Huckabee hits back at Western countries for ‘siding' with terror group Hamas
"How embarrassing for a nation to side w/ a terror group like Hamas & blame a nation whose civilians were massacred for fighting to get hostages released," wrote Huckabee after Hamas – whose Oct. 7, 2023, mass terror attack on Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza – said it welcomed "the contents of the joint statement issued by the United Kingdom Government along with 25 other countries, calling for an immediate end to the war on the Gaza Strip."
The U.S. and EU-designated terror group also reiterated its claims that Israel was carrying out a "policy of starvation" on the coastal enclave amid unverified reports that people have died due to hunger-related reasons. Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify such reports.
STUDY CLAIMS US NEWS OUTLETS SERVED AS 'MEGAPHONES' FOR HAMAS IN GAZA WAR
"The statement's condemnation of the killing of over 800 Palestinian civilians at the gates of U.S.-Israeli-controlled aid checkpoints underscores the brutality of this mechanism," Hamas wrote following a statement issued by the U.K. Foreign Office and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
"The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths," read Lammy's statement, which was also signed by the foreign ministers of 28 countries.
"If Hamas embraces you – you are in the wrong place," Israel's Foreign Minister Gidon Saar responded on X. "Hamas's praise for the statement by the group of countries is the best proof of the mistake they made – part of them out of good intentions and part of them out of an obsession against Israel."
Since launching a new model for food aid distribution in the war-torn strip in early May, Israel and the U.S. have come under fire from the international community over near-daily reports of people dying while attempting to receive aid or not receiving any aid at all.
Israel has refuted claims that there is hunger in Gaza or that it is using starvation as a tactic of the now 22-month-old war. Rather, officials have said they are working to prevent Hamas from stealing aid being distributed by veteran, mostly U.N.-run, humanitarian agencies and sold for exorbitant prices in a bid to continue funding terror operations.
US-BACKED GAZA AID GROUP LAUNCHES BOLD NEW SYSTEM TO DELIVER FOOD DIRECTLY TO FAMILIES
Israel, which is tasked with securing routes to four aid centers run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund, has also denied that its soldiers intentionally kill Palestinian civilians but is rather issuing warning shots as a measure of crowd control. The GHF has so far delivered some 85 million meals since it started its aid operation in May.
U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "deplored the growing reports of both children and adults suffering from malnutrition and strongly condemned the ongoing violence, including the shooting, killing and injuring of people attempting to get food."
"As someone who has spent over 40 years in Israel's Security Establishment – both as IDF Chief of Staff & Minister of Defense, I can say this unequivocally: Not only has Israel never starved or targeted civilians, but it goes above and beyond to protect civilians in the most complex of war zones like Gaza," Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz wrote on X.
"We must be clear – culpability for harm inflicted to civilians rests on terrorist Hamas and Hamas only," he added.
HAMAS LOSING IRON GRIP ON GAZA AS US-BACKED GROUP GETS AID TO PALESTINIANS IN NEED
On Tuesday, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, said in a statement that "twenty-one children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in various areas across the Gaza Strip."
"Every moment, new cases of malnutrition and starvation are arriving at Gaza's hospitals," he said.
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv who has been monitoring the situation in Gaza closely, told Fox News Digital that he was "not aware of a single official report that people died because of starvation or hunger."
"I'm not familiar with any such report, but I am familiar with many warnings that were published by international organizations about the catastrophe that exists in Gaza and how in two months or so, 40 or 50,000 people will die because of hunger, but nobody has died because of hunger, because there is no hunger," he said, adding, "if there are some local problems of supply, it is because of Hamas – not because of the IDF."
Michael, who is also a fellow at the Misgav Institute in Jerusalem, pointed out that Hamas "loots, robs and steals the humanitarian aid, partially for themselves, to feed themselves and the rest is sold in very high prices to the local population in order to make money."
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Israel's goal of weakening Hamas's grip on the Strip – and on aid agencies – appeared to be working on Monday, with The Washington Post reporting that the terror group "is facing its worst financial and administrative crisis in its four-decade history" and is struggling to find the resource it needs to continue fighting Israel or rule Gaza.
Quoting a former high-level Israeli intelligence officer, and current Israel Defense Forces officers, the report said that Hamas could no longer pay its fighters or rebuild its underground terror tunnels, where it is believed to be holding some 50 hostages, both alive and dead, who kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attack.
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40 minutes ago
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UN gathering eyes solution to deadlocked Palestinian question
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41 minutes ago
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Israel says hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting to enter Gaza. Why can't the UN bring them in?
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NBC News
42 minutes ago
- NBC News
U.S. government analysis found no evidence of massive Hamas theft of Gaza aid
WASHINGTON — An internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, challenging the main rationale that Israel and the U.S. give for backing a new armed private aid operation. The analysis, which has not been previously reported, was conducted by a bureau within the U.S. Agency for International Development and completed in late June. It examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of U.S.-funded supplies reported by U.S. aid partner organizations between October 2023 and this May. It found 'no reports alleging Hamas' benefited from U.S.-funded supplies, according to a slide presentation of the findings seen by Reuters. A State Department spokesperson disputed the findings, saying there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid, but provided no such videos. The spokesperson also accused traditional humanitarian groups of covering up 'aid corruption.' A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, questioned the existence of the analysis, saying no State Department official had seen it and that it 'was likely produced by a deep state operative' seeking to discredit President Donald Trump's 'humanitarian agenda.' The findings were shared with the USAID's inspector general's office and State Department officials involved in Middle East policy, said two sources familiar with the matter, and come as dire food shortages deepen in the devastated enclave. Israel says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas, which it blames for the crisis. The U.N. World Food Program says nearly a quarter of Gaza's 2.1 million Palestinians face famine-like conditions, thousands are suffering acute malnutrition, and the World Health Organization and doctors in the enclave report starvation deaths of children and others. The U.N. also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food supplies, the majority near the militarized distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the new private aid group that uses a for-profit U.S. logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed U.S. military veterans. The study was conducted by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of USAID, which was the largest funder of assistance to Gaza before the Trump administration froze all U.S. foreign aid in January, terminating thousands of programs. It has also begun dismantling USAID, whose functions have been folded into the State Department. The analysis found that at least 44 of the 156 incidents where aid supplies were reported stolen or lost were 'either directly or indirectly' due to Israeli military actions, according to the briefing slides. Israel's military did not respond to questions about those findings. The study noted a limitation: because Palestinians who receive aid cannot be vetted, it was possible that U.S.-funded supplies went to administrative officials of Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza. One source familiar with the study also cautioned that the absence of reports of widespread aid diversion by Hamas 'does not mean that diversion has not occurred.' The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli assault began, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says Hamas diverts aid Israel, which controls access to Gaza, has said that Hamas steals food supplies from U.N. and other organizations to use to control the civilian population and boost its finances, including by jacking up the prices of the goods and reselling them to civilians. Asked about the USAID report, the Israeli military told Reuters that its allegations are based on intelligence reports that Hamas militants seized cargoes by 'both covertly and overtly' embedding themselves on aid trucks. Those reports also show that Hamas has diverted up to 25% of aid supplies to its fighters or sold them to civilians, the Israeli military said, adding that GHF has ended the militants' control of aid by distributing it directly to civilians. Hamas denies the allegations. A Hamas security official said that Israel has killed more than 800 Hamas-affiliated police and security guards trying to protect aid vehicles and convoy routes. Their missions were coordinated with the U.N. Reuters could not independently verify the claims by Hamas and Israel, which has not made public proof that the militants have systematically stolen aid. GHF also accuses Hamas of massive aid theft in defending its distribution model. The U.N. and other groups have rejected calls by GHF, Israel and the U.S. to cooperate with the foundation, saying it violates international humanitarian principles of neutrality. In response to a request for comment, GHF referred Reuters to a July 2 Washington Post article that quoted an unidentified Gazan and anonymous Israeli officials as saying Hamas profited from the sales and taxing of pilfered humanitarian aid. Aid groups required to report losses The 156 reports of theft or losses of supplies reviewed by BHA were filed by U.N. agencies and other humanitarian groups working in Gaza as a condition of receiving U.S. aid funds. The second source familiar with the matter said that after receiving reports of U.S.-funded aid thefts or losses, USAID staff followed up with partner organizations to try to determine if there was Hamas involvement. Those organizations also would 'redirect or pause' aid distributions if they learned that Hamas was in the vicinity, the source said. Aid organizations working in Gaza also are required to vet their personnel, sub-contractors and suppliers for ties to extremist groups before receiving U.S. funds, a condition that the State Department waived in approving $30 million for GHF last month. The slide presentation noted that USAID partners tended to over-report aid diversion and theft by groups sanctioned or designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations — such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — because they want to avoid losing U.S. funding. Of the 156 incidents of loss or theft reported, 63 were attributed to unknown perpetrators, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed people, 11 directly to Israeli military action, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to aid group personnel 'engaging in corrupt activities,' and six to 'others,' a category that accounted for 'commodities stolen in unknown circumstances,' according to the slide presentation. The armed actors 'included gangs and other miscellaneous individuals who may have had weapons,' said a slide. Another slide said 'a review of all 156 incidents found no affiliations with' U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, of which Hamas is one. 'The majority of incidents could not be definitively attributed to a specific actor,' said another slide. 'Partners often largely discovered the commodities had been stolen in transit without identifying the perpetrator.' It is possible there were classified intelligence reports on Hamas aid thefts, but BHA staff lost access to classified systems in the dismantlement of USAID, said a slide. However, a source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments told Reuters that they knew of no U.S. intelligence reports detailing Hamas aid diversions and that Washington was relying on Israeli reports. The BHA analysis found that the Israeli military 'directly or indirectly caused' a total of 44 incidents in which U.S.-funded aid was lost or stolen. Those included the 11 attributed to direct Israeli military actions, such as airstrikes or orders to Palestinians to evacuate areas of the war-torn enclave. Losses indirectly attributed to Israeli military included cases where they compelled aid groups to use delivery routes with high risks of theft or looting, ignoring requests for alternative routes, the analysis said.
