The Gaza Hospital and the Missing Aid Hamas steals from a U.N. refugee agency, which plays along.
On Tuesday a blast at a hospital in Gaza City reportedly killed hundreds of people. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike. The Israel Defense Forces said it was a failed missile from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a local proxy of Iran. About a quarter of Hamas and PIJ rockets fired in previous wars have fallen short and landed in Gaza. More details will come, but blowing up a hospital isn’t in Israel’s interest.
Hamas courts Palestinian casualties, knowing that it can blame Israel whenever the aftermath of its misfired rockets or human shields ends up on the news. Hamas shows such little concern for Gazans that it has long stolen their humanitarian aid. It’s another way the terrorist group uses Palestinian civilians, playing on Western sympathy to advance its jihadist brutality.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as Unrwa, took to Twitter on Monday: “@UNRWA received reports that yesterday a group of people with trucks purporting to be from the Ministry of Health of the de facto authorities in #Gaza, removed fuel and medical equipment from the Agency’s compound in #GazaCity.”
But hours later something strange happened: Unrwa deleted its tweet and said nothing was amiss. “With regards to reports on social media of looting of an UNRWA warehouse,” it wrote, leaving out that the reports had been its own, “UNRWA would like to confirm that no looting has taken place.” The agency didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Unrwa can pretend it never said what it said, but U.N. sources told Israel’s Walla News that the aid was stolen, and Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians reports that 24,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies went to Hamas, whose underground bases use diesel generators.
Washington covers that tab. Since President Biden restored aid that was blocked by President Trump, the U.S. has been Unrwa’s largest donor, at $344 million in 2022.
Unrwa was created as temporary help for Arab refugees from the 1948 war launched to destroy Israel. It never went away because rather than resettle them, as the U.N. agency for all other refugees does, Unrwa’s special mission is to keep Palestinians displaced in perpetuity.
For Palestinians, refugee status is a heritable trait; Unrwa now serves 5.9 million people, even fifth-generation descendants. Its schools teach that Palestine includes all Israeli territory, to which children can expect—or fight for, depending on the teacher—a return. Unrwa has admitted that terrorist groups have used its schools to store and even fire rockets, and its staff has long included Hamas “activists.”
As the humanitarian toll rises, President Biden insists that Israel and Egypt allow more aid into Gaza, and it is needed. But no one should be surprised where it ends up.
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