US contractors say live ammunition fired at Gaza aid sites + Radio Islam’s Middle East Report – Select JMD media appearances
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American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are allegedly using live ammunition and stun grenades against Palestinians seeking food, according to the Associated Press. James M. Dorsey, from Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies weighs in.
Transcript
ANCHOR: Let's bring in James M. Dorsy now. He's a Middle East analyst and a professor at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Welcome again, James. So, just referring back to that Associated Press uh, report, they conducted interviews with people who claimed that they were US contractors guarding the aid at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. and the claim is that they have been shooting almost indiscriminately at people who were were queuing up for aid, that they were using live ammunition, they were using grenades. reportedly several dozen people killed again today, which makes the total death toll reportedly around 500 at least people killed queuing up for aid. You could make the argument, I think, that this foundation is ending as many lives as it is saving. What is going on?
JMD: Well, first of all, it's ending far too many lives. Whether it's as many as are being saved or not is neither here nor there, I have no reason to doubt the veracity and the integrity of the Associated Press report. I'm also not surprised that you're seeing US private military contractors using live fire. These are not people who understand crowd control who've been trained for crowd control. And therefore it's not much of a surprise.
However, I think one also has to take into account that Palestinians desperately trying to get aid at militarized distribution points are basically being attacked by multiple forces. So, you have the Israelis and I don't doubt that. Having said that, the Israelis also claim that Hamas has been attacking them and the Israelis are not the only ones who are claiming that. You're hearing that from the Gazin tribal leaders who are trying to protect aid convoys coming into Gaza both from Hamas but also from Israeli-backed gangs like the one led by Yasa Abu Shabab. So, you have a multiple number of forces involved here, whether or not it's the Israelis primarily who are responsible for the the greater number of deaths or the American private contractors. I don't think anybody really knows. But I would assume that they are accountable for a majority of those being killed.
ANCHOR: This foundation. My understanding is it was only set up in February, so it's brand new. I'm trying to understand the logic behind this. What do you what do you think about this? How could it be considered a good idea to throw in a brand new aid agency into what's a catastrophic aid emergency instead of the established charities and the UN departments that have been doing this for decades? I mean, what what is the logic behind that? Do you know?
JMD: By definition, the logic behind it is flawed by any measure. The establishment of the foundation and the attempt to control the distribution of aid is basically designed to undermine the United Nations and particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is responsible for Palestinian refugees, given that both the Israelis and the Americans deeply distrust the United Nations and in terms of UNRWA, that's been designated by the Israeli parliament as a uh terrorist organization. And it's also of course designed to control who gets aid and who doesn't in a situation, you know, the humanitarian crisis that Gaza confronts as a result of both Israel's war conduct and it's cutting off for three or four months of the flow of aid into Gaza. Tere's no way that the Gaza humanitarian foundation can replicate the kind of infrastructure, experience, knowledge on the ground that the United Nations and its various agencies has.
ANCHOR: James, good to speak to you. Thank you. My guest is Middle East analyst James M. Dorsey.
Radio Islam’s Middle East Report
