• 'What is happening in Gaza is a genocide … The United States president can end this with a phone call,' says Aguilar, describing his brief time in Gaza with US- and Israeli-backed GHF
• 'The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, nor any type of privatized humanitarian assistance, should ever be part of a reconstruction model. It cannot happen,' he says

WASHINGTON

Anthony Aguilar spent 25 years in the US Army’s Special Forces, serving in active combat zones around the world. But nothing, he says, compared to what he witnessed in Gaza.

A retired Green Beret who briefly worked on the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Aguilar says he saw daily “war crimes” committed under the banner of humanitarian aid.

Now, he calls the project itself a war crime.

“The sites that were established in Gaza to distribute aid were, in and of themselves, a war crime and violation of international law,” Aguilar told Anadolu in an exclusive interview. “They were built in areas that put the civilian population at inherent danger and risk.”

Aguilar joined the GHF initiative as a subcontractor with the private firm UG Solutions in mid-2025. He resigned two months later, saying the operation endangered the very people it claimed to help.

‘Failure of US leadership’

Calling the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “a failure of US leadership,” Aguilar blamed the Trump administration and senior officials.

“It is a failure of our Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it is a failure of our US Ambassador to Israel, Michael Huckabee, it is a failure of our president (Donald Trump), who is in charge of and responsible for foreign policy,” he said.

“What is happening in Gaza is a genocide. That genocide has been designed and engineered by the Israeli government,” Aguilar continued. “The United States president can end this with a phone call.”

‘War crimes’ at aid sites

According to Aguilar, the aid distribution centers set up under GHF routinely exposed civilians to Israeli gunfire.

He described Israeli forces shooting unarmed Palestinians approaching or leaving aid points — “often killing them or wounding them or putting them in great danger.”

“That is a war crime,” he said.

Aguilar also accused personnel from UG Solutions of using force against crowds: “They would use lethal munitions, stun grenades, tear gas, firing at or near the crowds to disperse the crowds.”

“The overall displacement of the population, bombing their entire city, and then displacing the Palestinians to the south into a concentration camp is, clearly, by international standards, a war crime. And I witness these things every day,” he said.

Privatized aid

Since late May, Israel has overseen a separate US-backed aid distribution scheme through the GHF, bypassing the UN and established humanitarian agencies. Aid groups have criticized the model as unsafe, illegal, and politically motivated.

Aguilar echoed those concerns, saying he would never again work for GHF or any “privatized mechanism.”

“If humanitarian aid to the United Nations, UNRWA and NGOs are allowed to go in and do it properly, I would absolutely be the first to sign up and go,” he said. “The UNRWA model is humane. I will not, nor will I ever again, participate or assist the GHF or any other privatized mechanism.”

America first, not Israel first

Despite the grim conditions he describes, Aguilar said peace remains possible — if Washington changes course.

“I do believe that our president does have the power, does have the ability to end this,” he said. “I hope that … he remembers what he promised to the American people when he was elected — to put America first, to end wars, and to be the president of peace. He is not the president of peace. He is the president of genocide.”

Aguilar went further, saying Israel should no longer be treated as a true ally to the US.

“Israel is a close strategic partner. They are not an ally. We turn our backs on our allies for the sake of Israel, and it is tyranny,” he said.

He called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a negotiated peace.

US' Gaza ceasefire plan

Aguilar also took issue with President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, unveiled last week, as “vague.”

“It throws out a lot of flowery ideas that, frankly, are very myopic and they don’t take into account what Palestinians want, what the people of Palestine want, in terms of future governance or a future nation,” he said.

“It is a disappointing and embarrassing document in that it is focused on real estate … taking a people, evicting them from their land, taking their land and building a resort and making Trump’s friends rich.”

“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, nor any type of privatized humanitarian assistance, should ever be part of a reconstruction model. It cannot happen,” he added.

Gaza under siege

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza for nearly 18 years and further tightened restrictions in March by shutting crossings and blocking aid deliveries, deepening famine conditions.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health authorities. The UN and humanitarian groups have warned that the enclave is rapidly becoming uninhabitable, with starvation and disease spreading.

For Aguilar, who once carried out US military missions abroad, the experience of seeing civilians starve and die at supposed aid sites has altered his sense of duty.

He said the “US leadership needs to take firm stance and side with humanity ... The American people should not stand for this.”