Hamas has reaped at least half a billion dollars from humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, according to a report by Channel 12 on Tuesday. Approximately 200 aid trucks enter Gaza daily, intended to provide relief to the civilian population. However, Channel 12’s Almog Boker reported that the terror group has turned this aid into a key revenue stream by seizing the supplies and selling them to the local population, using the profits to fund recruitment and operations.
“It’s actually become the main oxygen pipeline for the terrorist organization,” Boker said, noting that Hamas has added 3,000 terrorists to its payroll in northern Gaza through these illicit profits.
The revelation has sparked widespread condemnation in Israel from across the political spectrum, with public anger reignited following the murder of six Israeli hostages last week. Protest group Tzav 9 has led the charge against the Israeli government’s decision to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, arguing that aid is directly benefiting Hamas. “There is no logic in bringing the trucks directly to the hands of Hamas terrorists,” the group said in a statement. “No aid should go in until the last hostages return.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Hamas’s exploitation of aid at a press conference on September 4, saying that while Israel has cut off other financial streams for Hamas, humanitarian aid remains a critical source of funds for the terror group. “We’re choking them. But there’s one thing they have, which is the distribution of food,” Netanyahu said. He accused Hamas of stealing aid, hoarding it, and selling it at inflated prices to Gazans.
While Netanyahu promised that Israel would eventually cut off Hamas’s ability to profit from humanitarian aid, he did not provide a timeline for when this would happen.
The Israeli government has faced pressure from the Biden administration to allow aid into Gaza. President Joe Biden had pledged that aid would stop if it fell into Hamas’s hands, but the U.S. continues to push for the flow of aid despite admitting that Hamas seizes a significant portion of it.
On June 14, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Tzav 9, calling it “a violent extremist Israeli group” for blocking and damaging humanitarian convoys. The State Department stated that the aid is crucial to preventing further humanitarian crises in Gaza.
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200 aid trucks daily???
I can’t fathom why those trucks aren’t guarded by IDF soldiers, and demand a scrutiny of anyone coming. And each individual can only take for themselves. That would mean Hamas terrorists would have to identify themselves.
I’m sure they don’t have the names of all the terrorists, but at least the known ones.