[Opinion] Funding Terrorism with International Aid Has To Stop
[Excerpts]
Hamas’ refusal to release the remaining hostages has had dire consequences for Gaza. The resumption of Israeli airstrikes against terror targets is but one result. Israel has also halted aid deliveries; 25,000 trucks had entered Gaza in the weeks before the ceasefire collapsed.
This decision has triggered international condemnation, with many blaming Israel’s aid blockade for Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis. But these accusations overlook a far more urgent and fundamental problem: aid to Gaza rarely reaches the civilian populations who need it. Instead, Hamas seizes these supplies, hoarding them for fighters or selling them on the black market.
For years, governments have irresponsibly funneled aid into Gaza without ensuring proper oversight, thereby enabling this corruption to thrive. Detailed reports have consistently documented Hamas’ serial exploitation of aid. Most recently, freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi provided harrowing confirmation. Earlier this month, Sharabi addressed the United Nations Security Council, describing how Hamas militants stole humanitarian aid marked with UN and UNRWA logos while he was chained underground and starved. While Hamas “ate like kings,” Sharabi and other captives survived on minimal rations of pita and tea.
Accountability for this shameful and unacceptable state of affairs must rest with world governments, which have irresponsibly supplied aid for decades and enabled large-scale diversion. Hamas’ systematic commandeering of humanitarian aid has been an open secret since the terror group forcibly seized power in Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, and controlling aid has contributed to Hamas’ power for nearly two decades.
