TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Israel has no evidence that Hamas systematically steals aid from the United Nations (UN), despite using it as the main justification for establishing the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
This was revealed by The New York Times as cited by The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, quoting two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israeli citizens involved in the matter.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the UN system for distributing aid is the most reliable and effective method. They accused Hamas of only stealing from small organizations that contribute aid.
The sources also said that concerns were expressed by senior IDF members to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military advisor about GHF's position as the sole provider of aid to Gaza, according to the report.
Israeli military officials reportedly urged the UN to be allowed to channel aid that is not included in the GHF package, such as medical supplies. However, three people familiar with the discussions told NYT that this proposal was rejected.
A Hamas representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.
International IDF spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, dismissed the New York Times report as "fake news".
"It has been well-documented throughout the war how Hamas systematically exploits humanitarian aid to fund terrorist activities in various ways," he wrote on Twitter. "Some evidence of Hamas' exploitation has been sent to @nytimes and many other news media outlets."
The Israeli military claimed to Times in a statement that aid looting by Hamas is "well-documented" and "uses humanitarian aid to fund terrorist activities." However, they did not refute the report that there is no evidence of periodic looting of UN aid.
The report emerged a day after an internal analysis by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) concluded that US-funded supplies in Gaza were not systematically looted by Hamas.
The report examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported by US aid partner organizations between October 2023 and May this year.
No reports were found accusing Hamas of profiting from US-funded supplies, according to slide presentation of findings seen by Reuters.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said nearly a quarter of 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face conditions similar to famine and thousands suffer from acute malnutrition. The World Health Organization (WHO) and doctors in Gaza reported deaths from starvation in babies, children, and other vulnerable groups.
The UN also estimated that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food supplies, most of them near the distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). This is a new private aid group that uses a non-profit US logistics company run by a former CIA officer and US military veteran armed.
Genocide in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023. 1,200 Israelis were killed, including by Israeli military strikes. Hamas also held 251 people hostage. At least 60,000 Palestinians have died since the Israeli genocide began, according to Palestinian health officials.
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