Palestinian authorities yesterday denounced a US consulting firm and an Israel-backed aid group for plotting to forcibly displace Palestinians from the blockaded Gaza Strip under the guise of humanitarian aid.
According to the Financial Times, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) developed a financial model for a covert project named ‘Aurora’, aiming to displace more than half a million Palestinians from Gaza by offering ‘displacement packages’ funded by foreign entities.
The British daily identified the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), created with US-Israeli support, as the executive front of the project.
Despite claims of humanitarian work, GHF’s activities have resulted in the deaths of 751 Palestinian civilians, injuries to 4,931 others and 39 missing persons since May 27.
More than 130 international humanitarian organisations have refused to co-operate with GHF, accusing it of masking Israeli military objectives.
The British newspaper revealed secret funding and support from private US security firms to BCG.
It said BCG was originally engaged by Orbis, a Washington-area security contractor, to help with a feasibility study for a new aid operation.
Orbis was preparing the study on behalf of the Tachlith Institute, an Israeli think-tank.
“We condemn in the strongest terms these dangerous plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” Gaza’s government’s media office said in a statement.
“Despite all the war crimes, starvation, genocide and displacement, our great people remain rooted in their land and will not relinquish their inalienable rights until the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian land is ended.”
Despite international calls for a ceasefire, Israel has pursued a genocidal war on Gaza, killing more than 57,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, since October 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
An Israeli delegation left for Qatar yesterday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to head to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.
Public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire and end the war in Gaza, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. Others, including Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, have expressed support.
Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a ‘positive spirit’, a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed ‘to the necessary conditions to finalise’ a 60-day truce.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli withdrawals.
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