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Comment by monocasa | Hacker News Reader

Would reporting from the NYT citing Israeli military officials saying that this didn't happen on any notable scale help convince people?

No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/middleeast/hamas-un...

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The UN's own data (https://app.un2720.org/tracking) shows 86,531 pallets were intercepted, while only 26,772 pallets arrived at their intended destination.

We don't know many of the interceptions Hamas was behind, but that isn't really important.

> We don't know much many of the interceptions Hamas was behind, but that isn't really important.

Sure it is when Israel is funding other groups that are known for stealing aid. It changes the entire narrative.

Israel backs an anti-Hamas armed group known for looting aid in Gaza. Here’s what we know

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-armed-groups-hamas-israel-lo...

Is 0 better than 26,772 pallets?

Who is suggesting making it 0?

The Israeli government in March of this year. And it wasn't a suggestion, it was an implemented policy.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/02/middleeast/israel-halts-gaza-...

First of all your own link clearly states "Intercepted: Either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors, during transit in Gaza".

Secondly, nobody can tell who intercepted what, it could very well be that the IDF is intercepting them covertly.

That's just spin; there's no way to peacefully intercept the vehicles. The drivers don't stop because a hungry person asked politely.

> it could very well be that the IDF is intercepting them covertly

This seems like a pretty farfetched conspiracy theory. There are smart phones and other cameras all over Gaza, and zero evidence of this.

> That's just spin

No it's not. Driving trucks full of food through hungry crowds will absolutely result in "shrinkage." That doesn't mean they're all Hamas.

These are interceptions of trucks, not people grabbing a few items as a truck passes by.

I didn't say they're all Hamas; again the relevant thing is that they're being intercepted and not making it to ordinary civilians.

Top comment: "The claim I've heard them make is that the food aid is making it in, but being stolen by Hamas so that it can be resold at markup."

> the relevant thing is that they're being intercepted and not making it to ordinary civilians

Hell of a straw man. People care that the aid is getting to militants. Israel said it was getting to Hamas. That's the justification for limiting aid. If it's not getting to people who are shooting at Israeli troops, then it's not a security risk to provide more aid.

The strawman is that Hamas is intercepting all the aid. Sure people occasionally say that, but you're attacking an oversimplification of the real underlying points, which are that

- Groups of men with rifles tend to be belligerents in the conflict, even if we can't say definitively if they're with Hamas, PIJ or some smaller gang. Israel doesn't want an aid program where the bulk of the aid goes to their literal war enemies.

- Even if some of them are "civilian armed gangs" and not actual belligerents, the aid they steal still isn't getting to civilians (except when it's sold at extortionate prices). Hence the shift to GHF which, while it has its own problems, does actually deliver most aid to ordinary civilians for free.

> Groups of men with rifles tend to be belligerents in the conflict, even if we can't say definitively if they're with Hamas, PIJ or some smaller gang

Granted.

> Even if some of them are "civilian armed gangs" and not actual belligerents, the aid they steal still isn't getting to civilians

Sure. Now where is the evidence that most of the aid is being pilfered by armed anyones?

There’s no “proof” but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. The pallets that never made it to people in need didn’t magically disappear. There is also a history of Hamas stealing aid that goes back MUCH longer than the post-October-7 conflict:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip#Feb...

I have no idea. I've heard a lot of "just because a minister says it it isn't true, do you believe everything Trump or congresspeople say?" in response to what ministers say. That, and the usual "the media (particularly mainstream, like NYT) is lying/anti-semitic/etc." So I imagine the reply would be the same.

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