Gaza aid mercenaries may run Rafah border? What could go wrong!
Trucks carrying UNRWA humanitarian aids line up to cross the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on 19 January 2025
Hossam el-Hamalawy writes in The New Arab on 28 January 2026:
The Rafah border gate between Egypt and Gaza has long been a political pressure valve, prone to closure whenever regional tensions spike. But in the latest twist, Israel is reportedly pushing to station private American security contractors at this nominally Egyptian Palestinian crossing – a startling outsourcing of border control that speaks volumes about the new balance of power.
Under a plan hashed out in Tel Aviv and Washington, companies like UG Solutions, staffed by ex-US military, would effectively police who and what passes through Rafah. Such an arrangement would be extraordinary: a national frontier managed by hired guards from half a world away.
It underscores how Israel, the occupying power, intends to tighten its grip on Gaza’s gateway to the world, even on Egyptian soil, and it reveals an audacious strategy aimed at reshaping Gaza’s demography under the banner of “security.”
Meanwhile, Cairo’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – the putative sovereign on the other side of the gate – finds himself reduced to a bystander, watching his “sovereignty” seep away on the Sinai sands.
A border in name only
Israel’s insistence on US private security firms at Rafah is the latest chapter in a long saga of distrust and control. Ever since Hamas controlled Gaza in 2007, Israel has viewed the enclave’s borders as potential leak points for weapons and people it deems threats.
During the 2023–25 genocide, Israeli forces even took direct military control of the Palestinian side of Rafah, effectively planting their flag on the crossing. Now, after a hard-won ceasefire, Israel is loath to hand Rafah back to any authority it can’t dominate.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), which formally should help run the crossing, is viewed by Israeli officials as too weak, and European monitors are deemed too ineffective. So, Israel has turned to an à la carte solution: American private contractors, accountable to the Israeli military and Washington, not to Gaza’s people or Egypt’s government.