No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say

[cliffside]

Source: NYT

Full article at link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/middleeast/hamas-un-aid-theft.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZU8.1bb6.o4GErpkW5YSu&smid=url-share

"For nearly two years, Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid provided by the United Nations and other international organizations. The government has used that claim as its main rationale for restricting food from entering Gaza.

But the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter.

In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the U.N. aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s desperate and hungry population.

Now, with hunger at crisis levels in the territory, Israel is coming under increased international pressure over its conduct of the war in Gaza and the humanitarian suffering it has brought. Doctors in the territory say that an increasing number of their patients are suffering from — and dying of — starvation..."




Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/middleeast/hamas-un-aid-theft.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZU8.1bb6.o4GErpkW5YSu&smid=url-share

[al bupp]

1. What a surprise

[cliffside]

2. "the U.N. aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective..." I'm under no illusion ...

that some percentage of aid was stolen by Hamas, but to shut everything down and starve the majority of people is just appalling.

[al bupp]

3. More than that, it's war crime

Verging into genocide.

[AloeVera]

4. The destruction of UNRWA based on unsubstantiated claims...

..no proof ever presented - was absolutely disgusting. I raged about it at the time and said it was going to help destroy Gaza and lead to starvation and eventual ethnic cleansing. There simply was no one even remotely close to having its infrastructure and experience.

I don't doubt either that Hamas diverted aid. But as the NYT article says, it was limited to the smaller agencies, not the UN, which had staff on hand when the aid was distributed. It would have been a drop in the bucket.

To cynically use that drop in the bucket as a pretext in furtherance of goals amounting to war crimes is despicable. To ignore warnings of impending starvation for months also.

Also, let's not forget the criminal gangs with ties to Al-Queda - for heaven's sake -that were responsible for most of the looting. If Israel really cared about theft and diversion it would have gone after those gangs rather than turning a blind eye and actually providing them wirh support and funding.

Deception in aid of starving people makes me sick.

[cliffside]

9. And rump blamed Hamas again today in the press conference, I'm guessing weak people will no longer ...

have the strength to fight for their land, how convenient.

[lark]

5. Bibi's nickname is little murderer and he lives up to it every day, mainly to protect his own ass.

He's krasnov without Putin and smarter.

[cliffside]

7. Smarter is dangerous. nt

[Lonestarblue]

6. So Bibi and his right-wing murdering government lied about Gaza and Hamas. No surprise.

Bibi sees an opportunity to fulfill David ben Gurion’s plan to eliminate all Palestinians from Palestine and take all the land for Israelis. Hamas merely gave him the opportunity with its attack. Israel’s response has been hugely out of proportion and has been motivated by its aims to steal all of Gaza for themselves. Indeed Israeli intelligence warned of the Hamas attack, but Netanyahu did nothing to prevent it, even moving IDF troops from that birder to the West Bank to assist settlers in murdering Palestinians there.

Trump could stop the war, but Palestinians lack the money to bribe him. He covets a Nobel Peace Prize and thus war offers a perfect opportunity for him to do something. Instead, he gas withdrawn the US from ceasefire negotiations, allowing Israel to continue its genocide.

[cliffside]

8. News stories right after the Hamas attack reported the intelligence that was ignored ...

then they faded.

The Gaza Strip is valuable property, the people not so much.

[Mosby]

10. Another excerpt from the New York Times article

Over the course of the war, the Israeli military released records and videos purporting to show how Hamas has been exploiting humanitarian aid. The army also shared what it described as internal Hamas documents found in a headquarters in Gaza, which discuss the percentage of aid taken by various Hamas wings and dated to early 2024. But those documents do not specifically refer to the theft of U.N. aid.

Israel has long had tense relations with the United Nations, which spilled over into open hostility during the Gaza war. Israel accuses the organization of bias and says that it was infiltrated by Hamas, including claims that U.N. staff took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that started the war.

Israel has accused the United Nations of failing to collect truckloads of aid sitting idle near a border crossing into northern Gaza.

The United Nations, in turn, says the Israeli military has not provided enough secure routes to send those trucks in. It accuses Israel of destroying Gaza and blocking critical aid.

The embedded link:

Since the outbreak of the war, Hamas has seen humanitarian aid as an opportunity and has defined itself as responsible for providing aid in large parts of the Gaza Strip, while taking advantage of international aid organizations. Thus, during the war, Hamas terrorists joined aid trucks covertly or openly, with the aim of boycotting and taking control of the aid entering the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has stated throughout the war that varying amounts (between 15% and more than 25%) of the humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip will be automatically diverted to the terrorist organization and its needs. The aid allocated to the terrorist organization was transferred to terrorists in the field or sold at high prices in order to extract profit at the expense of the residents of the Gaza Strip. A document that has now been revealed proves that decisions were made on this issue during the war, in particular changing the percentage of allocation to Hamas in accordance with the assessment of the situation in Hamas.

Hamas has been working to smuggle certain products into the Gaza Strip, such as cigarettes, and has attempted to boycott them in order to sell them at exorbitant prices while prohibiting independent traders in the markets from selling them. In addition, Hamas itself smuggles the same products into the Strip and sells them to traders at exorbitant prices. In light of this, as part of the humanitarian aid program, cigarettes were not allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the crossings. Throughout the war, security inspectors from the Ministry of Defense's Crossings Authority thwarted dozens of attempts to smuggle tobacco products.

According to IDF estimates, Hamas in the Gaza Strip received hundreds of millions of shekels from Iran and other funding sources through an offset mechanism that goes through Hamas elements residing in Turkey, in cooperation with senior Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip. Hamas acted to exploit the process of bringing in humanitarian aid and international aid organizations, whether by mistake or with knowledge. Thus, demands were raised on the ground to bring in "excess" aid purchased with Hamas money "from abroad" into the Gaza Strip. Hamas then sold the aid it brought in at exorbitant prices to the residents of Gaza, thus receiving cash in its hands.

IDF link

[cliffside]

11. I agree that a % of aid has been diverted, but the majority of aid was getting through to people in need ...

happy to see a small amount getting through today to help some people.