Forces, without a doubt, using artillery rounds, mortar rounds, firing tank rounds into unarmed civilians.”
“That’s a war crime,” he said.
GHF rejects ‘false claims’
After the interview aired, the GHF released a statement saying Aguilar made “false claims with no basis in reality.”
“Upon hearing Mr. Aguilar’s claims, we immediately launched an investigation,” the GHF said. “The findings, based on cross-checking the timelines with video clips and on sources on the ground, indicate that these are false claims with no basis in reality.
“It should be emphasized that Mr. Aguilar was employed as a subcontractor and was fired over a month ago for inappropriate behavior,” the aid foundation added. “Following the dismissal, we received threats that unless he was reinstated, action would be taken against us, raising questions regarding the motivation behind his interviews.
“We also have evidence that he likely forged documents and presented misleading videos to promote his false narrative,” GHF added, without elaborating on the ostensible evidence.
Palestinians walk along a road toward an area in the northern Gaza Strip where trucks are entering with humanitarian aid, in Gaza City, Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
“The issue of the safety of those visiting the aid distribution centers, as well as the Foundation’s employees, is a top priority, and we operate to high standards and will not allow them to be violated,” GHF said. “We continue to focus on our core mission: to provide food to the residents of Gaza — safely, directly and without interruption, as we have been doing since the beginning of operations on May 27. Since then, we have distributed more than 92 million rations to the Palestinian residents of Gaza.”
The GHF’s operations have been under intense scrutiny for the two months since its opening in late May, with daily reports of Palestinians killed while seeking aid at GHF sites, including several on Saturday.
Israel, which accuses Hamas of hoarding aid, has accused the terror group of attacking Gazan aid seekers near GHF sites and falsifying death tolls.
The IDF says that its soldiers only fire “warning shots” to control the crowds, though it has admitted that its fire has killed “several” Palestinians at aid sites.
The GHF consistently denies that there have been deadly shootings at its sites, and says that Hamas agitators have attacked and threatened its staff and have tried to cause unrest at the aid sites.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 1,000 people have been killed near the GHF sites since May, adding to the 58,000 total people the group says have been killed in Gaza since the war began, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
