A Hamas police officer shot a Palestinian boy to stop him from approaching humanitarian aid in the area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. The boy later died of his wounds.
Clashes later broke out between Hamas terrorists and the family of the boy, Ahmed Bracha, in the area of Tel al-Sultan north of Rafah.
Crowds set fire to the Hamas police station and the family vowed revenge for his death, threatening to kill the officer and his family, Channel 12 reported.
Hamas policemen were documented attacking residents in Khan Yunis as well over the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Video has emerged in recent weeks of Gazans raiding humanitarian aid trucks before they reach their destinations, the report said, noting in many cases it’s Hamas that gets its hands on the aid.
Earlier this month, an elderly Gazan woman told Al Jazeera that Hamas redirects humanitarian aid deliveries to its tunnels for use by members of the terrorist group.
“All aid goes down [into Hamas tunnels]. The aid does not reach the nation and entire people,” she said.
The journalist from the Qatari state-owned network then tried to convince her that only a small amount of aid is coming into the Strip and that it is all being properly distributed.
The woman wagged her finger at him and said, “Everything goes to [the terrorists’] houses. They take it. They will even shoot me and do whatever they want to me—Hamas.”
Despite the evidence that humanitarian aid is reaching Hamas, Israel has failed to hold to an earlier promise that aid would stop if it did so as it does not wish to resupply its enemy.
“Israel will not prevent humanitarian assistance from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population located in the southern Gaza Strip or (those) evacuating to there, and as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Neither has the United States remained firm despite pledging to stop assistance if it ended up in the hands of the terror group.
“Let me be clear, if Hamas averts or steals the assistance, it will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people and it will end,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Oct. 18 during a solidarity trip to Israel.
“As a practical matter, it will—it will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid,” he said.
The United States has instead pressed Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and Netanyahu now insists that humanitarian aid enables the war to continue, arguing at a Dec. 5 press conference:
“The war efforts are supported by the humanitarian effort…this is because we follow laws of war because we know that if there would be a collapse—diseases, pandemics and groundwater infections—it will stop the fighting.”
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