A Melbourne company is recruiting Australians to work on a mysterious Israeli and American-backed aid project in Gaza. Could it be the infamous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation? Yaakov Aharon reports.

An ad posted by Claymore Personnel – named after an anti-personnel landmine – promises that successful candidates will “be looked after.”

Workers will have accommodation expenses in Israel covered, operate in American-led teams, and receive payment in US dollars. 

 

Australians recruited for Israel’s ‘weaponised aid’ project in Gaza

    by Yaakov Aharon

 

While it remains impossible to verify exactly who Claymore is working with, the shortlist of aid agencies that fit Claymore’s description ranges from bad to worse.

There is precisely one self-described ‘aid agency’ thriving in Gaza right now, and that is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Fogbow lags in a distant second place.

The Israeli and American governments back both agencies; both agencies rely on private security contractors to distribute aid; both agencies’ founders are American military and intelligence officials; both have been implicated in massacres at Gaza aid sites.

This month alone, at least 450 have been killed and 3500 injured while waiting for food at sites operated by GHF, a Mossad and CIA-backed front.

Looking for adventure?

Before GHF had begun its Gaza operations on May 27, it was already the subject of condemnation in a joint statement issued by aid agencies. The letter condemned GHF as “a dangerous and politicised sham” and “a blueprint for ethnic cleansing”.

Claymore posted ads on seek.com and on its official website on May 28, a day after GHF hit the ground. The first batch of recruits left for Gaza two weeks later. 

Reports of massacres at sites of American-led aid projects did not dampen Claymore’s spirits. Its mission to recruit carried on throughout June, with the ad saying workers deployed to Gaza will have a “3-month contract with strong potential for multiple extensions”. 

While most aid sites in Gaza were closing down, prospects for Claymore’s partners were expanding. “A large humanitarian distribution centre is now operating in Gaza”, Claymore’s ad said.

The recruitment agency sought Australian labourers, truck drivers, and forklift operators willing to work for low wages paid in USD ($3250-$6000 monthly). Successful candidates enjoyed full travel sponsorships. The ad on Claymore’s website assured applicants that there would be no police checks. The seek.com ad said otherwise. 

On each workday, the workers would be provided with “secure transport” from Israeli accommodation to worksites at “secure zones” in Gaza. 

MWM spoke to Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Greens Spokesperson for International Aid, who condemned “any so-called ‘humanitarian’ effort that operates at the whim of the genocidal Israeli military”.

“I’m concerned that Australian companies appear to be inserting themselves into a brutal system where ‘aid’ is delivered at gunpoint, guarded by soldiers and private contractors, while starving Palestinians are forced to risk their lives just to access basic supplies.”

Chasing ghosts

Tracking yesterday’s leftover footprints at Bondi Beach is easier than following Claymore’s digital footprints.

The LinkedIn profile of the company’s sole director, Tanya Molloy, provides no information beyond her role at the small business, which was founded in 2023. Trusted aid agencies and union officials told MWM on background they were not aware of Claymore, nor of any project it may be associated with in Gaza.

The recruitment agency’s address is listed as CSS Partners, a small accounting firm in Keilor East, Victoria. MWM called CSS’s landline and asked to be put through to Claymore. The receptionist said they were not aware that Claymore had listed its address as CSS Partners, and that the company’s relations were of an accounting firm to a client.

An associate of MWM visited the address listed on government records as Claymore’s principal place of business in Altona North, Victoria.

“It is in a large remote industrial area,” was the report back from the Altona North office. “There is no sign nor even a number on a door. I think it’s empty.”

Playing mum against dad

Tanya Molloy lives with Claymore’s secretary, the American-born Calum McEwan, in a suburban Melbourne townhouse.

When MWM asked Molloy who Claymore was working with, she was coy.

“Claymore Personnel is a recruitment agency only — we are not involved in the political, logistical, or operational aspects of any aid delivery. We supply skilled workers for overseas roles, and once placed, our involvement ends. We’re not affiliated with any government, military, or aid organisation.”

“Due to the sensitivity of the work and the wellbeing of those on the ground, I won’t be commenting further.”

Further statements by Molloy deny any association with GHF.

If nothing else, Claymore’s footsteps follow the lead of GHF, which also lists its address as an abandoned warehouse in Delaware, USA. 

Text messages leaked to MWM raise doubts about Molloy’s firm assertion that Claymore has no association with GHF. 

“The company the candidates will be working for is JK International – jkiglobal.com”, Calum McEwan said, in a response to a concerned humanitarian last month.

When the recipient of the texts asked McEwan if JK International works for GHF, McEwan responded “I don’t have this information.”

Claymore’s ad says it is “the only Australian contact point for this operation”, after being “personally engaged by [an] international logistics group”.

JK International is a global logistics and shipping company based in Tennessee, USA. Its business partners include the USA’s Department of Homeland Security and Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, as well as Israel’s largest shipping company, Zim – a key player in the global weapons supply chain. 

Supply and demand

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for charges of war crimes, including ‘starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’.

Rather than heeding calls to obey international law, Israel has doubled down. Israel says it has no obligation to provide aid to Palestinians, given its allegations that Hamas steals aid at gunpoint and has infiltrated the United Nations. 

Israel’s parliament passed sweeping restrictions on aid agencies working in Gaza. UNWRA and UNICEF were banned from delivering aid into the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in breach of orders issued by the International Court of Justice.

Any worker or organisation who has expressed the wrong political opinions will be refused entry by Israel. Background checks will ensure workers have never made statements that “delegitimize” Israel or question its identity as “a Jewish and democratic state”.

Each Palestinian who receives aid is also vetted to ensure they have no connections, according to Israel’s standards, to a Palestinian resistance group.

A government statement said these changes guarantee aid is distributed “in a manner aligned with Israel’s national interests”.Funding criminal gangs in GazaInstead of trusted agencies, aid is increasingly provided by American private military contractors, as well as Israeli-backed gangs.

Earlier this month, Israeli opposition figure Avigdor Lieberman revealed that Mossad and the Ministry of Defence were arming and funding criminal gangs in Gaza. Further reportsreveal security at GHF aid sites is provided by mercenaries from Safe Reach Solutions, a firm founded by former CIA officers. These reforms weaponised aid to undermine Hamas on a grassroots level. 

After reports that Israeli Forces massacred Palestinians at a GHF site in Rafah, Israel released footage that it claimed showed Hamas fighters were responsible. In fact, the footage depicted a different massacre, at a different GHF site, committed by Israeli-backed gangs as they stole aid.

Interviewed Israeli soldiers claimed their commanders ordered them to shoot civilians collecting aid at GHF sites. The Military Advocate-General then instructed the IDF to investigate these reported war crimes. Government declines to answer

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi called on the Albanese Government to “urgently clarify whether it has had any involvement in authorising or facilitating this project, and whether it has provided any diplomatic, logistical or intelligence support to Claymore Personnel or related actors.”

“DFAT has a clear responsibility to ensure any Australian-linked aid effort operates fully in line with international humanitarian law,” Faruqi said. “That includes not participating in a system where aid is used as a tool of control and oppression.”

Several international humanitarian law organisations cosigned a letter yesterday expressing concern about Gaza’s privatised “humanitarian” operators.

The letter issues a warning to all those involved with GHF — including states, companies, and contracted workers – of their potential liability for complicity in genocide.

MWM spoke to Lara Khider, acting executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, which was among the organisations that signed the letter.

“Any recruitment of civilians into areas of conflict or occupied territory must be approached with the utmost caution and transparency,” Khider said. “Particularly where international humanitarian law and the risk of complicity in grave breaches of international law may be engaged.” 

“It is imperative that Australian nationals and entities exercise due diligence and avoid any involvement that could directly or indirectly support or legitimise unlawful conduct.”

Another government official told MWM that state funding is directed toward United Nations agencies, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent – but refused to answer if the government supported Claymore or its associates.

MWM asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) if it was aware of – and approved – Claymore’s aid project.

To say DFAT dodged the question is to compliment it unfairly for showing grace and dexterity.

“Any Australian travelling overseas for employment should ensure they are not in breach of Australian law and follow all travel advice on Smartraveller,” a department spokesperson said.

To DFAT’s credit, Smartraveller is clearer in its profile on Gaza and Israel: “Do not travel.”

Shayne Chester contributed to research.

 

https://michaelwest.com.au/australians-recruited-for-israels-weaponized-aid-project-in-gaza/

 

========================

 

Top Israeli lawmakers have accused their government of laundering massive sums through a shadowy network of US humanitarian and mercenary orgs. The weaponized aid initiative is the linchpin of Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza by forcing the starving population into concentration camp-like hubs.

Israel’s scheme to commandeer aid distribution in Gaza ended in chaos on May 27, with Israeli soldiers reportedly opening fire on stampeding crowds of hungry Palestinians after just 8000 boxes of rations were handed out by an opaque organization calling itself the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Founded this February in Switzerland under a cloud of mystery, GHF serves as an umbrella for a network of private mercenary firms which Israel is using to supplant the role of the United Nations in feeding Palestinians after bringing them to the brink of starvation.

At the moment, the public has no idea who is funding the opaque aid boondoggle. A GHF spokesman told the Washington Post “the foundation has already secured $100 million from an undisclosed donor.” 

Right-wing Israeli opposition figure and Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman proclaimed that GHF’s mysterious financial angel was, in fact, the Israeli government. “The money for humanitarian aid comes from the Mossad and the Ministry of Defense,” Lieberman wrote on Twitter/X, complaining, “Hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of Israeli citizens.”

Yair Lapid, a Member of Knesset and de facto leader of Israel’s loyal opposition, has accusedthe Israeli government of funding two “shell companies,” pointing to GHF and the private mercenary firm, Safe Reach Solutions, which was founded by former CIA field operative Phillip Reilly. Two former US officials told the Qatari-owned outlet Middle East Eye that Reilly “had won the trust of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several Israeli businessmen close to him.”

If true, this would mean Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus is effectively laundering massive sums of money through a weaponized aid scheme that forms the linchpin of its plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza. A leaked internal GHF document acknowledged that the food distribution centers and residential compounds it was constructing in Gaza could be perceived as “‘concentration camps’ with biometrics.’” 

The GHF model appears integral to Israel’s stated plan to occupy 75% of the Gaza Strip, forcing starving and homeless Palestinians into what its military has branded as “humanitarian islands” designed to “divide and rule” the decimated enclave. It is also a clear attempt at replacing UNRWA, the United Nations agency that has tended to the needs of Gaza’s refugee population since 1949, and which the Israeli Knesset designated as a terrorist organization in 2024.

GHF’s creation can be traced directly to the Israeli government’s COGAT office, which presides over the siege of Gaza, as well an Israeli entrepreneur named Liran Tancman, who was described in one report as “a reservist in the IDF’s 8200 signals intelligence unit, who called for using biometric identification systems outside the distribution hubs to vet Palestinian civilians.” 

With no legal standing or formal mandate to operate in Gaza, GHF now operates at the pleasure of Israel’s occupation army. But with an endorsement from the Trump administration, and with US mercenary muscle maintaining its dystopian distribution centers, the scheme functions behind an American facade.

Just a day before GHF’s planned roll-out in Gaza, the organization’s CEO, Jake Wood, resigned in protest, condemning the group’s failure to uphold “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality.” Next, GHF’s COO, David Burke, fled for the emergency exit. David Kohler, a Swiss board member, has also resigned without explanation.

Following their departure, leadership of the murky outfit passed to John Acree, a former USAID administrator who recently accused the President of giving a “free pass” to Russia in a rambling Facebook post lashing out at the “criminal” Trump for defunding his longtime employer.

Even after the situation at GHF’s militarized aid outpost in western Rafah ended in mayhem on May 27, a network of shady mercenary firms including Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions have continued to offer high-paying positions to potential guns-for-hire.

A job listing for UG Solutions appeals to “snipers” with “prior experience in combat zones,” the “highest level of weapons proficiencies,” and “advanced combat skills” who could “operate effectively in high-threat environments.” Preference would be given to  “Special Forces qualified personnel,” as well as “personnel with OSINT/Intelligence Background.”

UG Solutions’ founder, Jameson Govoni, has described himself as a “degenerate from Boston” who “joined the Army as fast as I possibly could to inflict pain on the people who inflicted pain on us.” He also founded a company called “Alcohol Armor” that markets hangover recovery solutions supposedly based on his expertise in getting wasted. “In the military, we’re hands down the worst drinkers in the fucking world. I’ve had my stomach pumped,” Govoni’s business partner, Glenn Devitt, boasted.

Phillip Reilly, the normally publicity hungry former CIA field operative who founded Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) – a partner of GHF and UG Solutions – has not spoken on the record to any media organization to date about his apparently lucrative exploits in Gaza. 

SRS first appeared in Gaza this January, when a collection of  middle aged mercenaries portrayed in US media as “suburban dads” established a checkpoint along the Netzarim Corridor, an area severing Gaza’s northern and central regions which the Israeli military has used as a base for abusing and massacring civilians.

An SRS document circulated to potential supporters (see below) appealed for “humanitarian partners” to help transform its checkpoint into “an aid distribution point.” Days later, GHF was founded in Geneva, Switzerland.

A GHF document distributed to the media in early May listed an array of corporate heavy hitters and former US officials as board members, and boasted of partnerships with financial institutions like Goldman Sachs. Its board included Raisa Sheynberg, a former Treasury Department official who served on the public policy team of Meta’s original Libra cryptocurrency project, and David Beasley, the former South Carolina governor and ex-head of the World Food Program. 

The press release pledged that GHF leaders would put “humanity first” as they “pursue pragmatic approaches to intractable problems.”

Among the most notable figures implicated in the GHF scandal is Nate Mook, the former CEO of World Central Kitchen. Named as a board member of GHF, and listed as a founder of the group on its incorporation forms, Mook is now denying any role in the outfit while ducking from the media.

The hidden Chef Jose Andres connection

On the day of GHF’s calamitous launch in southern Gaza, Spanish celebrity chef, World Central Kitchen founder and ex-State Department “culinary ambassador” Jose Andres slammed the boondoggle, writing on X, “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has left Palestinians without food. The people that created it are selfish.”

Chief among those “selfish” figures would be the former CEO of Andres’ World Central Kitchen, Nate Mook. As shown by Israeli journalist Uri Blau, incorporating documents filed with Swiss authorities list Mook as the founder of GHF. He was also named as a board member of the group on the document GHF distributed to the media about its launch. Since the resignation of GHF’s leadership, however, Mook has denied any formal role in the group while refusing to discuss the issue with journalists. 

 

Andres owes much of his image as a globe-trotting humanitarian hero to a 2022 public relations vehicle packaged as a documentary and humbly entitled, “We Feed People.” The film as directed by Hollywood bigwig Ron Howard and produced by Mook, who worked at the time as the CEO of World Central Kitchen (WCK). 

According to his bio at the arms industry-funded McCain Institute, where he currently serves as “Special Advisor on Ukraine,” Mook boasts that he has worked with Andres since 2012, “building WCK from one employee and under $1 million per year to $400 million in global impact in 2022.”

Despite his condemnation of GHF, Andres played an early and important role in the project to subvert Gaza’s humanitarian aid system away from the UN, and into line with Israeli objectives. As The Grayzone reported, Andres oversaw WCK’s effort in 2024 to construct a pier made of the rubble of homes in Gaza, which would have enabled the offloading of aid to kitchens it ran across Gaza in coordination with the Israeli military. 

When Spain’s then-Minister for Social Rights, Ione Belarra charged Israel with genocide in Gaza, Andres leapt to the apartheid state’s defense, insisting on Twitter/X that Israel was merely “defending its citizens,” declaring that Belarra did “not deserve to be minister,” and accusing her of “pro-Hamas” sympathies.

All the while, Andres continued to cozy up to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who appointed him as a “culinary ambassador” for the Department of State in Feb. 2023. As recently as Sept. 2024, nearly a year into Israel’s genocidal siege of Gaza, Andres was seenpartying at a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art alongside Blinken, then National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, and corruption-stained New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Less than six months had passed since the American-supplied Israeli military murdered seven WCK employees in a targeted double-tap strike on their aid convoy on April 1, 2024.Yet Andres is still seeking friendly collaboration with Israeli occupation authorities, expressing his thanks to the COGAT siege administrators as recently as this May 28.

GHF forced out of Switzerland, flees to safer ground in US

This May 29, Swiss officials announced that GHF was violating several laws for foundations registered in that country. The shadowy organization subsequently announced that it is moving its operations to the US, where it is likely to receive less scrutiny from a Trump administration that endorsed its creation. 

Though its chaotic launch in Gaza generated international headlines, GHF remains shrouded in mystery, with masked mercenaries manning its operations on the ground, and a cast of corporate lawyers operating behind a series of shell companies whose coffers have filled up with millions of dollars from an unknown source. 

Perhaps the only thing that seems certain about the opaque entity is that its presence will deliver more misery to the population of Gaza behind the guise of charity.

https://thegrayzone.com/2025/05/29/israeli-mossad-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-aid/

 

=====================

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.