Prof. Kobi Michael: There were reports about a month ago that Hamas has earned as much as $500,000 by selling the humanitarian aid it looted from the international organizations. With this money, it pays salaries to its remaining members and manages to mobilize new ones.
Hamas continues to take control of at least 50 percent of all the humanitarian aid that enters Gaza. The trucks with humanitarian aid are inspected by Israel before they enter the Gaza Strip. Once they are on the other side of the fence, they are supposed to be taken over by international organizations that distribute the aid. But these organizations are not able to manage the enormous amount of aid that is being sent to Gaza.
Col. (res.) Prof. Gabi Siboni: It’s a strategic failure of the IDF that it refused to take control over the aid distribution, and the strategic failure of the international community which insists on delivering humanitarian aid to zones of the Strip where the IDF had ordered the civilians to evacuate.
Humanitarian aid should not at all be heading towards the north of the Strip, where the IDF ordered the civilians to evacuate to the south.
Published in TPS, October 13, 2024.
