Sometimes an assertion goes from hotly contested to widely accepted without ever really stopping along the way. So there has been no eureka moment regarding confirmation that Hamas controls humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza. There is just no denying it anymore.
Israel’s decision to cut off aid to the enclave tested the hypothesis that humanitarian aid shipments were, perversely, keeping Hamas alive and keeping Gazans squeezed for cash. The Wall Street Journal reports that the aid cutoff is making it impossible for Hamas to keep its terrorist foot soldiers paid. Since this comes at a moment when anti-Hamas protests are increasing, Hamas may have a recruitment crisis on its hands. Considering the extent to which its forces have already been depleted, Hamas surely cannot afford this setback—literally or figuratively:
“Hamas used the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods to build new income streams, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials. This has included charging taxes on merchants, collecting customs on trucks at checkpoints, and commandeering goods for resale. Hamas also has used overseas cash to buy humanitarian goods that are then sold in Gaza and turned back into cash, the officials said.
“Even with these workarounds, Hamas was nearing a liquidity crisis before the January cease-fire brought an influx of aid into Gaza, giving the group a chance to refill its coffers, the Israeli and Western officials said. Those pathways closed when Israel sealed Gaza’s borders to humanitarian supplies in March.”
This follows a familiar pattern: Israeli and American officials say something that is grounded in experience and rationality and thus is likely correct. The world bellows a collective How dare you? and rolls on. Eventually what the Israeli and American officials said is proved true. No one says “sorry.”
It has long been apparent that if there is hunger in Gaza it is because of Hamas, and if there is poverty in Gaza it is because—primarily at least—of Hamas. The terror group hijacked food aid and then impoverished civilians by raising prices of the very food they were supposed to be given.
Unlike humanitarian aid, which is physical, some aid groups have been able to get money to Gazan civilians through digital cash apps. But to buy their own “free” food back, Gazans then have to use a money-changer to turn that digital currency into cash, and the money-changer probably works for Hamas and charges, according to the Journal, a commission of 20 percent. If the Gazans are able to make it that far into the process, they must then use the “free” money to buy the “free” food at exorbitant prices. Which means in the end, they have paid dearly for less food than they probably should’ve gotten for free.
This is the miracle of “humanitarian aid.”
Now that the aid has been suspended, the Journal reports, “Salary payments to many Gaza government employees have ceased, while many senior Hamas fighters and political staff began receiving only about half of their pay midway through last month’s Ramadan holy period, the intelligence officials said.”
Plus, “the Israeli military has said it killed a money changer who was key to what it called terrorist financing for Hamas.”
This is how you defeat a terrorist army. Hamas isn’t an idea; it’s a human organization surviving on physical goods and paper money. Deprive it of those things and watch it disintegrate.
