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Hamas facing financial and administrative crisis as revenue dries up

Hamas facing financial and administrative crisis as revenue dries up

Washington Post5 days ago
TEL AVIV — Hamas is facing its worst financial and administrative crisis in its four-decade history, facing stiff challenges in mustering the resources needed to continue fighting Israel and ruling Gaza.
With its coffers depleted, Hamas's military wing can no longer adequately pay the salaries of its fighters, though it is still able to recruit teenage boys for missions like keeping lookout or placing explosives along Israeli military routes, according to Oded Ailam, who is a former high-level Israeli intelligence officer, and current Israel Defense Forces officers.
The group has also been unable to replace the well equipped tunnels and underground command centers that Israeli forces have destroyed in their bid to uproot Hamas. Before he was killed in an airstrike two months ago, Hamas military commander Mohammed Sinwar had been forced to take refuge in a one-room hideout 30 feet below a hospital in southern Gaza. The spartan bunker was a far cry from the vast underground complex that the Israeli military said it found earlier in the war farther north, which included spacious white-tiled rooms, a blast-proof door, mechanical ventilation and ample space to accommodate weapons stockpiles.
'Hamas is not rebuilding their tunnels, they're not paying their highly trained fighters, they're only surviving,' Ailam said.
Nor can the Hamas administration meet the payroll of police and ministry employees in Gaza, where the group has been the governing authority since 2007, or continue to pay death benefits to the families of fighters killed, according to Ailam, a local Palestinian policeman and two other Gazans.
Ibrahim Madhoun, a Gazan analyst close to Hamas, said that the group had not prepared for more than a year of war and has been forced to adopt austerity measures, such as cutting administrative costs and salaries, while trying to maintain some basic services — for instance, by setting up emergency committees that provide basic local services such as garbage collection and management of generator fuel — and thus some semblance of governing authority.
To pick up some of the slack, Madhoun said, Hamas also relies on efforts of the local community and the 'strong social network that helps absorb the shocks.'
Hamas officials did not respond to requests for comment about the group's financial health.
Hamas and Israel are currently negotiating over a possible 60-day ceasefire, with Israel seeking to ensure that it can maintain pressure on Hamas and the militant group looking for a lifeline. All sides say the talks are making progress, but an agreement remains elusive.
Earlier in the war, Hamas relied on taxes imposed on commercial shipments and the seizure of humanitarian goods, according to Gazans and current and former Israeli and foreign officials. According to a Gazan who has worked at the border, plainclothes Hamas personnel routinely took inventory of goods at the Rafah crossing, until it closed last year, and at the Kerem Shalom crossing, though it was under IDF control. They also surveyed warehouses and markets. Most of the Palestinians interviewed for this story spoke either on the condition of anonymity or that only their first name be used, for fear of reprisal by Hamas.
The United Nations, the European Commission and major international aid organizations have said they have no evidence that Hamas has systematically stolen their aid, and the Israeli government has not provided proof.
Hamas profited 'especially off the aid that had cost them nothing but whose prices they hike up,' said a Gazan contractor who has worked at Gaza's border crossings during the war.
Over nearly two years, he said, he saw Hamas routinely collect 20,000 shekels (about $6,000) from local merchants, threatening to confiscate their trucks if they did not pay. He recalled that civil servants for the Hamas-led government said several times that they would kill him or call him a collaborator with Israel if he did not cooperate with their demands to divert aid. He said he refused. But he added that he knew at least two aid truck drivers who he said were killed by Hamas for refusing to pay.
When Israel imposed a siege on Gaza in March, shortly before breaking a two-month ceasefire with Hamas, most of those shipments came to a halt.
Hamas officials did not respond to requests for comment about accounts that it has taxed or impounded commercial shipments, stolen humanitarian aid or extorted local businessmen.
Hamas triggered the devastating war in Gaza by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 others back into Gaza as hostages. Since then, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 58,000 people, mostly women and children, Gazan health authorities say.
An Israeli military official said Hamas has lost 90 percent of its leadership and 90 percent of its weapons stockpiles over the course of the conflict. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media.
In the early phase of the war, Hamas had rushed to stash cash and supplies underground, but those have run short. In March 2024, the Israeli army said that it confiscated more than $3 million from the tunnels beneath al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, according to a statement in the IDF's WhatsApp group.
But Hamas has profited off commercial trade and humanitarian aid, netting hundreds of millions of dollars, according to two Israeli military officials and an Israeli intelligence official, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive findings. For instance, the officials said, Hamas seized at least 15 percent of some goods, like flour, and aid vouchers that international agencies had intended to provide to hungry Gazans. These officials said some of that was given to Hamas personnel and supporters while the rest was sold to make money.
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian American who leads the advocacy group Realign for Palestine, said that Hamas repeatedly modified its strategy for profiting off aid and commerce while counting on the humanitarian crisis to bring the war to an end. 'Hamas's strategy relied on the suffering of Gazans,' said Alkhatib. 'But when this strategy failed, it foolishly doubled down on this approach, in large part because it had nothing else in its toolbox to deal with Israel's ferocious reaction to Oct. 7 and the world's inability to stop it.'
'Hamas sees aid as its most important currency,' said a man from Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, who helps manage the distribution of aid. He said that while most of the population had to scrape for water and food, people affiliated with Hamas had been gifted boxes of aid meant for wider distribution.
The IDF, citing intelligence, says the aid organizations targeted by Hamas have included U.N. agencies and NGOs. The Israeli government has used allegations of widespread Hamas theft to justify draconian restrictions on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza and to justify bombing aid depots. Some far-right members of the Israeli government have said these restrictions are useful in pressuring Hamas into making negotiating concessions and in turning Gaza's population against Hamas.
Israel has not provided public proof that Hamas has systematically stolen aid brought into Gaza under the U.N. system, and despite requests from The Washington Post to officials in the IDF, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the prime minister's office, no evidence has been provided to substantiate reports of widespread diversion of U.N. food aid. Nor has Israel privately presented proof to humanitarian organizations or Western government officials, even when they have pressed for evidence, according to interviews with more than a dozen aid officials and several current and former Western officials.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director for the U.N.'s World Food Program, one of the main providers of flour in Gaza throughout the war, said in an interview that systematic aid diversion by Hamas 'has not been an issue for us so far in the conflict.' WFP previously reported three instances of looting of its supplies during 21 months of war. 'We have mitigating measures that we have drawn lessons from over the past 40 years operating in these kinds of complex environments with armed groups,' he said. 'We are putting all those mitigating measures in place.'
Officials from several major international aid organizations have also said that there has been no systematic diversion of their aid by Hamas and that they have robust procedures for tracking aid as it enters Gaza and is distributed.
An Egyptian official briefed on intelligence, however, said that Hamas had indeed stolen some of this food aid. 'Hamas is trying to use the aid to survive. It's happening,' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media.
Among the group's demands in negotiations with Israel over a new ceasefire deal is the reopening of Gaza's borders and the surging of humanitarian aid — partly to alleviate the severe shortage of food that has turned public opinion against Hamas, but also to revive its cash flow, said an official familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
'One of the reasons that Hamas is pushing for a return to the old system is that they have guys in all of the warehouses,' said a Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the news media. The presence of employees of the Gaza government allows Hamas to regulate and monitor market activities, as well as tax or seize some of the supplies at times, said a high-level Israeli official.
Until commercial shipments into Gaza were suspended in October, Hamas taxed these imports at the border and, if traders refused, commandeered a portion of their trucks and sold their contents to Gazan merchants, according to a Gazan economic reporter. He said that before the war, 'fuel and cigarettes were the highest taxed and most profitable items for the Hamas government in Gaza,' adding that revenue data has been difficult to access.
A Gazan businessman said Hamas had imposed a tax of a least 20 percent on many goods. But the group also would take control of trucks carrying high-demand goods like flour, which could sell for up to $30 for a kilogram, and steal fuel meant for aid groups. Fuel supplies have produced high revenue for Hamas during the war, with the group both taxing and seizing fuel stored at gas stations for sale, said an Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocol.
In addition to taxing goods, Hamas also made money by allowing associated merchants to sell imported staples like sugar and flour at inflated prices without fear of being punished for price gouging, according to the IDF, which cited an internal Hamas document obtained by the military. The Gazan economic reporter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, confirmed that these merchants are allowed to sell goods at inflated prices. He said Hamas would at times constrain supply on the market by ordering others to withhold distribution for several days, thus forcing up prices.
When Israel resumed the war in March, Hamas saw its revenue tumble as imports and aid shipments into Gaza largely were reduced to a trickle. The establishment in May of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a food assistance program backed by the U.S. and Israel whose operations have been overshadowed by the repeated fatal shooting of Palestinians seeking aid at its centers — has deprived Hamas of earlier revenue, the Israeli military official said.
As Hamas has come under growing military and financial pressures, it has become increasingly repressive in a bid to show it is still in control. Gazans interviewed for this story spoke of growing fear of retribution. In videos posted since this spring on social media by a Hamas-linked unit formed to dole out punishments, masked gunmen are shown beating up and shooting the legs of men accused of stealing aid.
Gazans said Hamas is also seeking to intimidate those critical of the group. Last month, for instance, Mowafeq Khdour, 31, was robbed and brutally beaten by dozens of armed Hamas men after he spoke out publicly against Hamas, his brother Mahmoud said over WhatsApp.
As Hamas adopts harsher policies, the group's popularity is falling, said Rami, a 40-year-old employee of the Hamas-run government who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used out of concern for his safety. He said the anger on Gaza's streets is markedly different from the optimism earlier in the conflict, when 'we believed we were on the brink of liberating Palestine or achieving a major victory in the war,' especially with Hamas and its allies holding about 250 people hostage.
'Israel's actions are undeniably criminal, but Hamas's poor judgment and failure to account for the war's aftermath have also contributed significantly to this disaster,' Rami said.
Balousha reported from Hamilton, Ontario. Miriam Berger and Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
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Jordan, other countries could airdrop aid into Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens

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Jordan, other countries could airdrop aid into Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens

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USAID, Reuters dismiss mountain of evidence showing Hamas steals humanitarian aid
USAID, Reuters dismiss mountain of evidence showing Hamas steals humanitarian aid

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

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USAID, Reuters dismiss mountain of evidence showing Hamas steals humanitarian aid

The study's acknowledgment of severe limitations, combined with extensive documentation of Hamas aid diversion from multiple sources, raises serious questions about the reliability of its findings. A deeply flawed US government analysis, published by Reuters on Friday, astonishingly concluded there was no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian supplies. This finding directly contradicts overwhelming evidence and testimony, raising serious questions about the report's methodology and its challenge to the rationale for Israeli and US backing of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The critical flaw? This unsound analysis conspicuously ignored a mountain of evidence demonstrating systematic aid theft by Hamas throughout the 600-plus-day war. The USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance study, completed in late June and first reported by Reuters on Friday, examined 156 incidents of theft or loss reported by aid partners between October 2023 and May 2025. The analysis concluded there were "no reports alleging Hamas" benefited from US-funded supplies. However, the study's own acknowledgment of severe limitations, combined with extensive documentation of Hamas aid diversion from multiple sources, raises serious questions about the reliability of its findings. Study's acknowledged blind spots The USAID analysis itself candidly identified several critical limitations that may explain why it failed to detect what Palestinians on the ground describe as systematic theft: The study noted that because aid recipients cannot be vetted, supplies could have reached Hamas administrative officials without detection. Additionally, BHA staff lost access to classified intelligence systems during USAID's recent dismantlement, potentially missing crucial intelligence reports on Hamas diversions. Perhaps most significantly, the study relied entirely on self-reporting from aid organizations operating in what analysts describe as a "mafia-like" environment controlled by Hamas through violence and intimidation. "No organization wants to admit it handed over some aid to terrorists or mafia gunmen," noted a Jerusalem Post analysis in May. "But the organizations also know if they condemn Hamas, then they could be in danger." 'They're criminals, like ISIS' Just weeks before the USAID study was completed, Gaza residents were telling Israeli officials a dramatically different story. In recorded conversations released by the IDF, Palestinians described how Hamas systematically disrupts aid distribution to maintain control over supplies. "They don't want the people to receive aid, they want to foil the plan so that the aid will go to them, allowing them to steal it," one Gaza resident told a Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) officer in May. "They live on the aid... they want aid to come in through the United Nations and international organizations so they can steal it... I swear to you, they're criminals, like ISIS." Another civilian employed by World Central Kitchen provided direct testimony about theft: "When the supplies arrive, they try to steal." The testimonies also revealed the deadly consequences for Palestinians who attempt to bypass Hamas's control. "They killed my cousin yesterday because he went to UNRWA," one resident was recorded saying in a January conversation, referring to Hamas's murder of civilians seeking aid outside their system. In response to inquiries from The Jerusalem Post, the IDF reiterated the military's coordination with humanitarian efforts while condemning Hamas's exploitation of aid: "The IDF operates, and will continue to operate, in accordance with the directives of the political echelon. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that starves the population and endangers it to maintain its rule in the Gaza Strip. Hamas does everything in its power to block humanitarian aid, directly harming Gazan civilians." The statement emphasized that the IDF has enabled the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to operate independently in distributing aid, while securing new distribution zones to facilitate orderly food deliveries, even as military operations continue. Since May 19, humanitarian transfers to Gaza have resumed through two primary channels: distribution centers run by the US-backed organization and UN-coordinated aid. According to internal figures shared with the Post by military officials coordinating aid operations, nearly 4,500 humanitarian trucks have entered Gaza since May 19, split evenly between distribution centers and supplemental routes. These deliveries included 1.5 million weekly family food parcels, 2,500 tons of infant formula, and bulk supplies for bakeries and kitchens. The GHF, established specifically to bypass Hamas control, has also faced severe retaliation. By June, GHF reported that 12 of its local staff had been murdered and others tortured. Hamas has repeatedly attacked GHF distribution sites, with witnesses reporting deliberate shooting at civilians attempting to collect aid. 'The warehouse is at full capacity' Israeli intelligence has also intercepted revealing Hamas communications. In September 2024, N12 broadcast that a Hamas terrorist was recorded discussing stolen humanitarian aid: "At this point, we have everything... The warehouse is at full capacity." Even Palestinian Authority officials have contradicted the USAID findings. In April 2025, PA President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas for aid lootings in the Gaza Strip, with WAFA quoting a presidential statement saying that "it held Hamas-affiliated gangs primarily responsible." Abbas emphasized that all of the looting gangs were "known to the Palestinian public and will top the blacklist to be held accountable and brought to justice in accordance with the law at the appropriate time." Aid crisis deepens as Israel disputes USAID findings The urgency of the aid situation was underscored Thursday when UNICEF warned that "severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, and the world is watching it happen." The UN agency called for "unfettered aid access to children in need," highlighting the devastating humanitarian impact of the ongoing crisis. Yet the core question remains: why isn't aid reaching those desperate children? In a statement to thePost, David Mencer, spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office, offered a starkly different explanation than the USAID report: "Israel facilitates thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, but we know from multiple intelligence and international sources that Hamas diverts between 30% and 50% of that aid for its own use." This assessment directly contradicts the USAID findings and aligns with testimonies from Gaza residents and Palestinian Authority officials. "They steal food, fuel, and medicine meant for civilians, hoard it in their tunnels, and sell it on the black market to fund their war machine," Mencer added. "Hamas deliberately exploits the aid to starve their own people." The Israeli government's position suggests that the malnutrition crisis UNICEF describes isn't solely a matter of access, but rather a deliberate strategy by Hamas to weaponize humanitarian suffering - a claim supported by multiple Palestinian testimonies but notably absent from the USAID analysis. Also notably absent was any mention of the increasing number of truckloads of aid waiting for the UN and other international aid groups on the Gaza side of the border. The UN has blamed bureaucracy, but the GHF and the IDF have both separately attempted to offer solutions to the idling aid. A narrow scope While the USAID study noted 'no reports alleging Hamas' stole US-funded aid within the confines of the 156 incidents it reviewed, this exceedingly narrow finding stands in stark contrast to the overwhelming and documented broader reality in Gaza. The study's acknowledged limitations - including inability to vet recipients, loss of classified intelligence access, and reliance on organizations with strong incentives not to report Hamas involvement - suggest its findings should be viewed as incomplete rather than definitive. Yet despite these significant limitations, Reuters' reporting on the study came with a definitive headline proclaiming "no evidence of massive Hamas theft of Gaza aid" - a framing that obscures the report's narrow scope and methodological constraints. This pattern of transforming qualified findings into absolute declarations reflects a troubling trend in coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, where complex realities are reduced to misleading soundbites. 'Reuters' claim that there's 'no evidence' Hamas has profited from aid ignores mounting documentation and misleads the public in ways that fuel both antisemitism and conflict.' Jacki Alexander, the Global CEO of media watchdog HonestReporting, told the Post. 'This push to absolve Hamas only prolongs the war and endangers civilians. 'The media has a responsibility to report facts, not push narratives that shield terrorists and shift blame onto their victims.' She added. As warnings of hunger mount in Gaza, the disconnect between the USAID report and the testimonies of Palestinians living under Hamas control highlights the challenges of delivering assistance in a territory where aid flows, but too often into the hands of terrorists rather than starving families. Ultimately, for the civilians of Gaza, who risk their lives simply trying to access food aid, the academic question of whether Hamas's systematic theft can be documented matters far less than the brutal reality they face attempting to get their next meal. Solve the daily Crossword

PM signals UK will help Gaza aid airdrop amid calls for Palestinian statehood
PM signals UK will help Gaza aid airdrop amid calls for Palestinian statehood

Yahoo

time32 minutes ago

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PM signals UK will help Gaza aid airdrop amid calls for Palestinian statehood

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