The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has reportedly built up a months-long stockpile of food, fuel, and medical supplies as humanitarian resources for the Gaza Strip have dwindled, the New York Times reports.
Speaking with Times journalists, all on conditions of anonymity, several Arab and Western officials said Hamas “had enough stocked away to keep fighting for three to four months without resupply.”
“[T]here is substance to Israeli claims of Hamas stockpiling supplies, including desperately needed food and fuel,” the outlet explained. “The stockpiles are typically kept underground, they said, and cautioned that precise details on Hamas’s supplies were difficult to come by.”
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed into the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian border for the first time last week following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, which left over 1,000 civilians killed. Following the massacre, Israel laid siege to the territory and insisted forthcoming aid deliveries be verified to ensure products were not pilfered by the Palestinian terrorist organization.
However, there appear to be instances within the last several weeks of conflict where Hamas has done just that. A since-deleted statement from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) argued that Hamas looted a warehouse and stole fuel and medical supplies meant for Gazan refugees last week. The agency shortly after retracted the statement and explained that the disappearance of supplies represented merely “a movement of basic medical supplies from the UNRWA warehouse to health partners,” but did not specify which partners.
“The Hamas movement cares only about the Hamas movement,” an Egyptian analyst told the Times. “The public of Gaza mean absolutely nothing for Hamas.”
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have insisted that the Hamas theft did, in fact, occur. Israeli energy minister Israel Katz demanded a cessation of all stop aid to Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. “Hamas is robbing the ‘humanitarian aid’ to the Palestinian people. There’s no reason to give them anything until we eliminate the Nazi Hamas,” he said. Israel has since resumed water supply to Southern Gaza.
The issue has often forced the White House into a precarious balancing act between ensuring the supply of humanitarian aid enters the Strip, while also voicing concerns about Hamas exploiting the situation.
“Hamas must not interfere with the provision of this life-saving assistance,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement last Saturday. “Palestinian civilians are not responsible for Hamas’s horrific terrorism, and they should not be made to suffer for its depraved acts. As President Biden stated, if Hamas steals or diverts this assistance it will have demonstrated once again that it has no regard for the welfare of the Palestinian people and as a practical matter it will hinder the international community from being able to provide this aid.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after President Joe Biden visited Israel in mid October that “Israel will not thwart humanitarian supplies from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population in the southern Gaza Strip,” but added that “Israel will not allow any humanitarian aid from its territory to the Gaza Strip as long as our hostages are not returned.”