From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 2, 2024
In first, US says Hamas briefly seized a major Jordanian shipment of aid in Gaza
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Hamas managed to divert a major shipment of humanitarian aid that was delivered to Gaza from Jordan earlier this week, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says, noting that the assistance was eventually returned to the group responsible for distributing it.
“The UN 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 says during a press briefing, adding that UNRWA will likely issue a statement soon condemning the incident.
“If there’s one thing that Hamas could do to jeopardize the shipment of aid, it would be diverting it for their own use, rather than allowing it to go to the innocent civilians that need it,” he says, claiming this was the “first widespread case of diversion that we have seen” in Gaza.
Hamas held the aid trucks for “some time” before releasing them, he claims.
