A StandWithUs UK Deep Dive
In the chaos of war-torn Gaza, the battle isn’t just fought with rockets, it’s waged over food. While global headlines cry “famine” and images of starving civilians flood the media, a darker, more complex story unfolds behind the scenes. Humanitarian aid is pouring into Gaza at record levels, yet hunger still spreads. Why? Because in the shadows of the humanitarian crisis, Hamas is running a black-market empire, hijacking food shipments meant for civilians to feed its war machine.
This exposé pulls back the curtain on the twisted economy of aid in Gaza, where nearly 60% of supplies are stolen, where UN convoys are exploited, and where the true victims are ordinary people trapped between terror and truth. It’s time to ask uncomfortable questions, confront media silence, and challenge the dangerous narratives that shield those truly responsible for Gaza’s suffering.
1. Does Israel have a legal commitment to provide aid to Gaza?
Contrary to widespread belief, Israel is under no obligation, under international law, a country has no obligation to supply humanitarian aid to a hostile entity during war. Gaza is governed by Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation that opened war against Israel.
International law does allow for blockades during armed conflict, even if such a blockade risks humanitarian hardship. Crucially, if there is a credible threat that aid will be diverted by combatants, a warring party has legal grounds to limit or deny its entry. This is precisely the claim Israel makes in relation to Hamas.
When discussing humanitarian aid, one must remember that there are still Israeli hostages who, for over 600 days, have not seen a Red Cross representative or received even the most basic humanitarian treatment – no access to medication or proper food. Many of these hostages are civilians.
2. How much food is getting into Gaza?
One of the most overlooked facts in this crisis is the sheer volume of aid that has entered Gaza. According to Israel’s COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), the statistics are staggering:
- Before October 7, 2023: Around 70 food trucks entered Gaza daily.
- After October 7: That number increased to over 102 trucks per day on average.
- During the ceasefire (Jan 19 – Mar 18, 2025): Over 25,000 trucks entered Gaza, carrying 448,000 tons of aid, of which 338,676 tons were food, delivered via 16,470 trucks.
By year-end 2024, the average caloric intake available per person in Gaza was estimated at 3,211 kcal per day, far above the daily recommended intake (2,000–2,500 kcal for adults).
Naftali Bennett, former Israeli Prime Minister, publicly emphasised in a video briefing online:
“Israel has let in over 1.7 million tons of food into Gaza, almost 100,000 trucks. That’s 40% more per day than before the war.”
Watch Naftali Bennett’s full briefing:
3. Where is the UN and why they are not providing food
As part of a broader investigation into the manipulation of international aid in Gaza, newly surfaced documents revealed that Hamas systematically exploited United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) convoys for profit and logistical gain during the war. According to a detailed report by Israel Hayom, in 2024 Hamas operatives colluded with UN staff to conceal contraband, such as encrypted communication devices and high-value goods like cigarettes, within sacks marked as humanitarian aid. These goods were smuggled into Gaza under the guise of food and medical supplies intended for its beleaguered civilian population. Hamas reportedly resold the contraband or used it for operational purposes, generating millions of dollars for its leadership while ordinary Gazans struggled to access essential resources.
The documents suggest that Hamas exercised near-total control over the flow and distribution of aid within Gaza. At the peak of aid operations, up to 600 trucks entered daily, many of which were reportedly diverted directly to Hamas-controlled warehouses and the homes of senior operatives. While UN staff on the ground were often present during these seizures, they allegedly failed to intervene. In some cases, Hamas even allowed Islamic Jihad to take a share of the goods in exchange for cooperation. Despite internal reports documenting the diversion of aid, the UN did not suspend its operations. On the contrary, Secretary-General António Guterres reportedly lobbied against a U.S.-backed initiative that aimed to sever militant groups from the aid supply chain, claiming it would jeopardise humanitarian efforts. Yet according to sources cited in the report, that same initiative faced threats of shutdown from Hamas if it bypassed their control. This paints a stark picture of how international aid, while critical on the surface, can be weaponised to sustain terror networks and reinforce their political power.
4. How does Hamas convert food aid into weapons and use it to maintain its grip on power?
The uncomfortable truth, and one that rarely headlines the media, is that Hamas systematically diverts humanitarian aid. Reports from May 2024 state that nearly 70% of U.S.-delivered aid through the $320 million floating pier project was stolen en route to UN storage facilities.
Additional estimates from Israeli intelligence suggest Hamas has stolen up to 60% of all aid entering Gaza, turning it into a black-market economy worth over $500 million since the start of the war.
Watch: Hamas terrorists steal aid from a truck, December 2023:
This is not a new tactic. Hamas has long operated as a mafia-style regime in Gaza, siphoning international goodwill into its war coffers. Aid is sold, hoarded, or used as leverage, while ordinary civilians wait in desperation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas himself condemned the “Hamas gangs” responsible for stealing and selling aid to fund terrorism.
Watch: Hamas terrorists shoot at Gazan civilians near GHF aid distribution centre, 1st June 2025:
Listen: recording of a phone call between a Gazan resident and a COGAT officer regarding the shootings and who was responsible:
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
In response, Israel launched a new strategy of designated aid distribution centres with the GHF, aiming to bypass Hamas and deliver food directly to civilians. But even these efforts have been violently contested.
On a number of occasions, there have been false claims that IDF soldiers have targeted and killed civilians near the aid distribution centres. On 1st June, many news organisations ran with headlines that Israel was responsible for the deaths of Gazan civilians on the way to collect aid. Following clear statements from the IDF that its soldiers were not involved, and evidence provided, most of the headlines were changed and quiet admittance that the information was incorrect.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is an American organisation, based in Delaware, established in February 2025 to distribute humanitarian aid during the ongoing Gaza humanitarian crisis.
GHF began operations on 26th May, 2025. It set up four aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip: 3 in the southern area of Rafah and another in al-Bureij, in central Gaza.
On June 10, 2025 alone, GHF distributed over 2 million meals across four sites, including:
- 18 truckloads to Tal Sultan (997,920 meals)
- 10 truckloads to Saudi Neighbourhood (554,400 meals)
- 9 truckloads to Wadi Gaza (498,960 meals)
This brought their total distributions to over 10 million meals, via approximately 13,547,182 boxes, since beginning operations on 26th May, 2025.
Add that to UN is running a campaign against the new food delivery system because it wants to maintain its monopoly in intentional food the delivery to war zones. It is worth power and money.
5. The Narrative War: When Aid Becomes a Weapon
Hamas and its affiliated groups have responded to the distribution centres with a media and military campaign. In a May 2025 joint statement, Palestinian Resistance Factions claimed that:
“These centres have turned into traps and death ambushes… illusionary centres that have become daily scenes of massacres and bloodshed.”
The statement also made sweeping accusations that:
- The U.S. and Israel are attempting to “liquidate the Palestinian cause.”
- Aid efforts aim to replace UNRWA (the historically corrupt but legally recognised aid agency).
- Collaborators with these new systems will be treated as legitimate targets by armed resistance units.
This rhetoric is not only incendiary, it’s strategically designed to ensure Hamas retains monopoly control over aid distribution, using both physical violence and psychological warfare to enforce compliance among desperate civilians.
6. Where is the media?
You have been reading about the above in this deep dive, and provided with in-depth statistics and analysis of the situation. So why haven’t you been reading this in the media?
News reports are filled with headlines of impending starvation, suffering innocent people, with claims of no hope or that there is a deliberate withholding of aid by Israel.
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan has reached devastating levels, with over 160,000 lives lost, including more than 32,000 children and 27,000 women. Violence and conflict have forced over 14.5 million people to flee their homes, including 11 million internally displaced and 4.2 million refugees. An alarming 27 million people are at risk of hunger, and 14.5 million children face severe acute malnutrition. Over 32 million people urgently need aid, half of them children, while 19 million children are out of school. The crisis continues to deepen, with more than 60,000 people reported missing, 6,000 of them children, and sexual violence cases rising, particularly in South Darfur.
All of this makes awful reading, but you have likely seen this for the first time right here. Why is the media absolving itself of responsibly reporting on important events from across the world?
7. The Victims: Civilians Held Hostage
Ultimately, the people of Gaza suffer most. Not just from war, but from being caught in the vice grip of a regime that weaponises aid, prioritises tunnels over hospitals, and broadcasts propaganda while children go hungry.
The international community often directs its moral outrage at Israel for the visible suffering, but fails to hold Hamas accountable for the hidden theft and violence that perpetuate that very suffering.
Israel, for its part, faces a moral paradox: how to protect its own citizens from an enemy embedded within civilian infrastructure, while also trying to sustain a population that this enemy exploits.
The war could end immediately if Hamas laid down its weapons and released the Israeli hostages. The pressure must be directed at Hamas, not at Israel. When countries place blame on Israel instead of holding Hamas accountable, they only empower Hamas further.
Conclusion:
Toward an Honest Conversation
The Gaza food shortage is real, but not in the way it’s often portrayed. This is not a case of deliberate starvation by a siege-happy aggressor, but of an unprecedented volume of humanitarian aid flowing into a territory where terror governs distribution.
To reduce the crisis to slogans like “Israel is starving Gaza” is not just intellectually lazy, it’s dangerously misleading.
If we are to alleviate suffering in Gaza, the path must begin with truth: acknowledging Hamas’s exploitation of its own people, demanding accountability from aid agencies, and pursuing solutions that do not empower the very force responsible for prolonging Gaza’s agony.
Only then can we talk about justice – not just for Palestinians, but for the Israelis forced into this impossible moral battlefield, and for a world that deserves better than half-truths and weaponised narratives.
