A comprehensive investigation by The New York Times reveals that Israel's plan to transfer Gaza food distribution from United Nations agencies to private contractors represents the culmination of a year-long effort by an informal network of Israeli military reservists, tech investors and business figures who developed the strategy to undermine Hamas control while bypassing international aid organizations they view as biased against Israel.
The transition represents a fundamental change supported by advocates who characterize the initiative as an independent and neutral operation managed primarily by American contractors, The New York Times reported. Philip F. Reilly, a former senior CIA officer, leads the main security provider, while Jake Wood, a former US Marine, heads the fundraising organization and explained in an interview that the system would begin implementation shortly.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced the arrangement in early May, stating it was "wholly inaccurate" to call it "an Israeli plan," according to The New York Times.
However, the investigation found the project originated as an Israeli concept, first proposed by Israeli officials during the war's opening weeks, with sources speaking anonymously to discuss the initiative more openly, The New York Times discovered.
The New York Times found that initial discussions of the plan's framework occurred in late 2023 during private gatherings of aligned officials, military officers and business figures with strong Israeli government connections.
The group adopted the name Mikveh Yisrael Forum, referencing the college where members convened in December 2023, with leading participants eventually embracing the concept of employing private contractors for Gaza food distribution while circumventing the United Nations, The New York Times reported. The forum's members spent 2024 building support among Israel's political leadership and select military commanders while developing the concept with foreign contractors, particularly Reilly.
The strategy aimed to diminish Hamas's Gaza control, prevent food from reaching terrorists' hands or black market channels, and bypass the United Nations, which Israeli officials distrust and have accused of anti-Israeli bias, with officials arguing their approach would relocate distribution from chaotic, lawless zones to areas under Israeli military oversight, according to The New York Times.
UN officials contested the proposal, asserting the plan would limit food aid to restricted Gaza areas and warning it could endanger civilians by compelling them to walk miles across Israeli military lines to access food, The New York Times reported. The UN additionally warns the system could enable an Israeli strategy to displace civilians from northern Gaza, since initial distribution locations would only operate in the south.
Reilly's organization, Safe Reach Solutions, along with other security firms would initially establish four distribution sites in southern Gaza areas under Israeli military control, Wood explained to The New York Times.
Wood's nonprofit, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, will fund the arrangement, which would progressively replace a UN-operated system where civilians collect food from hundreds of locations throughout Gaza, The New York Times found.
Wood, serving as the foundation's executive director, acknowledged to The New York Times that the system is "imperfect," but emphasized, "The reality is, any food that is getting into Gaza today is more food than got into Gaza yesterday."
He stated his foundation possessed "the necessary autonomy to operate independently," with no Israeli funding, citing his advocacy for northern distribution sites as evidence and declaring to The New York Times, "I would participate in no plan in any capacity if it was an extension of an I.D.F. plan or an Israeli government plan to forcibly dislocate people anywhere within Gaza."
The project's origins trace to the chaotic period following Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, when hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians rejoined the military as reservists, many reaching influential positions, The New York Times investigation revealed.
This process generated a substantial group of Israelis maintaining dual roles in military and civilian spheres, blurring boundaries between these worlds and fostering unexpected connections between career officers and influential part-time personnel, along with their business associates, according to The New York Times.
An informal network emerged among like-minded officials, officers, reservists and business figures who believed the Israeli military and government lacked a Gaza strategy and sought to develop one independently, sources told The New York Times.
The group included Yotam HaCohen, a strategic consultant who joined COGAT, the military department overseeing Gaza aid delivery; Liran Tancman, a well-connected tech investor who also joined COGAT; and Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli-American venture capitalist who remained outside military service, sources told The New York Times.
HaCohen subsequently became an assistant to Brigadier General Roman Goffman, a senior COGAT commander now serving as the prime minister's military adviser, The New York Times learned.
In December 2023, HaCohen, Tancman and Eisenberg helped lead a brainstorming session combining officials and influential civilians at the college near Tel Aviv, with members later convening at other venues, including Eisenberg's Jerusalem residence, according to people with knowledge of the meetings who spoke to The New York Times.
Eisenberg confirmed to The New York Times his participation in meetings about these concepts with Israeli officials and private individuals but stated, "it is hard to know exactly how this all emerged," noting the involvement of numerous people, including US officials. A representative for HaCohen's and Tancman's group declined to comment to The New York Times.
During these gatherings, participants discussed the difficulty of defeating Hamas through military force alone and explored methods to undermine Hamas's civilian control, including through aid distribution, sources familiar with the meetings told The New York Times.
Group members advanced the concept of distributing aid from Israeli military-occupied territory pockets beyond Hamas's reach, seeking to circumvent the United Nations while avoiding Israel assuming responsibility for Gaza's approximately two million residents, according to sources who spoke to The New York Times. Over time, they settled on private contractor-managed food distribution, the people familiar with the meetings said.
HaCohen proposed a version of the plan now being implemented in a journal published by the Israeli military last July, The New York Times reported.
"To meet the war's goals over the long term, Israel needs to develop tools that will pull the rug out from under the Hamas movement and not just (temporarily) dismantle the Hamas government," HaCohen wrote, according to The New York Times. "Pulling the rug out will come once Israel begins to work directly with the civilian population, manages the distribution of aid itself, and begins to take responsibility for building the 'day-after.'"
Expressing frustration that Israel was "at the mercy" of traditional aid agencies, HaCohen argued that "non-state contractor companies must be employed" to implement the plan, including private, non-Israeli contractors "in the areas of security, aid and services," The New York Times found. He noted developing these concepts while serving as General Goffman's assistant and thanked Tancman and the Mikveh Yisrael Forum for their assistance.
During this period, Israeli officials, including HaCohen and Tancman, began engaging with Reilly and promoting him to Israel's military and political leadership, sources familiar with the meetings told The New York Times.
While other private contractors offered their services, the former CIA officer gradually became Israel's preferred partner, according to sources who spoke to The New York Times.
In a brief interview with The New York Times, Reilly confirmed beginning Gaza aid discussions with Israeli civilians in early 2024 and meeting Eisenberg and Tancman later that year.
As a young CIA operative in the 1980s, Reilly helped train the Contras, right-wing groups fighting Nicaragua's Marxist government, according to a 2022 podcast interview referenced by The New York Times. Two decades later, he was among the first US agents landing in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, becoming the CIA station chief in Kabul before transitioning to private security work for organizations including Orbis, a Virginia-based consulting firm.
In this capacity, Reilly collaborated with Israeli military and intelligence officials to develop new Gaza food distribution models, according to an Orbis document obtained by The New York Times.
While working for Orbis in late 2024, Reilly contributed to a study outlining a detailed version of the plan to outsource food aid delivery to private companies and foundations, according to the document reviewed by The New York Times.
Last November, Reilly's representatives registered two entities in the United States, SRS and GHF, according to sources familiar with the move who spoke to The New York Times.
SRS began Gaza operations in January 2025, with Reilly as chief executive, and during a January-March ceasefire, the firm's contractors staffed a central Gaza checkpoint screening Palestinian vehicles for weapons, with SRS stating it maintained no Israeli shareholders or interests, The New York Times reported. The effort served as a small-scale trial for a future security model that could expand more broadly, according to sources who spoke to The New York Times.
Wood told The New York Times that SRS is now the primary security company selected to secure food distribution sites in southern Gaza, essentially implementing concepts articulated by HaCohen and Reilly.
Wood explained to The New York Times that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a nonprofit organization that will employ SRS and raise funds for its operations.
The foundation currently operates at "arm's length" from SRS, Wood stated to The New York Times, though one lawyer, James H. Cundiff, registered both organizations in the United States, and until recently the two groups shared the same spokeswoman. Cundiff did not respond to The New York Times requests for comment.
At least two additional groups named the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have been registered, one in the United States and another in Switzerland, with a spokesman for Wood's foundation telling The New York Times that the February Delaware establishment was his.
The financing source for the foundation's extensive aid operation remains unclear, as it aims to provide food for approximately one million people – roughly half of Gaza's population – and would involve approximately one thousand armed security guards, according to the Orbis document reviewed by The New York Times.
Wood told The New York Times that the foundation received modest seed funding from non-Israeli businessmen but declined to identify them or those who appointed him.
Subsequently, the foundation announced in a statement that a Western European country donated over $100 million for future operations but declined to name the country to The New York Times.
