(LifeSiteNews) — In two recent viral interviews conducted by Tucker Carlson, a retired Green Beret Lt. Colonel in the United States Army who served in Gaza with the recently formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), witnessed systematic, heinous, and violent crimes of the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians and then defended his testimony after what he referred to as a “smear campaign” against his character and his family.
“They treated them like animals,” said Lt. Colonel Tony Aguilar, a 25-year combat veteran. “The IDF, and in some cases we (U.S. contractors on the ground), don’t recognize these people as human beings.” He reported that even these American colleagues referred to the starving Palestinians as “the zombie horde.”
Aguilar, who attended West Point and was deployed during his career more than a dozen times to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Jordan, the Philippines, Vietnam and more while seeing combat in many of these countries, is also highly decorated, having been awarded a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal for valor in combat.
Reflecting on his vast experience during his July 31 interview, he said “nothing compares” to what he has seen in Gaza. “I have never witnessed anything as brutal, destructive, (and) violent. And I would say that steps far over our international laws of how we prosecute wars and how we engage in warfare. We’ve long departed from that standard, and America is a part of it.”
The retired Green Barret explained how he was recruited to assist in security for the GHF mission that began in late May after two months of a complete blockade of all humanitarian aid to the approximately two million Palestinians in the enclave, including around one million children.
READ: ‘Pro-life’ GOP starving 1 million children to death in Gaza, USCCB remains silent
He described the landscape of the Strip as “post-apocalyptic,” with entire cities, particularly Rafah, reduced to rubble. “It is leveled to the ground. There is not a building that stands, and the rubble is piled up.” This debris includes many personal artifacts such as destroyed furniture and appliances, along with “family photos that were on the wall that are now shattered and broken. These lives were just destroyed and taken. And that’s the scene of Gaza.”
GHF process ‘so inhumane and evil that it can only be deliberate’
Aguilar highlighted the widespread starvation and deprivation, emphasizing that GHF aid efforts were wholly inadequate, providing only a fraction of the food necessary for the population while refusing to deliver essentials like water, medicine, and hygiene products.
With Israel having expelled the United Nations from providing humanitarian aid at approximately 400 distribution points throughout the strip, they replaced it with the GHF, which established only four sites, with three of them bunched together “in the far southwest corner of the enclave near the Egyptian border” that is “nowhere near the people that need it (most),” the soldier explained.
The most vulnerable population is in the north “where you have deaths, starvation, they’re isolated. No aid is going into there and there’s no aid sites there,” he explained.
Gaza is not starving; it is being starved by Israel. pic.twitter.com/1dS6eLCg2u
— Irlandarra (@aldamu_jo) August 6, 2025
Further, Aguilar quoted a GHF spokesman who read a statement at a July 29 press conference without taking any questions, claiming that since May 27 they had “distributed more than 95 million meals to the people in Gaza.”
“We’ve been delivering aid for 65 days,” the retired Green Beret recalled. “Now, you don’t have to be Copernicus to figure this out. Ninety-six million divided by 2.21 million, divided by three meals a day divided by 65 days. We have provided food for 15 days out of 65 into the enclave. What happened to the other 50 days?”
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Additionally, he explained that after the Palestinian civilians walk around 12 kilometers seeking such distributions, the GHF provides them with no water, “because it’s too expensive. Distributing water weighs so much that it breaks down the profit per cost per truck,” he was told.
Yet, “all of their food, by the way, requires water to cook it. Rice, lentils, beans, flour, you’ve got to have water,” he explained. And thus, the Palestinians in Gaza are forced to walk many kilometers in the heat to get a handout of food without the necessary water to cook it.
The combat veteran concluded that this process is “so inhumane and evil that it can only be deliberate.”
It’s as if Netanyahu is striving to violate every war crime of the Geneva Convention
Further, Aguilar described how the aid distribution locations in the far south of the strip are located near an IDF combat unit that is engaged in an offensive operation.
“We established secure distribution sites to deliver and distribute humanitarian aid, not only co-located with Israeli combat units, but located in an active combat zone,” the retired officer mocked. “That is a war crime verbatim out of the protocols of the Geneva Convention, which last time I checked the United States was still a signatory.
READ: John Mearsheimer tells Tucker the US is ‘complicit’ in Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Assessing the entire situation from this perspective, the Green Beret expressed it is as if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was handed “a list of the violations of the Geneva Convention” and simply tried to violate every one of them, “checking them off.”
These include “displacing the population,” “firing at the civilians to control the population,” “targeting civilians with lethal ammunition,” “building the humanitarian distribution sites in the middle of combat zones,” and labeling “the entire society as Hamas (in order to) kill them all.”
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“The Geneva Convention specifically prohibits the classification of an entire population as the enemy based on the actions of a few,” the combat veteran explained, stating that U.S.-backed Israel is treating all of Gaza as Hamas, which is “another war crime.”
GHF distribution sites ‘designed’ to be ‘death traps’
In detailing the dangerous conditions at the GHF aid sites placed in active combat zones, Aguilar explained how Palestinian civilians were forced to navigate militarized corridors to reach these sites facing machine gun fire, mortars, and tank rounds supposedly used for crowd control, resulting in deaths and injuries, even daily.
“The only way I could describe the sites is death traps. And they didn’t become death traps, they were designed as death traps,” he said. Additionally, the United States provides aid to “lure them in,” and they get shot at coming, and they get shot at going.”
The IDF uses “machine guns, mortars, tank rounds, artillery,” as thousands of Palestinians rush to the site before dawn “and over their heads, you just see tracer bullets flying, tracers, tank rounds, artillery rounds,” he said (footage).
Video shows Israeli soldiers opening fire towards Palestinians trying to reach a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution site in southern Gaza. At least 838 people have been killed at or near GHF aid sites since May. pic.twitter.com/glWuOEVDlU
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 15, 2025
The IDF’s pretense for committing such an apparent war crime is “to keep the Palestinians on the right path.”
From the very beginning, Aguilar asked if the Israeli army had tried using a simple sign instead, one “that says ‘go this way’ instead of shooting a Merkava tank round?” But this idea was dismissed by those in charge, who reportedly stated, “Nope, costs too much. We’re not going to do it,” which the American combat veteran found very “telling” with regard to their intentions.
GHF distribution process ‘most chaotic, depraved, dehumanizing’ thing ever seen
The decorated veteran described the scene of the thousands of Palestinians rushing in the early dawn hours to get some scraps of food with reservists, who have minimal training, shooting in their direction in the dark without night vision capacities, “so they’re shooting into the dark at thousands of people.”
And when this crowd gets onto the distribution site, there are “eight minutes of mayhem” as “25,000 boxes of food are stripped through, taken down and gone. Eight minutes. It’s one of the most chaotic, depraved, dehumanizing things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
READ: On Holocaust Memorial Day, Jewish group protests Israel’s ‘sadistic’ genocide in Gaza
In the second interview on August 6, he also explained the dynamics of how such a corralled crowd was managed to stampede 20 fellow aid seekers to death on July 16, stating that each distribution site is “its own arena.”
Site number 3 is “very canalized” and “very congested” with mounds of rubble constraining the starving aid seekers driving them into a “bottleneck surrounded by razor wire” through “a very small exit.” And this small outlet is “surrounded by fighting positions where IDF have machine guns” firing live rounds.
“It is the perfect setting for a stampede of human beings … as if it was created for that,” Aguilar observed. Additionally, he clarified that the use of razor wire for civilian purposes is also a war crime, “banned by the Geneva Convention.”
This is what the US-Israeli aid distribution centers in Gaza look like. pic.twitter.com/sxCsJeY2rk
— Warfare Analysis (@warfareanalysis) June 24, 2025
‘Shooting bullets into a crowd of unarmed civilians’
In response to Aguilar’s allegations, the GHF admitted firing “warning shots” in order “to disperse crowds,” firing them “upwards in the air and towards the coastline,” an alibi the Green Beret confirmed.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying you do. You’re correct,” he affirmed. “But when you’re shooting bullets, they come out of an automatic rifle at a crowd of thousands of people, and you can’t see them because there’s berms and there’s dust and inner visibility lines that you can’t see and you’re just shooting, you’re going to kill somebody. Period.”
Reliable reports emerge virtually every day from Gaza’s Health Ministry documenting the ongoing slaughters conducted by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people in the enclave. On Tuesday, it reported that out of 89 Palestinians having been killed in the previous 24 hours, 31 died attempting to get aid while 388 aid seekers were injured out of a total of 513 Palestinians for just one day.
Since GHF began operating on May 27, the Health Ministry has reported the deaths of 1,838 aid seekers with a total of 13,409 starving Palestinians having been wounded.
Gaza aid distribution deaths by IDF, US private contractors ‘orchestrated killing’ — MSF
‘People are being shot like animals. They’re civilians carrying plastic bags, hoping to bring home some flour or pasta…how high is the price they have to pay for one bag of food?’ pic.twitter.com/MW3F5KvbNk
— RT (@RT_com) August 7, 2025
“They shoot at their feet, they shoot over the head, they shoot into the air,” Aguilar continued. “Targeting innocent unarmed civilians on the battlefield for the purpose of controlling them or controlling the crowd. Again, there you go, (that is) another war crime.”
READ: Jewish Israelis confront Gaza genocide with photos of slain children
He also stipulated that when the GHF spokesmen publicly affirmed its men were shooting “towards the coastline,” they were just verifying to the world that they “are shooting bullets into a crowd of unarmed civilians because what lines the entire coast from north to south of the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza? Thousands of human beings.”
“I have never experienced, witnessed, been a part of anything that was that uncontrolled, undisciplined, barbaric, immature, and what I would call just a reckless, reckless endangerment,” he described.
“So when we’re doing these things, we’re just egregiously violating international standards, the standards that we as Americans expect,” the veteran charged. And thus, the United States is “definitely complicit in this ongoing operation.”
Despite routine artillery barrages from the IDF, Aguilar never once saw ‘an armed Palestinian’
During their second interview, Carlson pointed out that while the conflict in Gaza is described as “a war,” and Aguilar testifies to seeing and hearing many discharges of ammunition, including small arms, mortars, and artillery barrages, the former FoxNews host asked if he ever saw any “counter fire”?
Was the IDF “fighting against an armed enemy?” he inquired. “Was it actually a war? Did you ever see any Palestinians committing acts of violence when you were there?”
The former Green Barret affirmed that despite his being to every distribution site and witnessing the array of IDF battle forces deployed there, along with the routine live fire, “I have never, in the entire time that I was there, at every site, seen an armed Palestinian.”
So, while regularly engaging in live fire, the Israeli forces “were not defending themselves”? Carlson asked. “No, sir,” the retired soldier affirmed.
American mercenaries guarding US-funded “aid distribution centers” in Gaza have been filmed celebrating and encouraging each other after firing shots at starving Palestinians, with one American recalling an incident where a Palestinian appeared to be hit.#GazaHolocaust pic.twitter.com/ZNu9tJhTyd
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) July 3, 2025
Aguilar responds to serious allegations
Also In the second interview, Aguilar responded to some of the serious allegations against his credibility issued during the July 29 press conference by a GHF spokesman and an attorney from UG Solutions, the security subcontractor he worked for directly.
Carlson said “forces against you organized immediately” after the first interview providing a full press conference. Having watched this entire presentation, the former FoxNews host told the retired soldier, “They didn’t respond to a single, not one, of the allegations you made about their conduct in Gaza … Instead, it was a litany of attacks on you.”
READ: The truth is out about Israel. It can no longer be ignored
Nonetheless, one of the allegations made regarded several Signal chats Aguilar sent praising the work of his organization for many things such as “provid(ing) lifesaving Humanitarian Aid to 20.45% of the ENTIRE population of Gaza” and encouraging others “Be proud. Be humble. You are making a difference in the future of this region and geopolitics around the globe. That’s something to hang your hat on at the end of a hard week.”
To this, Aguilar explained these “Signal snapchats were something called ‘impact statements’” that the UG Solutions’ COO had directed him in writing to create and issue to the American contractors as a type of positive encouragement to offset falling morale.
He said that “leaders don’t gripe down, leaders gripe up,” and while he sent these messages to encourage the men, he was also making his “dissatisfaction absolutely known to the leadership directly in writing and in verbal” communication.
“So, your position is you were not complimenting the conduct of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” Carlson summarized. “You were saying to the guys providing security for this benighted operation that they’re ‘doing their best, keep going guys,’” which Aguilar affirmed.
Not fired, but quit in protest
The critics also claimed Aguilar was fired from UG Solutions on June 13 for misconduct and that he begged to be rehired. The retired soldier said that while his contract was terminated, this was done by him in writing, and he was not fired.
“You could say that I quit in protest, much like those before me, much like Jake Wood, former director of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, who stepped down in protest” (source), along with two other executives from UG Solutions and the primary contractor, Safe Reach Solutions (SRS).
“I was not the first and I was not the last” to step down in protest of GHF, he said, stipulating that he did seek a position with the higher-level SRS contractor that would allow him to influence how operations on the sites were managed, including “rules of engagement, standard operating procedures, distribution process, organization and planning.”
“I call that a war crime.”
Anthony Aguilar told Al Jazeera about what he described as deadly and unprofessional practices he witnessed firsthand at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution sites in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/qH0MeHqMzA
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 2, 2025
He also produced a departure letter he received from the UG Solutions chief operating officer expressing gratitude for his service and inviting him to consider applying again in the future for another position should he so desire. It was dated June 23, just one day before the retired soldier left his employment.
Finally, the spokesmen for GHF and UG Solutions charged Aguilar was not in the field very often to which the soldier responded, “I was on a distribution site in Gaza every day.”
And to prove his point, he offered that “every photo” included in the press conference were pictures he took himself on location. “Every single day there is a photo of me or a photo taken by me that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation then used in their public releases,” he said.
“All of the photos that the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation released publicly until the 13th of June were taken by me,” he reaffirmed, suggesting the shots prove his presence on the ground during that time period.
US should end GHF, put United Nations mechanisms ‘back in full force’
Aguilar went on to reiterate his call for the U.S. to end its funding of GHF and investigate its operations, urging a return to the United Nations’ aid delivery system. He criticized the lack of accountability for both GHF’s leadership and IDF actions, emphasizing the need for systemic reform.
“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation does not have the capacity, it does not have the logistics, it does not have the experience, it does not have the personnel, to do a half part, or any part, of the humanitarian assistance operation” necessary in Gaza, he said.
It should, in fact, “cease to exist” because its existence and operation “creates a misnomer, a lie that this mechanism is working and that the UN is not needed.”
“Regardless of what we call the method, whether it’s GHF, whether it’s the UN, whether it’s Greta Thunberg handing out PBJ sandwiches on the Mediterranean beach, whatever the method is, it has to be able to feed 2.21 million people a day, three meals a day, every day and bring in water, fuel,” and other necessities.
“Remember the GHF aid brings no water, no pampers, no diapers, no fuel, no medicine, no hygiene products, just dried food, nothing else. Nothing else. So the method, whatever it is, needs to be a method that can handle the capacity of 500 to 550 trucks a day every day, that can manage 400 to 500 sites throughout the entirety of Gaza,” Aguilar said.
“Well, the UN provides that. That was the UN model. The UN model was taking in 550 to 600 trucks a day going to 400 sites with doctors, veterans, nurses, teachers, water, fuel, enough food. That was the mechanism,”
“The United Nations mechanism should be put back in full force today,” the Green Barret implored. “The United States should stop. Do not spend another dime on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation because it is not achieving any modicum of a goal of feeding anyone.”
Israeli forces should immediately stop using lethal force on Palestinians seeking food at some aid distribution sites in Gaza.
HRW’s @ida_sawyer explains during a recent BBC appearance ⤴️ pic.twitter.com/p5QgsrJ9oX
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) August 8, 2025
On Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported five more malnutrition deaths for the previous 24-hour period. The individuals included two children. “This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 227, including 103 children,” the ministry said.
Additionally, violent deaths inflicted by Israel upon Palestinians in the enclave since October 7, 2023, number 61,599 with the injured climbing to 154,088. Numerous studies indicate these confirmed figures remain a significant under-count.
Former UNRWA Chief EXPOSES Gaza ‘Humanitarian’ Foundation pic.twitter.com/Y4XR3g7Hac
— Double Down News (@DoubleDownNews) July 26, 2025
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