JERUSALEM — Hamas rejected an accusation from a senior UN official on Monday of interfering with humanitarian deliveries in Gaza and intimidating aid workers.
An official from the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza called the accusation unfounded.
“These are baseless accusations. The police and security forces continue to protect aid trucks and distribution centres and facilitate the work of international and humanitarian organisations,” he told AFP.
UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov said he “strongly” condemned the obstruction of humanitarian operations by Gaza’s de facto authorities, referring to Hamas.
“Humanitarian workers were forced to halt food distributions after armed personnel affiliated with the de facto authorities forcibly entered the Abu Rashid food distribution point in Jabalia, North Gaza,” Alakbarov said in a statement on Monday.
He said the armed personnel entered a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse and assaulted two truck drivers who were delivering humanitarian supplies.
Alakbarov said “these incidents are not isolated” and “reflect an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction, including smuggling attempts, targeting and abusing humanitarian operations”.
Hamas, which controls parts of Gaza, strongly denied the allegations.
“We categorically reject the language of incitement, the distortion of facts, and the manufactured narrative presented in the statement,” the group said in a statement.
The group said the WFP distribution centre was not attacked or raided but was instead the site of an “official law enforcement operation” carried out after the discovery of smuggled items “concealed inside humanitarian aid parcels”.
It added that a unit of the Palestinian police uncovered an attempt to exploit humanitarian convoys to smuggle in cigarettes and mobile phone screens for commercial purposes.
“The police intervention in this incident constituted a responsible governmental measure aimed fundamentally at safeguarding the independence, integrity, and neutrality of humanitarian action,” the group said.
Palestinians in Gaza continue to live in dire humanitarian conditions after Israel’s genocidal war and severe restriction on supplies of humanitarian aid. Israel launched the war in October 2023 after Hamas-led fighters attacked communities in southern Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking about 240 captive.
In October last year, the two sides agreed to a US-brokered “ceasefire”, which Israel has breached consistently. While the intensity of the fighting has reduced, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,500 have been wounded since the “ceasefire” took effect. At least four Israeli soldiers have also been killed.
Altogether, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war.
Source: Saudi Gazette