US officials told the Free Beacon that Hamas’s claims of Israel blocking food and medical supplies are an attempt to distract from the terror group looting aid trucks
The United States and Israel are moving an average of 674 humanitarian aid trucks through Gaza each day, delivering more than 15,000 loads of commercial goods and medicine since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center, the multinational body running the operations, and shared with the Washington Free Beacon. They contradict Hamas claims that Israel has hampered aid distribution in Gaza—and reports from anti-Israel media outlets relying on the terror outfit to make the same argument.
According to U.S. officials on the ground in Gaza, more than one million Gazans have received food parcels since Oct. 10, while meal production in the strip has increased by 82 percent since late September. Access to clean drinking water and medical services has also increased since the ceasefire. Gazans received 143,000 medical consultations, 900 emergency surgeries, and more than 45 trauma referrals between the date of the ceasefire and Oct. 31. Aid workers are delivering approximately 17,000 cubic meters of drinking water per day, increasing the supply of potable water in Gaza by 130 percent in October alone.
Specific products that had been absent from Gaza for months are now available in the territory, as well. Eggs arrived on Gazan shelves last week for the first time since February, according to U.S. government information on aid efforts reviewed by the Free Beacon. More than 840 pallets of medical supplies—which include maternal and neonatal health equipment—have entered Gaza in recent weeks.
The figures paint a different picture than those alleged by Hamas. The terror group said this week that “only 4,453 trucks have entered Gaza out of 15,600 that should have entered since the start of the ceasefire,” which comes out to 171 trucks per day. The terror group’s media office said on Thursday that Israel has “continue[d] to pursue a policy of suffocation, starvation, and political blackmail against more than 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza,” stating that Israel has kept products like eggs—which are available in Gaza—out of Palestinians’ hands.
The discrepancy between U.S. statistics and those Hamas has produced suggest the terror group is attempting to undermine the ceasefire and distract from its rampant looting of humanitarian aid convoys. The U.S. numbers also contradict claims from anti-Israel outlets like Drop Site News that the Jewish state has not held up its end of the aid bargain.
“The reality is that Hamas leadership has no control over its followers, and looting of humanitarian aid trucks continues to be a problem,” said one senior administration official, who described the Gazan media office’s figures as “fake news.”
Federal investigators are looking into evidence that Hamas systematically steals U.N. aid in Gaza, including instances in which the terror group “commandeered U.N. aid trucks” and ensured humanitarian goods were “directly delivered to Hamas officials.”
U.S. Central Command lent credence to these reports in late October when it announced that one of its drones had captured Hamas members looting an aid convoy on camera.
Another administration official, White House spokesman Dylan Johnson, told the Free Beacon that the U.S.-compiled numbers show the aid effort is working.
“These figures show that the Trump administration is serious about treating the people of Gaza with dignity and respect,” Johnson said. “The United States is leading a historic effort to address the critical needs of Gazans right now.”
Hamas has employed a similar playbook since igniting its war with Israel two years ago with its Oct. 7 terror spree. Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health authorities have routinely published exaggerated claims about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, prompting both the United Nations and Biden administration to accuse Israel of stirring a famine that never materialized. It has also inflated the number of women and children killed during the war to create the appearance of Israel targeting civilians.
“Hamas continues to spread lies through false stats to paint a false picture of starvation to undermine the ceasefire and peace efforts,” a U.S. official who works on Middle Eastern issues told the Free Beacon. “Sadly, many in the media remain useful idiots by publishing these Hamas talking points.”
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