Counterterrorism police probe fire at Starmer's London house
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Counterterrorism police are investigating a fire at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's north London home in the early hours of Monday morning.
The fire at the four-bedroom property, which Starmer has rented out to tenants since moving to 10 Downing Street last July, caused damage to the property's entrance, the Metropolitan Police said.
'On Monday, 12 May at 01:35hrs, police were alerted by the London Fire Brigade to reports of a fire at a residential address in [Kentish Town],' the police said in a statement.
'Officers attended the scene. Damage was caused to the property's entrance, nobody was hurt. The fire is being investigated and cordons remain in place while enquiries continue.'
Starmer's home has been targeted by protesters in the past, including in relation to the Israeli-Gaza conflict.
On Monday, the prime minister announced a migration crackdown warning that Britain risked becoming 'an island of strangers' without further action.
A spokesman for the prime minister on Monday said he 'thanks the emergency services for their work', but declined to comment further because of the live investigation.
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Gaza protesters gather at Parliament House
A crowd protesting the killing of children in Gaza has gathered outside Parliament House as MPs and senators return for the first sitting fortnight since the federal election. The protesters are holding what appear to be shrouded baby dolls as they wave Palestinian flags and placards calling on the Albanese government to 'sanction Israel now'. '28 children killed daily in Gaza,' another placard read. The demonstration is at the back entrance to Parliament House, where Anthony Albanese and his son, Nathan, had walked up just a day earlier. The Prime Minister will also need to pass them on his way in to open parliament. Tuesday's protest comes after Australia joined 25 other countries in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, lashing Israel for 'the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians'. Foreign journalists are not allowed into the war-torn Palestinian territory, leaving media to rely on death toll figures put out by the Hamas-run health ministry. According to figures from the ministry, more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 21-month conflict – a count that stacks up with independent monitors and international aid workers, who have said children are suffering the most. In a joint statement issued overnight, Australia stood with the likes of Canada, New Zealand and the UK demanding that 'the war in Gaza must end now'. 'The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,' the statement said. 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. 'We condemn the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. 'It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.' The countries went on to say Israel's 'denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable'. 'Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law,' the statement said. 'Disappointing' In brief remarks to reporters on Tuesday morning, Sussan Ley seemed to take a different view, saying it is 'very important that we understand where this conflict started and who has the opportunity and responsibility for ending it'. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas' brutal October 7 terrorist attacks in 2023. Hundreds were taken hostage as the Islamist militant group retreated after slaughtering whole families in rural areas and carrying out a massacre at music festival. 'The first and most important thing to say about this issue is that there are still hostages in Gaza,' the Opposition Leader said. 'There are still hostages in tunnels, and a way to end the situation is for those hostages to be released by the terrorists Hamas, who control so much of the activity there. 'Of course, we want to see aid reach those who deserve it, but it is so important that Hamas that has control, often over the flow of that aid, but certainly over the ongoing completely unacceptable detention of those hostages act in the interests of the people of Gaza.' Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash used stronger terms. 'It is disappointing that once again the Albanese government is supporting a statement attacking Israel,' she posted on social media. 'First and foremost any moral outrage about the situation in Gaza should be directed at Hamas. 'Hamas could end the suffering of the people of Gaza by freeing the remaining Israeli hostages and laying down their weapons. 'This war began because of Hamas's abhorrent attack on Israeli civilians.' She said it is 'important that aid flows into Gaza' and that enough 'quantities of food and other aid must be provided to the people'. 'However, the right system must be in place so that it can be distributed without Hamas intervening in the process,' Senator Cash said. The Israeli government has rejected the joint statement, saying it is 'disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas'. 'All statements and all claims should be directed at the only party responsible for the lack of a deal for the release of hostages and a ceasefire: Hamas, which started this war and is prolonging it,' the Israeli foreign ministry. 'Instead of agreeing to a ceasefire, Hamas is busy running a campaign to spread lies about Israel. 'At the same time, Hamas is deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid.' Hamas militants killed more than 1200 people in the October 7 assault and took hundreds more hostage, including children. It was the single worst mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust. Many hostages have been released and rescued, while others have died in Hamas' hands. At least 50 remain in captivity. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar took aim at the countries that issued the statement, saying the fact Hamas embraced their words 'is the best proof' they made a mistake. 'If Hamas embraces you – you are in the wrong place,' he posted on social media. 'Hamas's praise for the statement by the group of countries is the best proof of the mistake they made – part of them out of good intentions and part of them out of an obsession against Israel. 'We are at a very sensitive moment in the negotiations for the release of hostages and a ceasefire.'
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
The for-profit companies behind Israeli-U.S. nonprofit Gaza aid plan
Inside the four hastily constructed warehouses in southern Gaza where food is handed out to desperate and starving Palestinians, it is relatively calm. Ration boxes stamped with the name and logo of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are distributed by local volunteers in red vests, under the watchful gaze of beefy, armed American security contractors. It is just outside the warehouses where most of the trouble happens. Outside is where hundreds of civilians desperately crowding toward the distribution sites have been shot and killed — many of them allegedly by Israeli soldiers positioned nearby — and where at least 20 Palestinians died Wednesday in a stampede that the GHF says was initiated by gun-toting Hamas militants. Humanitarian aid has been one of the most controversial aspects of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is now approaching its second anniversary. In recent weeks, it has emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over a ceasefire, placing the Israeli- and U.S.-backed GHF squarely in the crosshairs of the latest talks. Hamas is demanding a return to the U.N.-coordinated system of aid delivery that operated in Gaza for decades. Israel charges that Hamas has corrupted that system. It wants to maintain strict controls on assistance to Gazans, using the newly created GHF as the primary mechanism for food distribution. Critics, including the United Nations and most of the international humanitarian aid community, say the GHF is designed to further Israeli war aims by selectively and inadequately providing assistance, and by forcing Gazans to put their lives in danger for a box of provisions. In a statement released Monday, 21 European countries and others including Canada and Australia issued a joint statement saying that 'the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths' and condemning 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.' 'The Israeli government's aid delivery model,' it said, 'is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.' Like much of what happens inside Gaza, where Israel has banned international reporters except on brief tours led by the Israel Defense Forces, the origins and operations of the GHF remain obscure. Even more opaque is its funding. The foundation says it received about $100 million in start-up money from a government it has declined to identify. In late June, the Trump administration said it would supply $30 million to GHF operations. A major donation initially expected from the United Arab Emirates, according to internal planning documents seen by The Washington Post, has not materialized. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been deeply involved in the aid program, has publicly denied paying for it. But behind the foundation, which is a registered nonprofit, is a web of interconnected U.S. and Israeli individuals, and private U.S. companies — including some that hope to eventually make money on the relief effort, according to public and private documents reviewed by The Post and interviews with more than a dozen U.S. and Israeli government officials, business representatives and others involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the controversial initiative. Among those positioned to profit from GHF-linked contracts are a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, whose subsidiary Orbis Operations helped set up the foundation; and Safe Reach Solutions, the primary contractor overseeing GHF operations inside Gaza, which was created late last year for that purpose. SRS is owned by a Wyoming-based trust whose beneficiary is McNally Capital. Boston Consulting Group was also engaged in the effort to stand up the GHF, on what it has said was a pro bono basis. In March, it signed a two-month contract for more than $1 million with McNally to continue assisting SRS, with later extensions in May, an arrangement first reported by the Financial Times. BCG later withdrew from the project amid controversy, and a BCG spokeswoman, Nidhi Sinha, said no payment was accepted. The GHF has continued to deliver food to hungry Gazans: since late May, according to the foundation's count, more than 80 million meals in boxes that are calibrated to feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days. But dwindling resources have limited the number of trucks available to bring food into the enclave to about 70 to 80 per day, compared with early plans for more than 300, according to people familiar with GHF operations. Construction of additional distribution sites has also been indefinitely put off because of a lack of financing, ongoing Israeli military operations and the need to remove unexploded ordnance throughout Gaza. Money problems, and the unknown outcome of ceasefire negotiations, have also put on hold GHF plans for a more holistic — and controversial — proposal to relocate Gazans, summarized in a 19-page slide deck distributed at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in January, several people said. In addition to the food distribution, the slides included plans for GHF construction of large-scale residential compounds inside and potentially outside Gaza where 'the population' could reside while the enclave was 'demilitarized and rebuilt.' The slide deck suggested that approach would allow the GHF to gain trust with Gazans — a currency that could be leveraged to 'facilitate President Trump's vision' for the battle-scarred enclave. The GHF concept was born as part of a larger effort by a group of Israeli military officials, Israeli businesspeople and foreign partners to support Israel's war effort and plan for Gaza's future. They began meeting shortly after the conflict began with Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack in southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw at least 250 hostages taken back to Gaza. As Israel responded to the attack, pounding Gaza with airstrikes and ground troops, it cut off the daily assistance that the 141-square-mile enclave had depended on for decades. Netanyahu's government — long distrustful of the U.N., which coordinated deliveries of food, fuel and medical supplies — justified the blockade by claiming that Hamas controlled and profited from the aid distribution. Under pressure from the Biden administration and humanitarian organizations that said depriving noncombatants of food was a potential war crime, Israel eventually allowed limited relief to resume. But the Israelis kept a tight hold on the spigot of assistance, generating friction between Netanyahu and the U.S. government, Israel's main source of weaponry and diplomatic backing. 'There was a need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza,' an Israeli familiar with the group's efforts said, but it needed to be done 'in a non-U.N. way.' In January 2024, the fledgling Gaza aid working group sought advice from Michael Vickers, a former Green Beret, CIA veteran and undersecretary of defense for intelligence during the Obama administration. Vickers was on the board of Orbis Operations, a consulting company based in McLean, Virginia, that was founded by former national security, military and intelligence specialists and which McNally purchased in 2021. Vickers told the planners, 'I'm not the guy, but I know the guy who can talk to you,' according to a person familiar with the approach. The man they wanted, Vickers said, was then-Orbis Vice President Philip Reilly, a former senior CIA operations officer with extensive experience in private security operations. Reilly quickly gained the trust of the IDF and the Gaza planning group, and spent much of 2024 immersing himself in the details of the Gaza conflict. Neither Vickers nor Reilly responded to queries about their involvement in the Gaza initiative. The Biden administration was well aware that the Israeli government and private-sector Israelis and Americans were working with the government on a plan to impose a new aid delivery system. While some in the administration were supportive, most were skeptical. But they did not directly interfere in the project. 'They were all talking — they being the Israeli government, the prime minister's office, the IDF — sort of throwing spaghetti against the wall to find some magic formula to take the responsibility off their shoulders' to care for Gaza's civilians, a former Biden official involved in Israel policy said. By the fall, the outline of a plan was laid out in a lengthy feasibility study compiled by Silat Technologies, an Orbis subsidiary, envisioning the creation of a nonprofit entity, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 'to safely deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.' Planning documents distributed over the next several months said that the foundation's leadership would include respected humanitarian figures such as David Beasley, former head of the World Food Program, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who now runs an institute to advise change-making political leaders. Although the U.N. and major nongovernmental aid organizations already operating in Gaza were described as an integral part, their proposed role was unclear. An elaborate social media presence and public relations program would include outreach to select journalists to promote a positive image of the GHF. The foundation would hire a 'prime' contractor to organize and supervise construction of the sites and the aid operation inside Gaza. That firm would then subcontract a private security company — ideally U.S.-based — to be the boots and guns on the ground, guarding the aid as it was transported to distribution sites and protecting the sites themselves. The private companies lined up to service the planned foundation also included BCG, where both Reilly and Vickers were senior advisers. BCG, which later said its initial services were offered pro bono, projected $2 billion in initial operating costs for the GHF. On Nov. 21, a new limited liability company, Safe Reach Solutions, was registered in Jackson, Wyoming, and placed in a trust administered by a local company, Two Ocean Trust. While no information in the registration documents indicated what the new company did, who ran it or whom it employed, the beneficiary of the trust and any money it made, according to three people familiar with the arrangement, was McNally Capital, the private equity firm that owns Orbis. SRS, with Reilly as its chief executive, would later become the primary GHF contractor. Spokespeople for Two Ocean Trust and SRS declined to comment. In a statement to The Post, McNally Capital said it 'did not invest in SRS or actively manage the company,' but said it has an 'economic interest' in the firm. 'Given our long-established relationship with Phil Reilly … our strong belief in the importance of humanitarian aid, and the U.S. government's appeal for innovative solutions,' the statement said, McNally was 'pleased to have supported the establishment of SRS as an important step toward meeting the full scope of humanitarian need in Gaza.' Founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, of the Rand McNally publishing family, the firm specializes in the acquisition of aerospace, defense and technology companies. 'Obviously, McNally is a business. They're in the business of making money,' a person familiar with the financial aspects of the project said. But 'I think it's very ambiguous whether this ends up being profitable.' As the new year approached, progress toward the food aid program planning was interrupted by the prospect of a Gaza ceasefire and partial hostage release. Israel had agreed to move its troops out of portions of Gaza at least temporarily — allowing citizens to return to what remained of their homes in the largely destroyed northern portion of the enclave. But Israeli officials insisted on a vehicle checkpoint — run by non-IDF security — on the Netzarim Corridor, a dividing line between northern and southern Gaza, to ensure weapons were not carried back to areas the IDF said it had earlier cleared of Hamas militants. With nine days' notice, U.S. and Arab mediators turned to the newly created SRS to organize the checkpoint. Reilly subcontracted UG Solutions, a small security firm based in North Carolina, to staff the ground operation. Headed by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni, UG had previously worked in Ukraine and Haiti, among other hot spots, and could move quickly because it had few of the classified contracts with the United States or other governments that proved to be complications for bigger security companies. The ceasefire mediators — the United States and Qatar — administered payments to SRS, the prime contractor, according to people familiar with the operation. The ceasefire began Jan. 19, the day before Donald Trump's second-term inauguration. Although the truce lasted only until mid-March, when Israel launched another ground invasion of northern Gaza, the checkpoint was deemed a success, with no major incidents reported. The Netzarim operation came to be considered a test run for the food distribution operation, and SRS and UG were well positioned to take it over for GHF. On Feb. 2, the foundation was registered as a humanitarian nonprofit in Switzerland and Delaware. The Netanyahu government had every reason to believe that Trump would support the initiative. He vowed to quickly end the war and proposed that the United States 'take over' and 'own' Gaza, developing it as a high-end Mediterranean resort. Food distribution by the GHF, planning documents indicated, was just the first step in a larger redevelopment plan. When the ceasefire collapsed on March 18 and the IDF resumed ground operations and airstrikes, Israel again stopped all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. As the days and weeks ticked on, thousands of tons of food and goods piled up in warehouses outside its borders; WFP and other humanitarian actors began to tally reports of starvation inside. By early May, Israel was under mounting international pressure to end its aid blockade, and Trump was looking for progress on his promise to end the war as he prepared for a trip to the Persian Gulf. At a May 9 news conference in Tel Aviv, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed the GHF as a Trump 'initiative.' U.S. representatives, including Aryeh Lightstone, an official who now works with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and formerly served as an aide to David Friedman when he was U.S. ambassador to Israel, courted U.N. and humanitarian partners to sign on to the plan. But opposition to the plan had grown. The United Nations and most aid partners refused, publicly denouncing the proposal as immoral and designed to further Israel's war plans against Hamas by 'militarizing' assistance to more than a million civilians corralled into ever-shrinking 'safe zones' demarcated by the IDF in southern Gaza. Neither Beasley nor Blair agreed to sign on. On May 22, newly named GHF executive director Jake Wood, a U.S. Marine veteran and co-founding board chair of Team Rubicon, a humanitarian organization that operated in disaster zones, released a letter he had sent to COGAT, the Israeli government coordinator for Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Its purpose, he wrote, was to confirm 'our understandings of agreements' — including an understanding that aid agencies would also be permitted to distribute food and medical assistance under 'existing' humanitarian mechanisms, outside the GHF program. 'GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently,' he wrote, suggesting that the new aid mechanism should complement, but not replace, Gaza's existing aid sector. The night before the scheduled May 26 launch, Wood unsuccessfully sought to persuade the IDF to delay the start date by at least a week amid unanswered questions about funding, the participation of other agencies and the nearby positioning of Israeli troops. Wood resigned, and the next day, UG contractors accompanied the first convoys of GHF food into Gaza. Some of the plans, he said in a statement, were not consistent with 'humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.' David Burke, a fellow Marine veteran and former Team Rubicon colleague who had been named GHF chief operating officer, also resigned. Burke and Wood did not respond to inquiries from The Post. The GHF promoted John Acree, a former official with the U.S. Agency for International Development originally named head of the GHF operations inside Gaza, to interim executive director of the foundation. The opening of the sites brought new problems, with tens of thousands of despairing Gazans surging toward promised food. In the first week of GHF's operations, witnesses said that Israeli troops shot in the direction of Palestinians queuing outside the fenced distribution sites at least three times. UG contractors voiced concerns about the rules of engagement of nearby IDF troops and the safety of the Palestinians, according to several people familiar with the site operations. Meanwhile, paid Palestinian volunteers working at the GHF sites were receiving death threats from Hamas for participating in the Israeli-backed plan. Volunteers were afraid to travel back to their families at night, but the financial planners had not budgeted to provide them with housing, running water or other supplies to stay on-site, one person said. 'There were number crunchers at every stage, asking why do we have to do this stuff,' said another person familiar with the conversations between BCG financial consultants and SRS planners. Contractors purchased some provisions for the workers out of their own pockets, the person said. The limited number of trucks that passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza each day to the sites after Israeli inspection meant that supplies ran out too early, leaving thousands empty-handed, angry and disbelieving there was no more food to be had. During the first week of June, BCG abruptly withdrew from the project. Amid what several people familiar with the situation said was internal criticism of perceived anti-Palestinian initiatives, the company said that members of its team had undertaken 'unauthorized' efforts on postwar planning. Two senior partners, it said in a statement, had been 'exited ... from the firm' and BCG 'has not and will not be paid for any of their work.' Despite ongoing problems and frequent reports of gunfire nearby, the GHF food program achieved a rhythm of sorts after a few weeks. News releases provided a daily accounting of tens of thousands of boxes of pasta, lentils, cooking oil and other commodities it distributed. But the killing of civilians in the vicinity of GHF sites has continued. Last month, eight Palestinian volunteers were shot and killed, allegedly by Hamas, aboard a bus returning them to GHF sites after visiting their families. Early this month, this IDF said 'terrorists' had tossed grenades into a distribution site, injuring two American contractors. Then came the deaths in Wednesday's stampede. 'We came to Gaza to help feed people, not to fight a narrative war,' GHF spokesman Chapin Fay told reporters hours after the stampede deaths, publicly accusing Hamas of causing the carnage by showing up at the site with guns. Aid organizations said it was the predicted result of Israeli militarization of what should be a neutral endeavor. On Sunday, at least 79 Palestinians were killed when food-seeking crowds mobbed a U.N. aid convoy in the northern part of the enclave and were fired on by Israeli troops, according to Gaza health authorities and witnesses. The IDF said it was 'aware of the claim' and that details of the event were 'being examined.' Acree, the GHF interim executive director, repeated appeals to the United Nations and other aid organizations to cooperate with the foundation. 'The demand for food is relentless, and so is our commitment,' he said in a statement. 'We're adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organizations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza.' GHF contracts expire at the end of August, unless a ceasefire comes first. If and when the fighting stops, it remains unclear how much aid will be allowed into Gaza and who will distribute it. Since late June, Trump has said repeatedly that negotiations were going well and that a truce was imminent.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
In Gaza, a war with no endgame leads to a humanitarian collapse
The Gaza war has piled tragedy upon tragedy. The deaths over the weekend of Palestinian civilians waiting in line for food were a cruel reminder of why the war must end now. On Saturday, Israeli soldiers fired at a crush of Palestinians seeking food from Israeli-supported contractors, killing an estimated 32 people. On Sunday, 93 Palestinians were reported killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a melee of civilians desperate for supplies from a U.N. food convoy.
