General Discussion

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/middleeast/hamas-un-aid-theft.html

https://archive.ph/ikwbQ

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.

More than 100 aid agencies and rights groups warned this past week of “mass starvation” and implored Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance. The European Union and at least 28 governments, including Israeli allies like Britain, France and Canada, issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s “drip-feeding of aid” to Gaza’s two million Palestinian residents. Israel has largely brushed off the criticism. David Mencer, a government spokesman, said this week that there was “no famine caused by Israel.” Instead, he blamed Hamas and poor coordination by the United Nations for any food shortages.

On Saturday night, however, the Israeli military announced that it would revive the practice of dropping aid from airplanes, and make it easier for aid convoys to move through Gaza along “designated humanitarian corridors.” The announcement did not detail how either mechanism would work or how they would differ from prior approaches. Israel already allows aid convoys to travel along designated routes through Gaza, but aid agencies say they are badly coordinated, reducing their effectiveness.

snip