Across Gaza, humanitarian aid is desperately needed. Yet for far too long, international assistance has been cynically exploited by Hamas, a despicable practice enabled by the active collaboration of the United Nations.
The humanitarian situation is not a natural outcome of the conflict. Rather, it has been manufactured by Hamas to maintain its ruthless rule over Gaza, with UN complicity.
Humanitarian aid, intended as a lifeline, has become a pillar of Hamas’s oppressive control over the Gaza Strip. Instead of being freely distributed to families in need, vast quantities of international relief, funded primarily by Western nations, are routinely commandeered by Hamas operatives.
Reports from within Gaza and multiple investigations have demonstrated how Hamas takes over UN aid convoys, and then either hoards the contents for its own use or orchestrates their resale at greatly inflated prices to Gazan civilians who cannot access them otherwise.
The proceeds from this profiteering directly fund Hamas’s terror machine, bankrolling salaries for its gunmen and funding the arsenals used against Israel and, all too often, against Hamas’s fellow Palestinians.
The UN, far from preventing this harmful misuse of its aid programs, has been turning a blind eye, actively colluded with Hamas’s practices and thereby becoming complicit in strengthening this terrorist organization’s rule over Gaza and its war effort against Israel.
This illicit economy is imposed with merciless brutality. There is credible testimony and widely circulated footage of Hamas enforcers beating and even shooting Gazans who attempt to reclaim food or medical supplies outside the terror group’s channels. Appallingly, Hamas camouflages these acts of repression by accusing the victims of “stealing” from Hamas, when it is Hamas itself that is looting from the civilians most in need.
A beacon of hope appeared with the establishment of the alternative aid network managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and facilitated by Israel. Tasked with bypassing Hamas’s predatory structures, GHF has succeeded in delivering over 90 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza in just two months.
Sadly, as more and more Gazans sought assistance from the GHF, Hamas’s gunmen regularly responded with violence, opening fire on the crowds and then outrageously blaming Israel for the resulting casualties. Most recently, on 23 July, Hamas launched a rocket attack on an aid distribution center in southern Gaza.
Moreover, both Hamas and the UN fear losing their shared – and corrupt – monopoly on aid delivery.
Despite being fully aware of Hamas’s manipulations, the United Nations continues to play into its hands. Rather than enabling direct aid distribution, the UN’s adherence to the existing delivery networks controlled by Hamas only prolongs Hamas’s grip on aid, creating artificial shortages. When groups like GHF offer assistance distributing aid, their overtures are ignored.
The UN refuses to move the hundreds of aid trucks already in Gaza that have been cleared by Israel but stand idle near the border, ready to deliver stockpiles of available supplies. Food rots and medicine expires as bureaucratic disputes and alleged “impediments” are cited as excuses.
Meanwhile, the UN’s public accusations against Israel for these shortages ring hollow, especially as its own personnel remain entangled with Hamas.
UN support of the fake narrative created by Hamas about the humanitarian situation in Gaza only serves to encourage those fanatics to continue rejecting ceasefire offers. This while Hamas is torturing Israeli hostages in its dungeons and using Gaza’s civilians as cannon fodder.
Hamas’s actions since it started the war on 7 October 2023 can leave no doubt: the welfare of Gaza’s civilians is totally subordinate to its two main goals: staying in power and harming Israel. That terrorist organization actually wants civilians in Gaza to suffer in order to gain the world’s sympathy and increase international pressure on Israel.
The UN must stop serving as Hamas’s facilitator. Hamas’s exploitation of aid is not just Israel’s or Gaza’s problem. It is a moral stain on the United Nations and a damning indictment of its failed policies.
