Gaza Tribes and Officials Deny Israeli Allegations of Hamas Controlling Humanitarian Aid
High Tribal Authority in Gaza and local government refute claims by Netanyahu, asserting aid is distributed under international oversight and tribal protection.
Watan-The High Authority for Tribal Affairs in Gaza on Thursday firmly denied Israeli claims that Hamas controls the scarce humanitarian aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.
On Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and the army to develop a plan within 48 hours to stop what he alleged was Hamas’s grip over humanitarian aid.
In its Thursday statement, the Gaza Tribal Authority declared:“The tribes of Gaza categorically reject the slanderous allegations by the occupation, which aim to distort facts and spread chaos in the Strip.”
The statement stressed that:“All aid is fully secured under direct tribal supervision and is distributed exclusively through international organizations.”
The Authority called on the UN Security Council to immediately dispatch a delegation to observe aid distribution in the field and verify its integrity and transparency.
It emphasized that the amount of aid reaching Gaza so far is “a drop in the ocean compared to the immense needs of suffering children, women, the elderly, the sick, and the entire population.”
They clarified:“Palestinian factions have absolutely no involvement in this process. The protection and organization of aid delivery has been a purely tribal effort.”
On Wednesday, Palestinian tribes participated in securing aid trucks bound for World Food Programme warehouses in Gaza City, out of fear they could be looted by gangs reportedly operating under the protection of the Israeli army, according to some local sources.
The Authority added:“These accusations are nothing more than a desperate attempt to mislead global public opinion and justify the occupation’s ongoing aggression.”
It further warned:“The real goal of the occupation is to incite division and lure starving civilians into death traps. This calls for firm and immediate international intervention to stop these criminal schemes.”
Gaza Media Office Also Rejects Israeli Accusations
The Government Media Office in Gaza also issued a statement Thursday, refuting the claims made by Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz that Hamas or the local government controls aid distribution in northern Gaza.
“We unequivocally reject the false statements made by war criminal Netanyahu and his war minister Katz regarding alleged Hamas control of aid in northern Gaza,” the statement said.
It described the allegations as fabricated, with the intent to:“Justify the continued siege, starvation, and the 118-day-long ban on humanitarian relief.”
The office affirmed that families and tribal groups in northern Gaza secured the aid convoys:“Without any involvement from the Palestinian government or factions, merely to deliver scraps of food to hundreds of thousands of starving civilians.”
The statement concluded:“These cheap lies expose the occupation’s continued orchestration of chaos and misinformation to manufacture false pretexts for keeping the crossings shut and blocking humanitarian aid—a fully-fledged crime against over 2.4 million starving Palestinians in Gaza.”
