Latest news with #IsmailBarhoum
Indian Express
07-08-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Cryptic texts and cash in hand: How Hamas pays its civil servants
Ever wondered how getting a cryptic message to get your salary feels like? In Gaza, that's the reality for thousands of Hamas civil servants, says a BBC report. According to the report, Hamas has adopted a secretive method to pay its civil servants amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war and the collapse of Gaza's financial systems. Amid soaring inflation and banks shut, even receiving a salary notification is now considered life-threatening. Civil servants, from police officers to tax officials, receive cryptic texts, sometimes on their spouse's phones. The message instructs them to reach a specific location at a designated time with a code phrase like, 'Meet a friend for tea'. Upon arrival, the officials are discreetly handed an envelope of cash by a stranger, often without a word, and the person vanishes immediately after with no further discussion. Hamas reportedly pays around 30,000 civil servants once every 10 weeks. These payments amount to just over 20 per cent of their pre-war salaries, totalling about $7 million (£5.3 million), according to the BBC. For most employees, that's roughly one-third of what they used to earn and in a place where basic necessities like flour can cost up to $80 per kilogram, that barely makes ends meet. Each journey to collect payment carries the risk of death. One employee from Hamas's Ministry of Religious Affairs told the BBC, 'Every time I go to pick up my salary, I say goodbye to my wife and children. I know that I may not return.' Even after successfully collecting their salaries, the officials often face a challenge with the condition of the currency. With scarcity of cash, many receive old, soiled notes that shopkeepers refuse to accept. The BBC quoted a school teacher, who is the sole provider for a family of six, as saying, 'I received 1,000 shekels (about $300) in worn-out banknotes. Only 200 shekels were usable and the rest, I honestly don't know what to do with.' How Hamas continues to finance its employees still remains unclear. In March, Israeli forces killed Ismail Barhoum, Hamas's head of finance, in a strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Israel justified its action by accusing Barhoum of funnelling funds to the group's military wing. Historically, Hamas has relied on import duties, local taxes, and financial support from Qatar. Its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, is largely funded by Iran and operates through a separate financial system. A senior Hamas official told the BBC that prior to the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the group had stockpiled around $700 million in cash and hundreds of millions of shekels in underground tunnels.
NDTV
07-08-2025
- Business
- NDTV
How Hamas Is Paying Salaries Despite Collapse Of Gaza's Economy
Hamas has continued to pay thousands of its civil servants through a covert, cash-based network, despite the collapse of Gaza's economy and the total destruction of its infrastructure. It has been nearly two years since Israel started its war on the besieged enclave, yet the militant group has managed to sustain a secretive salary distribution system. The group has disbursed approximately $7 million (Rs 58.3 crore) every 10 weeks to around 30,000 civil servants, even as Gaza's formal banking system remained defunct. Three government employees confirmed to the BBC that they each received nearly $300 (Rs 25,000) in recent days, a payment amounting to only 20 per cent of their pre-war salaries, issued once every two-and-a-half-months. With no formal banking infrastructure, Hamas has relied on covert channels. Employees, including police officers and tax officials, receive encrypted messages, often on their own phones or those of their spouses, directing them to obscure locations under innocuous pretexts such as "meeting a friend for tea". Once there, a contact discreetly hands over a sealed envelope with the salary and departs without further interaction. "Every time I go to pick up my salary, I say goodbye to my wife and children. I know that I may not return," said one employee at the Hamas Ministry of Religious Affairs. "On several occasions, Israeli strikes have hit the salary distribution points. I survived one that targeted a busy market in Gaza City." One teacher said he received 1,000 shekels (Rs 25,000) in worn-out banknotes, most of which were unusable. The humanitarian crisis has worsened amid Israeli restrictions on aid, with food shortages and malnutrition rising sharply. A kilogram of flour recently cost as much as $80 (Rs 6,700), an all-time high in the enclave. Israel says it has targeted key Hamas financial figures, including Ismail Barhoum, head of the group's finances, who was reportedly killed in a March strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Yet, salary payments continued. A senior Hamas employee told the BBC that the group stockpiled nearly $700 million (Rs 5,830 crore) and hundreds of millions of shekels in underground tunnels prior to the October 7, 2023 attack. This cash reserve, the source said, was managed by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed. Both have been killed. Apart from cash salaries, Hamas has provided food parcels to its members through rotating emergency committees. Before the war, Hamas derived income from import duties and local taxes. It also received substantial financial support from Qatar, while its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, is backed primarily by Iran. A senior Muslim Brotherhood official said that 10 per cent of their budget was also directed to Hamas. Hamas has reportedly continued to levy taxes on local traders and has profited from selling cigarettes at highly inflated prices. A box of 20 cigarettes now costs over $170 (Rs 14,200), up from $5 (Rs 420) pre-war.
28-06-2025
- Health
Inside one of Gaza's last functioning hospitals: How staff in Nasser Hospital are fighting to keep people alive
GAZA -- As the conflict between Israel and Hamas grinds on, the health system in the Gaza Strip has nearly collapsed, with doctors and international aid organizations warning that the last remaining major hospital in southern Gaza is now at imminent risk of not being able to function due to a lack of supplies and staff needed to treat the wounded and sick. The Nasser Medical Complex, located in central Khan Younis in southern Gaza, was once a lifeline for the southern region of the strip. Now, it is surrounded by neighborhoods under evacuation orders from the Israeli military, and the roads leading to it are under frequent bombardment and shelling. Despite being designated by the Israeli military as a facility that should not be evacuated, the surrounding area is labeled as a red zone by the Israeli military, meaning citizens in the area should evacuate because military action is likely to occur in the area. The Israeli military has previously called for evacuations of hospitals in Gaza after evacuating surrounding areas, in advance of large-scale raids which the IDF said were militarily necessary as Hamas operatives had embedded themselves within those hospitals. The IDF previously raided Nasser hospital itself, spending a week at the complex in February 2024. The IDF has also attacked Nasser hospital without issuing evacuation orders. In March of this year, it conducted a strike on the surgery wing of the hospital. The IDF said it was targeting a member of Hamas' political bureau operating from the hospital and confirmed the strike in a statement at the time. Hamas said the senior Hamas member who was targeted, Ismail Barhoum, was receiving medical treatment in the hospital when he was killed. A doctor at the hospital said a teenager was also killed in the attack. "The hospital continues to function, continues to provide extremely high-level service even with limited resources," Dr. Mark Brauner, an emergency physician who recently left the facility, told ABC News in an interview Thursday. "But it's extremely uncomfortable to be in close proximity to warfare. Bombs are exploding just hundreds of meters away, and gunfire can be heard throughout the day." Dr. Brauner said the staff at Nasser Hospital are treating patients who are not only suffering from injuries caused by airstrikes but also from chronic malnutrition. "One of the most important aspects of healing from an injury is protein intake, and they have no protein in their diets," he said. That delays healing and increases the risk of infection, he said, adding, "There are at least 100 children at direct risk due to the lack of pediatric formula." The Israel-Hamas war has taken a grim human toll. Since the war began, nearly 56,000 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 131,000 have been wounded, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas-led surprise attack on southern Israel. Hundreds more were taken hostage. At least 20 living hostages are believed to still remain in Hamas captivity. Nasser Hospital is now the only fully functioning major hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. The few remaining hospitals in Gaza City are operating at minimal capacity, and there are no functioning hospitals in northern Gaza. "Medical services are critically under-resourced, with nearly half of essential supplies already out of stock, and over one fifth, 21 percent, projected to run out in two months," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a June 20 update. Also known as UNRWA, the organization is the main UN agency operating inside Gaza. Just five out of 22 UNWRA-run health centers and two UNRWA-rented facilities used as temporary health centers are still operational in Gaza as of June 15, UNWRA said. The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health describes a dire situation when it comes to the territory's health system. "The remaining operating hospitals in the Strip will have no more time to continue operating in the face of the serious crises they face. Hospitals are experiencing overcrowding with wounded and sick patients, exceeding their capacity, especially in inpatient and intensive care units," the ministry said in a June 25 statement. Overall, just 45 of Gaza's 312 operating rooms are still in service, and most are functioning with extremely limited capacity, the Gaza Ministry of Health said. Cancer and heart patients are among the most impacted by the medicine and medical supply shortage, with 47% of essential medicines and 65% of medical supplies now at zero stock, the ministry said. Nine out of 34 oxygen stations are partially operational, and blood banks are nearly empty, according to the ministry. "Community blood donation campaigns have become futile due to worsening malnutrition and anemia," the ministry said. The supplies impacted include "medicine for non-communicable diseases, antimicrobials and antiparasitic products, dermatological and eye preparations, analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications, gastrointestinal products, respiratory medications and family planning methods," UNWRA said in the situational update. Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) delivered a shipment of medical aid to Gaza for the first time since March 2, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the social platform X. The shipment of nine trucks included "essential" medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma, Ghebreyesus said. The supplies were transported from Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing point without any reported looting, and the blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Hospital's cold storage facility for distribution to other medical centers, the organization and the hospital reported. COGAT, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli authority that oversees supplies that enter the Gaza Strip, confirmed the shipment of medical supplies. "Along with the blood units, truckloads of medical supplies and emergency and chronic care medicines entered Gaza to support the medical response," COGAT said in the statement. "We continuously facilitate medical and humanitarian responses for the civilian population in Gaza." However, Ghebreyesus said the delivery was far from sufficient to meet the needs inside Gaza. "These medical supplies are only a drop in the ocean," he said in the X post. "Aid at scale is essential to save lives. WHO calls for the immediate, unimpeded, and sustained delivery of health aid into Gaza through all possible routes." For some, even these rare deliveries come too late. The group Doctors Without Borders evacuated most of its staff from Nasser Hospital two weeks ago, citing safety concerns. "I don't want to call it a collapsed system anymore. There is no health system in Gaza," Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, the group's deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, told ABC News in an interview. "The hospitals that remain are overwhelmed with mass casualties, many now coming from the food distribution points. We're treating patients with severe burns and complicated injuries, and we don't have the supplies, the fuel or the infrastructure to handle it," he said. Some patients are also suffering because the medical care available in the Gaza Strip does not meet the level of care they need. The Gaza Ministry of Health said 513 patients have died due to restrictions on travel for medical care, and 338 cancer patients have died while waiting to leave for treatment abroad. An IDF spokesperson did not immediately comment on the current travel restrictions in Gaza. Despite these challenges, the doctors and staff at Nasser Hospital continue their work. Electricity shortages are also exacerbating the crisis. Just 49 hospital generators are still running -- and even they are operating with limited fuel, according to the health ministry. "We are holding on by a thread," Brauner said. "This is not a sustainable situation. If Nasser goes down, the entire southern region will be left without a hospital. And that will be the final collapse."
United News of India
13-05-2025
- Health
- United News of India
Israeli army says struck Hamas militants in Gaza hospital
World Jerusalem, May 13 (UNI) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that it conducted a targeted airstrike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip, early in the morning. According to a statement released by the IDF, the hospital compound "was being used by terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops." The IDF said that Ismail Barhoum, the successor to Hamas' Gaza leadership and also head of its financial and institutional operations, had operated from within the facility. Barhoum was reportedly killed in a prior strike in March. It added that "senior Hamas officials continue to use the hospital for terrorist activity, through cynical and brutal use of the civilian population in the hospital and its surroundings." The statement said the IDF has taken measures to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence. Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that journalist Hassan Eslieh, who was receiving treatment at the hospital, was killed in the Israeli attack, and several patients sustained various injuries as a result of the bombing. UNI XINHUA GNK
Shafaq News
17-04-2025
- Health
- Shafaq News
World Haemophilia Day in Gaza: Patients struggle amid hospital attacks
Shafaq News/ Israel's war on Gaza has significantly worsened the plight of haemophilia patients, a rare genetic bleeding disorder, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday, amid a near-paralyzed healthcare system in the enclave. In a statement marking World Haemophilia Day, the ministry affirmed that patients in Gaza face 'unprecedented challenges' in accessing essential medical care more than 18 months into the war. Haemophilia prevents blood from clotting properly due to a deficiency in clotting factors—proteins that help stop bleeding. The disorder affects about one in 10,000 people globally. Gaza is home to 180 haemophilia patients—out of 550 nationwide—who are experiencing acute shortages of life-saving clotting factor medications. The health ministry warned of a growing risk of severe complications, including internal bleeding in joints and muscles, which can cause permanent disabilities. 'The crisis has doubled the need for urgent supplies to ensure a dignified life and safe daily functioning for patients,' the ministry said. Hospitals In Ruins, Healthcare System Overwhelmed The World Health Organization confirmed that only 21 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are partially functioning, many damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. 'Recent attacks on hospitals are further paralyzing the strip's healthcare system.' Health partners on the ground reported a dire lack of hospital beds, with patients treated in tents, and thousands of blood units needed for life-saving procedures. The following ten hospitals have reportedly suffered the most from Israeli attacks: 1. Al-Shifa Medical Complex: The facility was raided by Israeli forces in March 2024, leaving hundreds dead and widespread destruction. The Israeli army destroyed medical equipment and burned sections of the hospital. Over 300 bodies were recovered, some showing signs of decomposition. 2. Nasser Medical Complex: Repeatedly bombed since October 2023, the hospital was severely damaged in March 2025 when Israeli forces targeted its surgery department, where Hamas leader Ismail Barhoum was being treated. The complex was rendered inoperable during ground operations in Khan Younis, with extensive destruction to medical equipment, sewage, electricity, water systems, and the oxygen plant. 3. Al-Maamadani Hospital: This hospital was hit by Israeli airstrikes in October 2023, killing around 500 patients, injured civilians, and those seeking shelter. Eighteen months later, the Israeli army returned and bombed the emergency and reception areas, forcing the hospital to close. Patients and injured civilians had to seek refuge in the streets. 4. Kamal Adwan Hospital: Raided multiple times, the hospital was attacked in December 2024. After being besieged by Israeli forces, the hospital's facilities were set on fire, and medical staff and patients were detained. Around 350 people were present, including 75 wounded with their companions and 180 medical and support staff. 5. Al-Amal Hospital: Forced out of service in March 2024 during an Israeli raid, the hospital was reactivated in May 2024 with limited services, including emergency and maternity care. 6. Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital: Gaza's only cancer treatment center, the facility was knocked out of service in November 2023 due to severe structural damage and the destruction of its critical systems. Before it ceased operations, the hospital was treating 80 cancer patients. 7. Indonesian Hospital: Hit multiple times, its radiology equipment and oxygen and electricity supplies were destroyed. The hospital was evacuated in December 2024 before being forced out of service in January 2025. 8. Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital: Providing dialysis for children under 14, this hospital's kidney dialysis unit was destroyed, leading to the deaths of many children. The unit reopened in March 2025, though it now only serves 12 children. 9. Al-Awda Hospital: Surrounded by Israeli forces in January 2025, it was cut off from medical supplies and fuel. The hospital and its staff were threatened with bombing and evacuation. 10. Kuwait Specialized Hospital: Repeatedly targeted, the hospital was forced to close in May 2024. Medical staff were relocated to a field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area. Fresh Airstrikes Kill Dozens On the 31st day of resumed fighting, Palestinian media reported that Israeli airstrikes killed over 23 people across Gaza. At least 15, including women and children, were reportedly burned alive in a strike on tents sheltering displaced families in Khan Younis. Another six members of the same family were killed in Beit Lahia, and seven more in Jabalia, where a drone strike targeted a displacement camp. Since October 7, 2023, Israel's military campaign has killed at least 61,709 Palestinians, including 17,492 children, and injured over 111,000, according to Al-Jazeera tracker.
