The Hamas terrorist organization was accused by the State Department on Thursday of stealing a humanitarian aid shipment from Jordan the previous day.
“Yesterday was the first major shipment of aid from Jordan over this new land route through the Erez Crossing,” spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, before he stated that the materials were “then picked up by a humanitarian implementer for distribution inside Gaza, and that aid was intercepted and diverted by Hamas on the ground in Gaza.”
“The U.N. is either in the process or has by now recovered that aid, but it was an unacceptable act by Hamas to divert this aid to begin with,” Miller continued.
Although the spokesperson described the incident as the “first widespread case of diversion that we have seen” since the start of the war in Gaza, allegations of the misappropriation of donated civilian supplies have been levied against the terror group in the past.
Last month, the Palestinian Authority's Awdah TV accused Hamas officials of repeatedly plundering assistance deliveries and even murdering individuals assigned to the distribution of the cargo.
In December, Israeli military officials released videos showing widescale theft, often by the force of Hamas gunmen, of transportation convoys intended to provide food and medicine to the local population.
Israel’s government has always maintained that throughout the conflict in the coastal enclave, there are no restrictions on the amount of relief that is allowed to be delivered.
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