Hamas and humanitarian aid: the trucks get in. Then what?

The trucks get in. Then what?

Is Hamas stealing aid in Gaza? Start with what nobody seriously disputes: the trucks cross. Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) logs what enters. After the ceasefire that took effect on 10 October 2025, COGAT said about 4,200 aid trucks a week, about 600 a day, were entering Gaza, more than 70 percent of them food trucks, according to a Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center summary of that statement. A Jewish Virtual Library compilation of Israeli figures recorded that Israel facilitated about 2.2 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza between October 2023 and October 2025, including more than 1.7 million tons of food. So when someone tells you the food never gets in, ask the next question. Those figures record entry. Whether a sack of flour reaches the family it was meant for is decided on the other side of the fence, inside Gaza.

The IDF officers in the film talk about Hamas terrorists in civilian clothes, hostages held in homes, and aid. This post is about aid, and every claim below carries its source.

2009: the pattern is not new

Hamas seizing aid is on record long before this war. On 12 January 2009 the Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas raided some 100 aid trucks Israel had let into Gaza, stole the contents and sold them, an account later cited in an Israeli government legal paper on the Gaza operation and in an NGO Monitor submission. A month later NGO Monitor recorded another spate of incidents in which Hamas took aid from convoys and warehouses, after which imports were temporarily suspended.

An Israeli foreign ministry account compiled by the Jewish Virtual Library gives the quantities for early February 2009. On 3 February Hamas terrorists seized 3,500 blankets and 406 food parcels from a distribution centre at the Beach camp in Gaza City. On 5 February ten truckloads of flour and rice, 100 metric tons of flour and 200 metric tons of rice, were taken from the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, after which aid imports were halted. The same Israeli paper on the Gaza operation records that on 20 January 2009 armed men seized a Jordanian charity convoy after it entered via Kerem Shalom and forced the drivers toward other warehouses.

Diversion in this war

The IDF has released video it says shows Hamas terrorists taking aid from civilians. On 10 December 2023 it published footage it described as Hamas members beating civilians and stealing humanitarian aid in Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reported. FDD also recorded that on 2 May 2024 the US State Department said Hamas had hijacked a major Jordanian aid shipment after it was unloaded inside Gaza, calling it the first widespread case of diversion Washington had seen; the load was later recovered. In late July 2025 the IDF released more footage it said showed armed Hamas terrorists looting aid and blocking distribution, after Hamas had blamed the looting on other armed groups.

A June 2025 IDF press release, cited in a Jewish Virtual Library compilation, described systematic exploitation of humanitarian aid to fund terrorist activity. The compilation summarises Israeli intelligence assessments: Hamas had diverted up to 90 percent of humanitarian aid entering Gaza; it had generated roughly $500 million in a year from diversion, described as the largest single source of income in Gaza; and its methods included physical takeover, taxes and fees on aid goods, smuggling, and infiltration of aid organisations and distribution systems. Captured Hamas documents reviewed by NGO Monitor describe a “guarantor” system that placed Hamas-approved liaisons in senior posts at foreign NGOs, giving the terrorist organization a veto over projects. Later Israeli security assessments, summarised in January 2026, said Hamas was collecting a tax of 15 to 25 percent on private-sector trucks among the roughly 600 entering daily. These are Israeli and NGO Monitor findings. FDD has noted that Hamas denies taking aid. Weigh that denial against the documents NGO Monitor reviewed.

Washington has not spoken with one voice. CNN reported on 25 July 2025 that an internal USAID analysis of 156 partner-reported incidents of waste, fraud and abuse between October 2023 and May 2025 “found no affiliations” with sanctioned groups and, in the words of a source familiar with the review, no indication of “a systemic loss due to Hamas interference or theft or diversion.” Note the sample: incidents partners reported. The same article recorded that the State Department kept arguing that Hamas looted aid and that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was a way to deliver assistance that was not being looted. In November 2025 Fox News reported that a US diplomatic official briefed on USAID’s Office of Inspector General said the office was still receiving reports from aid workers that ran counter to a narrative that Hamas was never involved in theft of American-funded aid, and that in a 30 July update the inspector general said it was investigating credible allegations of Hamas interference, diversion and theft. Different samples, different periods, different definitions of “systematic.” One review of partner reports does not close an investigation that is still open.

After the crossing: hijacked cargo, waiting trucks, and a model that held

The road after the crossing tells you more than the count at the gate. In July 2025 the Washington Free Beacon reported from Gaza that, according to Gazans it interviewed, armed Hamas terrorists hijacked cargo once trucks reached population centres, and that remaining stocks disappeared into a patronage system. Moumen al-Natour, a Gaza lawyer, told the paper that fifty trucks had reached warehouses in Gaza City the day before and that “Hamas stole all of the aid,” which then went on sale in black markets. A senior Israeli officer told the same paper, “The U.N. aid is being stolen by Hamas.” The Jewish Virtual Library compilation, citing Israeli assessments, said bottlenecks after May 2025 occurred after entry, not at the crossings, with more than 900 trucks, some carrying infant food, left standing inside Gaza awaiting collection. Fox News reported that Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani posted video he described as about 950 trucks of aid waiting in Gaza for international organisations to pick up.

In the same months the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private distribution model with US and Israeli backing, was set up on a simple premise: Hamas should not control distribution. A GHF spokesman told Fox News the organisation was created because of diversion in the prior system, and that none of its trucks had been diverted. A senior State Department official told the Daily Wire that Hamas had “systematically looted humanitarian aid, turning relief into a tool of control,” and that GHF was “the only pipeline that denies Hamas resources and control.” Other aid organisations criticised the model. When GHF announced it was winding down in November 2025, it told Fox News it had delivered more than 187 million free meals without Hamas stealing the aid, and that in four and a half months of operations not a single GHF aid truck was looted. The Jewish Virtual Library compilation likewise stated that 100 percent of GHF trucks delivered aid directly to civilians. On 5 August 2025 the Washington Post reported that COGAT said it would again begin allowing private-sector merchants to bring goods into Gaza.

Crossings under fire, goods under inspection

Kerem Shalom is the main southern goods crossing into Gaza. FDD recorded repeated Hamas attacks on that crossing in May 2024. A Jewish Virtual Library compilation, citing the Jerusalem Post, records that on 5 May 2024 four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hamas rocket barrage toward Kerem Shalom and the aid crossing was closed. Israeli officials say crossings close when there is fire. So ask who fires rockets at an aid crossing, and who goes without when it shuts.

Israel inspects dual-use goods because they can serve civilian or military purposes. NGO Monitor, citing COGAT policy, records that Israel’s dual-use lists draw on the Wassenaar Arrangement and Israeli export-control orders, covering materials such as certain fertilisers, chemicals, metal profiles and construction inputs including cement and steel, which can be used in rockets, explosives or tunnels. Israel has permitted some of those materials for supervised civilian projects while keeping a ban on munitions and missile technology. Land-based distributors bring trucks to Israeli crossings for contraband inspection; once trucks pass and enter Gaza, collection and distribution inside the Strip are a separate step. Israel says there is no quantity cap on approved medicines.

Entry is not delivery

Entry and delivery are two different steps. Israel answers for the first and publishes the count. The sources above disagree on how much is lost in the second, and why, but that step happens inside Gaza, not at the Israeli gate. In the film, IDF officers say Hamas took over aid convoys and that most warehouses were under its control, and they describe nights when decisions about crossings, convoys, targeting and hostages overlapped. That is their account, on camera. Set it against the record above. Naza: The Real Story is free to watch online, with English subtitles.