From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Ben Gvir demands ‘urgent discussion’ on Israel’s alleged funding of aid in Gaza
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Writing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demands an “urgent discussion” on Israel’s alleged funding of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, which he claims “weakens our operational efforts and takes us further away from victory and the return of our hostages.”
He strongly opposes any aid at all being allowed into Gaza, Ben Gvir writes, “while our hostages are languishing in Hamas tunnels and our heroic fighters are maneuvering in the Strip.”
But it’s even more unthinkable, he says, that the Israeli taxpayer would be forced to fund “food and supplies for the population that participated en masse in the massacre on October 7, and rejoiced when our brothers and sisters were slaughtered.”
Last month, Netanyahu ordered the immediate resumption of “basic” humanitarian aid into Gaza amid mounting US pressure to end Israel’s months-long blockade. The decision was made without a cabinet vote, angering Ben Gvir and other hard-right politicians.
Subsequently, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of funding the new aid mechanism through what he described as foreign “shell companies,” prompting the prime minister’s spokesman to insist that “Israel does not fund humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.”
However, last week, Kan news reported that the government has transferred NIS 700 million (some $280 million) to fund the new humanitarian aid mechanism, which is run by the the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
According to Ben Gvir, “On May 5, 2025, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich brought a proposal for a decision to the government that was defined as an ‘urgent security need’ without specifying what it was.”
“Unfortunately and surprisingly, the discussion did not appear on the agenda in advance, and it appears that the discussion was held towards the end of the meeting when a significant number of ministers had left, and even then the issue was not discussed in detail, and it has become clear in recent days that this is humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer,” he asserts.
The Times of Israel Community.