“Designed as Death Traps”: Fmr. Green Beret Who Worked at Gaza Food Sites Reveals Rampant War Crimes

by UB Center for Urban Studies · 11/19/2025

Amy Goodman interviews U.S. military veteran and Green Beret, Anthony Aguilar, on Democracy Now!

As more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid at militarized aid distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a former GHF security contractor tells Democracy Now! he saw U.S. mercenaries and Israeli forces commit war crimes by indiscriminately shooting at starving Palestinians waiting for aid. “What I witnessed in Gaza, I can only describe as a dystopian, post-apocalyptic wasteland,” says Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. soldier who worked as a subcontractor with UG Solutions in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid delivery operation. “We, the United States, are complicit. We are involved, hand in hand, in the atrocities and the genocide that is currently undergoing in Gaza.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: “The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.” That’s the dire warning issued today by the world’s leading hunger monitor. This comes as the official death toll in Gaza has topped 60,000, but that’s widely viewed to be a vast undercount. At least 147 Palestinians, including 88 children, have starved to death. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied there’s any starvation in Gaza, but on Monday President Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s claim.

Read the full transcript or watch the full show at Democracy Now!

Amy Goodman interviews Anthony Aguilar, recorded July 29, 2025