GENEVA: Monkeypox experts were discussing Thursday whether the World Health Organization (WHO) should classify the outbreak as a global health emergency — the highest alarm it can sound.
A second meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee on the virus was being held to examine the worsening situation, with nearly 15,400 cases reported from 71 countries, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.
On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) — the UN health agency’s highest alert level.
But a majority advised the WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation, at that point, had not met the threshold.
The second meeting was called with case numbers rising and spreading to six more countries in the past week.
The WHO confirmed the meeting, held in private, was under way.
If the committee advises Tedros that the outbreak constitutes a PHEIC, it will propose temporary recommendations on how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease and manage the global public health response.
But there is no timetable for when the outcome will be made public.
Ninety-eight percent of reported cases “are among men who have sex with men and primarily those who have multiple recent anonymous or new partners,” Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, told a press conference on Wednesday.
They are typically of young age and chiefly in urban areas, according to the WHO.
The committee is looking at the latest trends and data, how effective the countermeasures are and make recommendations for what countries and communities should do to tackle the outbreak.
Regardless of the committee’s PHEIC decision, the “WHO will continue to do everything we can to support countries to stop transmission and save lives,” Tedros told the press conference.
He said the WHO was validating, procuring and shipping tests to multiple countries, but said one of the most powerful tools in the fight against monkeypox was information tailored to affected communities.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said the LGBTQ community was one of the most engaged and responsible, having worked hard over decades to combat HIV, “so therefore we have full confidence that this community can, and will, and is, engaging very closely.”
A viral infection resembling smallpox and first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that as of Monday, 7,896 confirmed cases had been reported from 27 countries in the European Economic Area.
The worst affected were Spain (2,835), Germany (1,924), France (912), the Netherlands (656) and Portugal (515).
“Particular sexual practices are very likely to have facilitated and could further facilitate the transmission of monkeypox among MSM groups,” it said.
Danish company Bavarian Nordic is the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox and jabs are currently in scarce supply.
New York, the epicenter of the US outbreak with more than 700 cases, had either administered or scheduled 21,500 vaccines by Sunday, with long lines of men aged 20 to 40 queueing to get a shot.
Loyce Pace, the assistant secretary for global affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said it was “very hard” for the world to handle monkeypox on top of Covid-19 and other health crises.
“I know it can be scary... and, frankly, exhausting,” she told reporters at the US mission in Geneva.
However, “we know a lot more about this disease, we’ve been able to stop outbreaks previously and we, importantly, have medical counter-measures and other tools available.”
WHO deciding on sounding highest alarm on monkeypox
https://arab.news/wwq7s
WHO deciding on sounding highest alarm on monkeypox
- A second meeting of the WHO's emergency committee on the virus was being held to examine the worsening situation
- A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries
China, EU should not ‘seek confrontation,’ says FM Wang Yi
- Europe is “facing various challenges,” Wang said, but stressed that none were caused by China “in the past, present or future”
BRUSSELS: China’s top diplomat warned his EU counterpart against “confrontation,” his foreign ministry said Thursday, after she urged Beijing to stop undermining Europe’s security.
Meeting Kaja Kallas in Brussels on Wednesday, Wang Yi said China and the European Union “should not be regarded as opponents because of differences, nor should they seek confrontation because of disagreements,” according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
Europe is “facing various challenges,” Wang said, but stressed that none were caused by China “in the past, present or future.”
Ahead of their meeting, Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said China was “not our adversary, but on security our relationship is under increasing strain.”
She said Chinese firms were “Moscow’s lifeline to sustain its war against Ukraine” and accused Beijing of carrying out cyberattacks, democratic interference and unfair trade practices that “harm European security and jobs.”
China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s more than three-year war with Ukraine. But Western governments say Beijing has given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
“Enabling war in Europe while seeking closer ties with Europe is a contradiction Beijing must address,” Kallas added on Wednesday.
Wang, meanwhile, sought to cast Beijing as a steady counterweight against superpower rival Washington, which has threatened to slap sweeping tariffs on imports from European nations.
“The path taken by the United States should not be used as a reflection of China,” he said. “China is not the United States.”
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said the two sides had discussed Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and the Iran nuclear issue.
Beijing and Brussels should treat one another with “respect,” Wang said, adding that Europe should pursue a more “active and pragmatic” China policy.
The Chinese diplomat also met European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and his Belgian counterpart Maxime Prevot on Wednesday.
China and the EU should “uphold multilateralism and free trade... and work together to address global challenges such as climate change,” Wang told von der Leyen.
Wang will next travel to Germany, where he will hold talks with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on diplomacy and security.
And in France, Wang will meet minister for Europe and foreign affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, who visited China in March.
The visits come about three weeks ahead of a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the EU’s top officials in Beijing.
Trump ramps up his attacks against NYC’s Zohran Mamdani as GOP seizes on new foe
- Trump has threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, if he wins the general election in November
- Republicans cast him as dangerous, a communist, and an antisemite, and are trying to tie him to all other Democratic officials
NEW YORK: President Donald Trump has a new political foil: New York’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
The president, who has a history of spewing sometimes vile insults at rivals, has in recent days escalated his attacks against the 33-year-old self-described democratic socialist. Trump has threatened to arrest Mamdani, to deport him and even to take over the country’s largest city if he wins the general election in November.
“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards,” Trump wrote in an ominous message on his Truth Social site Wednesday morning. “I’ll save New York City, and make it ′Hot′ and ′Great′ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Mamdani’s surprise victory over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given Republicans a new target as they seek to paint the entire Democratic Party as extreme and out of touch with voters heading into elections this fall in New Jersey and Virginia and next year’s high-stakes midterm elections. Since Mamdani’s win, they have repeatedly highlighted his most controversial past comments and positions, casting him as dangerous, a communist, and an antisemite, and trying to tie him to all other Democratic officials.
That has included intense criticism of his platform, as well as blatantly xenophobic and Islamophobic attacks.
If Mamdani wins, he would become the city’s furthest-left mayor in modern history. He ran on a platform that included opening city-run grocery stores, making buses free, freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments, and raising property taxes on ” richer and whiter neighborhoods.”
Though he softened his stance as he campaigned, he called the New York Police Department “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety” in a 2020 social media post, and in others, called for abolishing the entire prison system.
He has also drawn intense criticism from members of both parties over his pro-Palestinian advocacy. That has included describing Israel’s war in Gaza as “genocide,” his refusal to disavow use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is seen as a call to violence for many Jews. Also, for his refusal to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
His rise has sparked infighting and highlighted divisions among national Democratic officials, donors and political operatives. While many progressives have celebrated, seeing him as the future of a party aligned with leaders like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, moderates have bemoaned the election’s outcome as a setback in their quest to broaden Democrats’ appeal and move past the more controversial policies that appears to have alienated some voters in recent elections.
Trump threatens Mamdani’s citizenship
Trump unleashed some of his sharpest threats against Mamdani Tuesday, during a visit to a new migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.
If Mamdani blocks ICE agents from making arrests in the city, “Well, then we’ll have to arrest him,” he said. “Look, we don’t need a communist in this country. But if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”
Trump also amplified a false allegation that Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents and came to New York when he was 7, is in the country illegally.
“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally. We’re going to look at everything,” he said.
Mamdani, who is Muslim, became a naturalized American citizen a few years after he graduated from college. If elected, he would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor.
Mamdani addressed the criticism during an appearance Wednesday, telling reporters that Trump is focusing on him to distract the public from the Republican mega tax and spending cuts bill that is moving through Congress.
“Donald Trump said that I should be arrested. He said that I should be deported. He said that I should be denaturalized. And he said those things about me ... because he wants to distract from what I fight for,” he said. “I fight for the same people that he said he was fighting for. This is the same president who ran on a campaign of cheaper groceries, who ran on a campaign about easing the suffocating cost of living crisis. And ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge the ways in which he has betrayed those working-class Americans.”
Conservatives have turned their focus on Mamdani
Until Mamdani’s win, Trump and other Republicans had struggled to find a compelling foil. He frequently invokes his predecessor, Joe Biden. But with Democrats out of power and without a clear party leader, Trump has bounced from one official to the next, recently focusing his ire on Texas progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Since Mamdani’s national rise and toppling of Cuomo, conservative politicians and commentators have turned their focus on him.
That effort was on display Wednesday, when Republicans blasted House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries for defending Mamdani.
“Leader’ Jeffries Just Bent the Knee to Commie Mamdani,” the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote in an email blast, adding: “This radical platform is the future of the Democrat Party, and voters should be terrified.”
The attacks have been brewing.
Weeks before the primary, Vickie Paladino, a Republican member of the New York City Council, called for Mamdani to be deported. After Mamdani declared victory over Cuomo last week, Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, wrote on X that “If Mamdani has his way, NYC classrooms won’t be teaching the Constitution in civics class. They’ll be teaching Sharia Law.”
Another Republican congressman, Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas, circulated a video of Mamdani eating a rice dish with his hands on X and wrote, “Civilized people in America don’t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.”
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, of Tennessee, late last month wrote a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for the Justice Department to investigate whether Mamdani should be denaturalized as a citizen.
Republican leaders in House work to win over final holdouts on Trump’s tax bill
WASHINGTON: Republican leaders in the House were busy Wednesday trying to win over some final holdouts on President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cuts package — determined to seize momentum from a hard-fought vote in the Senate while essentially daring members to defy their party’s leader and vote against it.
“The American people gave us a clear mandate, and after four years of Democrat failure, we intend to deliver without delay,” the top four House GOP leaders said Tuesday after the bill passed the Senate 51-50, thanks to Vice President JD Vance’s tiebreaking vote.
It’s a risky gambit, one designed to meet Trump’s demand for a July 4 finish. Republicans have struggled mightily with the bill nearly every step of the way this year, often succeeding by only one vote. Their House majority stands at just 220-212, leaving little room for defections.
Some Republicans are likely to balk at being asked to rubber-stamp the Senate version less than 24 hours after passage. Republicans from competitive districts have bristled at the Senate bill’s cuts to Medicaid, while conservatives have lambasted the legislation as straying from their fiscal goals.
It falls to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and his team to convince them that the time for negotiations is over. They will need assistance from Trump to close the deal, and several conservatives went to the White House to talk about their concerns with the president.
“The president’s message was ‘we’re on a roll.’ He went over all the tariffs that he’s got and the money that’s accumulated, the economy’s hot, and he wants to see this,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.
In another warning sign of some House Republican resistance, a resolution setting up terms for debating Trump’s bill barely cleared the House Rules Committee on Wednesday morning. Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina sided with Democrats in voting against it.
Trump can’t afford to lose many votes from Republicans. Late into the afternoon, a procedural vote was being held open for more than two hours as GOP leadership waited for lawmakers delayed coming back to Washington because of weather and to conduct closed-door negotiations with concerned members.
Trump pushes Republicans to do ‘the right thing’
The bill would extend and make permanent various individual and business tax breaks from Trump’s first term, plus temporarily add new ones he promised during the 2024 campaign, including allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults. In all, the legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years.
The bill also provides about $350 billion for defense and Trump’s immigration crackdown. Republicans partially pay for it all through less spending on Medicaid and food assistance. The Congressional Budget Office projects the bill will add about $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the coming decade.
The House passed its version of the bill in May, despite worries about spending cuts and the overall price tag. Now, it’s being asked to give final passage to a version that, in many respects, exacerbates those concerns. The Senate bill’s projected impact on the nation’s debt, for example, is significantly higher.
Trump praised the bill profusely in a social media post, saying, “We can have all of this right now, but only if the House GOP UNITES, ignores its occasional ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ , and does the right thing, which is sending this Bill to my desk.”
The high price of opposing Trump’s bill
Johnson is intent on meeting Trump’s timeline and betting that hesitant Republicans won’t cross the president because of the heavy political price they would have to pay.
They need only look to Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who announced his intention to vote against the legislation over the weekend. Soon, the president was calling for a primary challenger to the senator and criticizing him on social media. Tillis quickly announced he would not seek a third term.
One House Republican who has staked out opposition to the bill, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, is being targeted by Trump’s well-funded political operation.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalize, R-Louisiana, said the leadership was not entertaining the possibility of making changes to the bill before the final vote.
“It’s not as easy as saying, ‘Hey, I just want one more change,’ because one more change could end up being what collapses the entire thing,” Scalize said.
Democratic lawmakers, united against the bill as harmful to the country, condemned the fast-track process.
“We’re rushing not because the country demands it but because he wants to throw himself another party,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “This isn’t policy. It’s ego management.”
Democrats
target vulnerable Republicans to join them in opposition
Flanked by nearly every member of his caucus, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delivered a pointed message from the Capitol steps on Wednesday morning: All Democrats will vote “no,” and they only need to flip four Republicans to prevent the bill from passing.
Jeffries singled out Republicans from districts expected to be highly competitive in 2026, including two from Pennsylvania.
“Why would Rob Bresnahan vote for this bill? Why would Scott Perry vote for this bill?” he said.
Democrats have described the bill in dire terms. They say Medicaid cuts would result in “Americans losing their lives because of their inability to access health care coverage.” Republicans are “literally ripping the food out of the mouths of children, veterans and seniors,” Jeffries said Monday.
Republicans say they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse.
The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and applies existing work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to more beneficiaries. States will also pick up more of the cost for food benefits.
The driving force behind the bill, however, is the tax cuts. Many expire at the end of this year if Congress doesn’t act.
The Tax Policy Center, which provides nonpartisan analysis of tax and budget policy, projected the bill would result next year in a $150 tax break for the lowest quintile of Americans, a $1,750 tax cut for the middle quintile and a $10,950 tax cut for the top quintile. That’s compared with what they would face if the 2017 tax cuts expired.
Trump to meet at White House with American hostage freed from Gaza
- Edan Alexander was released on May 12 by the militant group Hamas after 584 days in captivity
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will meet at the White House on Thursday with Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, who was released in May.
“The President and First Lady have met with many released hostages from Gaza, and they greatly look forward to meeting Edan Alexander and his family in the Oval Office tomorrow,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Alexander, now 21, is an American-Israeli from New Jersey. The soldier was 19 when militants stormed his base in Israel and dragged him into the Gaza Strip. Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after finishing high school and enlisted in the military.
He was released on May 12 by the militant group Hamas after 584 days in captivity. Alexander had been in Israel since he was freed until he traveled last month home to New Jersey, where his family still lives.
He was among 251 people taken hostage by Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that led to the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump in early March met at the White House with a group of eight former hostages who had been released by Hamas: Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani.
Thursday’s meeting comes ahead of a planed visit on Monday to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Trump pushes the Israeli government and Hamas to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage agreement and end the war in Gaza.
US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza
BEERSHEBA, Israel: American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press.
Two US contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished.
They said their colleagues regularly lobbed stun grenades and pepper spray in the direction of the Palestinians. One contractor said bullets were fired in all directions — in the air, into the ground and at times toward the Palestinians, recalling at least one instance where he thought someone had been hit.
“There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,” the contractor said.
He said American staff on the sites monitor those coming to seek food and document anyone considered “suspicious.” He said they share such information with the Israeli military.
Videos provided by one of the contractors and taken at the sites show hundreds of Palestinians crowded between metal gates, jostling for aid amid the sound of bullets, stun grenades and the sting of pepper spray. Other videos include conversation between English-speaking men discussing how to disperse crowds and encouraging each other after bursts of gunfire.
The testimonies from the contractors — combined with the videos, internal reports and text messages obtained by the AP — offer a rare glimpse inside the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population. Last month, the US government pledged $30 million for the group to continue operations — the first known US donation to the group, whose other funding sources remain opaque.
Journalists have been unable to access the GHF sites, located in Israeli military-controlled zones. The AP cannot independently verify the contractors’ stories.
A spokesperson for Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics company subcontracted by GHF, told the AP that there have been no serious injuries at any of their sites to date. In scattered incidents, security professionals fired live rounds into the ground and away from civilians to get their attention. That happened in the early days at the “the height of desperation where crowd control measures were necessary for the safety and security of civilians,” the spokesperson said.
Aid operation is controversial
Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, setting off the 21-month war, Israel has bombarded and laid siege to the strip, leaving many teetering on the edge of famine, according to food security experts.
For 2 1/2 months before GHF’s opening in May, Israel blocked all food, water and medicine from entering Gaza, claiming Hamas was stealing the aid being transported under a preexisting system coordinated by the United Nations. It now wants GHF to replace that UN system. The UN says its Gaza aid operations do not involve armed guards.
Over 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the war erupted, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants.
GHF is an American organization, registered in Delaware and established in February to distribute humanitarian aid during the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis. Since the GHF sites began operating more than a month ago, Palestinians say Israeli troops open fire almost every day toward crowds on roads heading to the distribution points, through Israeli military zones. Several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses.
In response, Israel’s military says it fires only warning shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm. It denies deliberately shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce “friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution centers.
AP’s reporting for this article focuses on what is happening at the sites themselves. Palestinians arriving at the sites say they are caught between Israeli and American fire, said the contractor who shared videos with the AP.
“We have come here to get food for our families. We have nothing,” he recounted Palestinians telling him. “Why does the army shoot at us? Why do you shoot at us?”
A spokesperson for the GHF said there are people with a “vested interest” in seeing it fail and are willing to do or say almost anything to make that happen. The spokesperson said the team is composed of seasoned humanitarian, logistics and security professionals with deep experience on the ground. The group says it has distributed the equivalent of more than 50 million meals in Gaza in its food boxes of staples.
GHF says that it has consistently shown compassionate engagement with the people of Gaza.
Throughout the war, aid distribution has been marred by chaos. Gangs have looted trucks of aid traveling to distribution centers and mobs of desperate people have also offloaded trucks before they’ve reached their destination. Earlier this month, at least 51 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 wounded while waiting for the UN and commercial trucks to enter the territory, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and a local hospital. Israel’s military acknowledged several casualties as soldiers opened fire on the approaching crowd and said authorities would investigate.
Videos, texts, internal reports document havoc at food sites
AP spoke to the two contractors for UG Solutions, an American outfit subcontracted to hire security personnel for the distribution sites. They said bullets, stun grenades and pepper spray were used at nearly every distribution, even if there was no threat.
Videos of aid being dispensed at the sites seen by the AP appear to back up the frenetic scenes the contractors described. The footage was taken within the first two weeks of its distributions — about halfway into the operations.
In one video, what appear to be heavily armed American security contractors at one of the sites in Gaza discuss how to disperse Palestinians nearby. One is heard saying he has arranged for a “show of force” by Israeli tanks.
“I don’t want this to be too aggressive,” he adds, “because this is calming down.”
At that moment, bursts of gunfire erupt close by, at least 15 shots. “Whoo! Whoo!” one contractor yelps.
“I think you hit one,” one says.
Then comes a shout: “Hell, yeah, boy!”
The camera’s view is obscured by a large dirt mound.
The contractor who took the video told AP that he saw other contractors shooting in the direction of Palestinians who had just collected their food and were departing. The men shot both from a tower above the site and from atop the mound, he said. The shooting began because contractors wanted to disperse the crowd, he said, but it was unclear why they continued shooting as people were walking away.
The camera does not show who was shooting or what was being shot at. But the contractor who filmed it said he watched another contractor fire at the Palestinians and then saw a man about 60 yards away — in the same direction where the bullets were fired — drop to the ground.
This happened at the same time the men were heard talking — effectively egging each other on, he said.
In other videos furnished by the contractor, men in grey uniforms — colleagues, he said — can be seen trying to clear Palestinians who are squeezed into a narrow, fenced-in passage leading to one of the centers. The men fire pepper spray and throw stun grenades that detonate amid the crowd. The sound of gunfire can be heard. The contractor who took the video said the security personnel usually fire at the ground near the crowds or from nearby towers over their heads.
During a single distribution in June, contractors used 37 stun grenades, 27 rubber-and-smoke “scat shell” projectiles and 60 cans of pepper spray, according to internal text communications shared with the AP.
That count does not include live ammunition, the contractor who provided the videos said.
One photo shared by that contractor shows a woman lying in a donkey cart after he said she was hit in the head with part of a stun grenade.
An internal report by Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics company subcontracted by GHF to run the sites, found that aid seekers were injured during 31 percent of the distributions that took place in a two-week period in June. The report did not specify the number of injuries or the cause. SRS told the AP the report refers to non-serious injuries.
More videos show frenzied scenes of Palestinians running to collect leftover food boxes at one site. Hundreds of young men crowd near low metal barriers, transferring food from boxes to bags while contractors on the other side of the barriers tell them to stay back.
Some Palestinians wince and cough from pepper spray. “You tasting that pepper spray? Yuck,” one man close to the camera can be heard saying in English.
SRS acknowledged that it’s dealing with large, hungry populations, but said the environment is secure, controlled, and ensures people can get the aid they need safely.
Verifying the videos with audio analysis
To confirm the footage is from the sites, AP geolocated the videos using aerial imagery. The AP also had the videos analyzed by two audio forensic experts who said they could identify live ammunition — including machine-gun fire — coming from the sites, in most cases within 50 to 60 meters of the camera’s microphone.
In the video where the men are heard egging each other on, the echo and acoustics of the shots indicate they’re fired from a position close to the microphone, said Rob Maher, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University and an author and research expert in audio forensic analysis. Maher and the other analyst, Steven Beck, owner of Beck Audio Forensics, said there was no indication that the videos’ audio had been tampered with.
The analysts said that the bursts of gunfire and the pop sequences in some of the videos indicated that guns were panning in different directions and were not repeatedly aimed at a single target. They could not pinpoint exactly where the shots were coming from nor who was shooting.
GHF says the Israeli military is not deployed at the aid distribution sites. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said the army is not stationed at the sites or within their immediate proximity, especially during operating hours. He said they’re run by an American company and have their own security.
One of the contractors who had been on the sites said he’d never felt a real or perceived threat by Hamas there.
SRS says that Hamas has openly threatened its aid workers and civilians receiving aid. It did not specify where people were threatened.
American analysts and Israeli soldiers work side by side, contractors say
According to the contractor who took the videos, the Israeli army is leveraging the distribution system to access information.
Both contractors said that cameras monitor distributions at each site and that American analysts and Israeli soldiers sit in a control room where the footage is screened in real time. The control room, they said, is housed in a shipping container on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The contractor who took the videos said some cameras are equipped with facial recognition software. In live shots of the sites seen by the AP, some videos streams are labeled “analytics” — those were the ones that had the facial recognition software, said the contractor.
If a person of interest is seen on camera — and their information is already in the system — their name and age pops up on the computer screen, said the contractor. Israeli soldiers watching the screens take notes and cross-check the analysts’ information with their own drone footage from the sites, he said.
The contractor said he did not know the source of the data in the facial recognition system. The AP could not independently verify his information.
An internal SRS report from June seen by the AP said that its intel team would circulate to staff a “POI Mugs Card,” that showed photos of Palestinians taken at the sites who were deemed persons of interest.
The contractor said he and other staff were told by SRS to photograph anyone who looked “out of place.” But the criteria were not specified, he said. The contractor said the photos were also added to the facial recognition database. He did not know what was done with the information.
SRS said accusations that it gathers intelligence are false and that it has never used biometrics. It said it coordinates movements with Israeli authorities, a requirement for any aid group in Gaza.
An Israeli security official who was not named in line with the army’s protocol, said there are no security screening systems developed or operated by the army within the aid sites.
It was a rushed rollout, the contractors say
The several hundred contractors hired by UG Solutions landed in Israel in mid-May, not long before the first GHF site opened on May 26.
The rollout was jumbled and lacked leadership, the two contractors told the AP. Some of the men had been recruited only days prior via email asking if they wanted to work in Gaza. Many had no combat experience and were not properly trained in offensive weapons, they said.
SRS did not provide the staff with draft rules of engagement until three days after distributions started, they said. The draft rules, seen by the AP, say deadly force may be used only under extreme necessity and non-lethal weapons may be used in an extreme situation on unarmed individuals who are physically violent.
The Palestinians seen in the videos don’t appear to be physically aggressive. SRS says there have been occasional altercations at the sites between aid seekers, but none have involved its staff.
Each contractor was equipped with a pistol, stun grenades, tear gas and an Israeli-made automatic rifle capable of firing dozens of rounds within seconds, said the contractor who took the videos.
In an email from May shared with the AP by a third party, one high-ranking contractor wrote to the head of UG Solutions and called the operation “amateur hour.” He wrote that the sites did not have enough staff or resources making them “not sustainable” and “not safe,” according to the email, seen by the AP.
The two contractors said none of the men in Israel working for UG Solutions were tested to see if they could handle a gun safely. One said the rushed rollout also meant not everyone could “zero” their weapon — adjust it to one’s personal specifications to ensure proper aim. Military experts say not zeroing a weapon poses a significant risk.
A spokesperson for UG Solutions, Drew O’Brien, said UG has an extensive recruiting and training process, including “a detailed application process, screening by experts, reference checks, background checks and weapons proficiency.” The group said it prides itself on repeated quality control checks once missions are underway.
O’Brien said the group was unaware of video showing gunfire from someone believed to be a UG Solutions contractor. He said he couldn’t comment on the allegations without seeing the videos.
The two contractors warned that if the organization continues as is, more lives will be at risk. “If operations continue in this manner, innocent aid seekers will continue to be needlessly injured,” said the contractor who took the videos. “And possibly killed.”
