Israeli documents reveal further American interests in firm guarding Gaza aid hubs
Business registration documents filed in Israel last month by a private US contractor operating in Gaza reveal a wider network of Americans linked to a controversial aid plan whose funding has remained opaque as more than 400 Palestinians have been killed seeking food from its sites.
Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) is providing security and logistics for the sites recently set up as part of the plan, which has seen the UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza sidelined and replaced by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Questions about the foundation’s funding have plagued it for weeks, leading reporters to look for answers in the wilds of Delaware, a state known for its culture of corporate secrecy where GHF was registered earlier this year.
While the organisation’s backers remain a mystery, a Middle East Eye investigation based on registration documents filed by SRS in Israel last month show a confluence of former US government contractors, investors, and firms representing ultra-rich individuals involved in the for-profit company.
The revelations come as the US State Department is reportedly considering providing $500m to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
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Safe Reach Solutions registered as a foreign company in Israel on 14 May, less than two weeks before GHF began operations in Gaza, documents filed with the Israeli Corporations Authority records show.
The registration process was initiated by Nurit Dagan, a lawyer with Israeli law firm Herzog, Fox and Neeman, and Christopher James Oates, who is only described in one sparse document as an American with no further details.
An individual with the same name is the founder and managing partner of a Lake Forest, Illinois-based investment firm called Nio Advisors, which has previously partnered with McNally Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm which has already confirmed that it has a stake in SRS.
Since 2021, McNally Capital and Nio Advisors have acquired at least three government contractors, each of which are focused on national security.
One of the companies is Orbis, a Virginia-based consultancy. It was while working for Orbis late last year that Phil Reilly, the former CIA officer who now heads SRS, reportedly worked on a study for new models to outsource food distribution in Gaza to private companies and foundations.
McNally Capital and SRS did not respond to requests for comment from MEE about whether Nio Advisors was involved.
Nio Advisors, which was incorporated in Delaware in 2015, has no website, nor any contact details that MEE could find.
In a further attempt to reach Oates, MEE also contacted Disruptive Industries, a UK-based technology start-up founded by a former British military intelligence operator in which Oates serves as a director, but did not receive a response.
Also listed in the company’s Israeli filing as an officer of SRS is Charles Africano.
A Linkedin account for an individual with the same name shows that he worked for Academi, the private security contractor previously known as Blackwater before it merged with a competitor to become Constellis Holdings.
A Charles Africano is also listed as a point of contact for Circinus, a Virginia-based defence contractor which made headlines during Donald Trump’s first administration after its founder, top Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws. Broidy was pardoned by Trump in 2021. (The link to the Circinus page in which a Charles Africano was listed disappeared after MEE's story was published)
SRS did not respond when MEE asked if it could confirm that the Africano on the filing was the former Circinus employee, and attempts to reach Africano through the number on the Circinus website led to a disconnected number.
Reilly has previously worked for both Constellis as senior vice president of special activities and Circinus where he served as a board member.
The Israeli filing also lists the Wyoming-based Two Ocean Trust LLC, a wealth management company which serves as SRS’s registered agent in the US, as the sole director of the company.
The trust says it partners with families to manage multi-generational wealth, delivering "customised investment and trust solutions to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices and foundations" and offers "unique access to Wyoming's tax advantages, modern trust laws and enhance privacy protections".
Wyoming, like Delaware, is a state increasingly known for its corporate secrecy, with a recent International Consortium for Investigative Journalist report showing that it had surpassed Delaware for the most corporate registrations per capita.
MEE asked Two Ocean Trust whether the firm was acting on behalf of McNally Capital, Nio Advisors or any other clients in its role with SRS, or if it was working for the trust alone.
Joel Revill, Two Ocean’s CEO, told MEE: “As a publicly chartered trust company, Two Ocean Trust serves many clients. It does not own Safe Reach Solutions."
Lawyers warn of complicity
Since GHF launched its operations three weeks ago, MEE's Gaza-based journalist has reported that at least 420 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,000 others injured by Israeli fire near three aid distribution sites in central and southern Gaza.
“You go there to get food, but you never know if you’ll make it back,” one Palestinian in Gaza told MEE this week, describing the hubs as “an execution site”.
GHF has rejected reports that Palestinians have been killed near its distribution sites.
"To date, not a single incident has occurred at or in the surrounding vicinity of GHF sites, nor has any incident occurred during our operating hours. Our distribution model is secure and designed specifically to prevent such tragedies, even under extreme pressure," the foundation said in a statement this week.
The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights has warned the foundation that it may be prosecuted for aiding war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. A letter sent to GHF mentions the role Safe Reach Solutions is playing.
Also copied into the letter was Christoph Schweizer, CEO of the Boston Consulting Group, which was reportedly critical in designing and maintaining the foundation’s business operations.
Earlier this month, the global consultancy announced that it had withdrawn from the project and fired two employees, saying that they had carried out unauthorised work in violation of company policies. The firm has engaged outside counsel to investigate its involvement.
Questions remain about how involved the firm was in developing the security side of the aid operation. As MEE has reported, Reilly was still a senior advisor at BCG when Safe Reach Solutions was registered in the US.
MEE asked SRS, Two Ocean Trust and McNally Capital whether they were concerned about reports of the killings of Palestinians near the distribution sites.
None of the companies responded.
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