US envoy: Israel hasn’t provided ‘specific evidence’ Hamas is stealing aid shipments
But David Satterfield says terror group using delivery channels to ‘shape where and to whom assistance goes,’ adds police escorting aid trucks ‘certainly include Hamas elements’
The top US diplomat involved in humanitarian assistance for Gaza denied allegations that Hamas has stolen aid and commercial shipments into the enclave, saying that no Israeli official has presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”
At the same time, Hamas has been using other aid delivery channels to “shape where and to whom assistance goes,” David Satterfield told an event on Friday hosted by the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Footage from Gaza has shown gunmen, believed to members of the terror group, stealing trucks delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt. Israel has also long said that Hamas stockpiled supplies and kept them from increasingly desperate civilians.
According to Sutterfeld, Israeli forces earlier this month killed Palestinian police — among them Hamas operatives — protecting a UN aid convoy in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah. As a result, Sutterfeld said they have since refused to protect convoys, hampering aid deliveries inside Gaza because of threats from criminal gangs.
“With the departure of police escorts, it has been virtually impossible for the UN or anyone else, Jordan, the UAE, or any other implementer to safely move assistance in Gaza because of criminal elements,” Satterfield said.
Satterfield said the police escorts include Hamas members but also officers with no direct affiliation to the terror group.
Israel’s military did not immediately provide comment on his remarks.
Satterfield was asked if there was any truth to a report that Israeli troops killed Hamas operatives protecting a UN aid convoy in Rafah earlier this month.
“The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) 10 days, two weeks ago, did indeed strike at seven, eight, or nine police officials, including a commander whose units had been involved in providing escorts,” he replied.
Such escorts were needed because of attacks on aid convoys first by “desperate” Palestinians and “then by criminal elements,” Satterfield said.
The police “certainly include Hamas elements. They also include individuals who don’t have a direct affiliation with Hamas who are there as part of the Palestinian Authority’s remnant presence and security,” he said, referring to the Western-backed body that exercises limited governance in the West Bank.
On February 10, Hamas and Gaza medics said that two Israeli airstrikes had killed five members of Rafah’s Hamas-run police force, including a senior officer. The same day, Israel’s military said it had struck and killed three Hamas terrorists in Rafah, including two senior operatives in the area.
It was not clear if Satterfield was referring to the February 10 incident. Hamas has not said if it has stopped police escorts of aid convoys.
Satterfield said the US was working with the Israeli government and military to determine “what solutions can be found because everyone wants the assistance to continue.”
In addition to the threat posed by criminals, aid distribution is hampered by “the rising value of humanitarian assistance” leaking into the black market, Satterfield said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
