US security contractors in Gaza: What we know so far

Three private security firms are checking the vehicles of displaced Palestinians returning north during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

An armed man at a checkpoint overseen by US and Egyptian security at the Netzarim Corridor as displaced Palestinians make their way to northern Gaza. AFP

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Palestinians moving by car through two checkpoints in central Gaza were kept “a fair distance” from armed US security contractors at the Netzarim Corridor, sources told The National on Monday.

Photos released earlier this month show that at least one of the checkpoints uses a US-made, portable X-ray scanner brought to the site by the Americans and operated by US contractors. Two US firms and one Arab company are working on the operation.

Netzarim, a strip of devastated land named after an Israeli settlement and recently vacated by Israeli forces as part of a complex ceasefire deal with Hamas, had been turned into a security buffer zone dividing the north and south of the coastal enclave where entire neighbourhoods have been razed. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardment, mostly civilians, following the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people in Israel were killed, also mostly civilians.

The scanner is a state-of-the-art Mobile Vehicle Access Control Inspection System, designed to “efficiently scan for any anomalies, ensure the correct number of passengers are in the vehicle and confirm there is nothing in the cargo that should not be there”, according to a US Air Force description.

Palestinians cross the Wadi Gaza bridge and the Netzarim Corridor between Gaza city, top, and Nuseirat in central Gaza on Monday as displaced people return home during the current ceasefire. AFP

What that means in practice, the US Air Force said, was that vehicles could quickly be scanned without the need to inspect them manually.

The scanner appeared in photos on January 27 that purportedly show armed men from private security firm UG Solutions operating the checkpoint and the X-ray machine.

UG Solutions has a basic website, saying very little about the company, although it invites people to apply to “submit information for employment consideration”.

The company has few employees listed online, although Jameson Govoni is listed as the managing partner on LinkedIn. One other employee, Billy Cipriani, is also listed as working for the company on the networking site. After a seven-year stint in the army, leaving in 2005, he had several private-sector roles in the logging industry and selling ice-making machines.

Mr Govoni lists “Special Operations” in the US Army from 2004 to 2015 in his employment history. He is also linked to a company called Sentinel Foundation, set up with another veteran of the special forces, which describes itself as combating child trafficking around the world, having apparently been a success in Haiti. Both companies are based in Davidson, North Carolina.

Sentinel was “the premier at counter trafficking around the world just based on our backgrounds. Everybody’s a former Special Operations Intelligence Analyst,” Mr Govoni told US Reporter in an advertorial article.

UG Solutions’ work follows months of discussion in Washington as to how security might be provided for aid distribution in Gaza, where Israeli soldiers have fired on crowds of civilians crowding to receive food deliveries.

Another company working on the checkpoints is Safe Research Solutions, based in Wyoming. Its founder, Phil Reily, was among the first CIA officers in Afghanistan in 2001 during the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban.

The sight of private security contractors in Gaza has raised concerns among some observers that there is no long-term plan for the enclave’s security or reconstruction.

“It is unclear what function they are actually providing,” says Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser and professor of political science at Columbia University in New York.

“The flow of people to and from northern Gaza seems to be essentially unchecked. In any event, they can't provide security for Gaza and in the vacuum Hamas will reassert it's control over time – and not much time.”

Israel, in turn, says Hamas and other gunmen have been seizing control of some aid deliveries. Israel has been widely accused by aid agencies of drastically slowing down and occasionally stopping aid deliveries to the enclave of 2.3 million people, exacerbating a severe hunger crisis.

“It is critical that the ceasefire continues both so that all the hostages are released and so that humanitarian aid continue to be delivered at large scale for the innocent civilians in Gaza," says Michael Mulroy, who served as Former United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, under the first Donald Trump presidency.

"It is important to point out that the amount of aid into Gaza has increased substantially and that level needs to be maintained to deal with the crisis," he says.

Calls from some governments and politicians to create a multinational peacekeeping force have yet to materialise, while President Donald Trump has hinted at a US “takeover” of the enclave, saying the population could be rehoused elsewhere, while providing few details and saying no US forces would be needed.