The New York Times reported on July 26, citing two unnamed Israeli senior military officials and two other Israelis, that the Israeli military never found proof that Hamas had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations. The Times report followed, by one day, an exclusive Reuters report that a USAID analysis of 156 incidents of losses of UN relief supplies, paid for by the U.S., never found evidence of Hamas involvement.
“The Times’ reporting marks a significant reversal from its earlier coverage, which largely echoed Israeli talking points that painted Hamas as hijacking aid,” commented the Middle East Eye on July 26. According to MEE, the Times has long faced accusations of systemic pro-Israel bias, with nearly two dozen top editors and reporters linked to pro-Israel advocacy groups. “This latest revelation reinforces what critics and humanitarian groups have insisted for months: there was no organized Hamas theft of international aid,” MEE says.
The Times reported: “In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the UN 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.”
Otherwise, of note is that the Times account features an account of a mid-March meeting of Israeli military officials with Netanyahu’s top military advisor, which occurred at the time that planning for what became the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) operation was taking shape. Officials interviewed by the Times said that the military officials expressed concerns about avowed intention for the GHF to be the sole provider of aid for all of Gaza, so they presented a plan to expand the UN role in parts of Gaza where the private group was not expected to operate. The military officials in the meeting also suggested that the United Nations could distribute other types of aid that the GHF does not hand out, such as medical supplies. But the government initially dismissed the military’s plan, according to three of the people familiar with the matter and records reviewed by the Times. Then in May, when the military warned of looming hunger in Gaza, the government changed its position and allowed the United Nations and other organizations to distribute in the areas not covered by the GHF.
The report adds more weight to the obvious conclusion that the GHF operation weaponized the hunger created by the March-May complete blockade, and that it was driven by Netanyahu’s office, ignoring the concerns from his own military.
