Hamas is Keeping 500,000 Liters of Fuel

We keep hearing about how Gaza is running out of fuel, water, and food, and blame is put on Israel’s siege of the Strip. But though supplies of food arriving to Gaza have decreased after October 7, Gaza has never been close to running out, even though the Palestinians keep insisting that “we don’t have more than two or three days left of food.” They say this every day, and yet every day there still seems to be enough food in Gaza. And now that Israel has softened its siege, the convoys of trucks full of food have been entering through the Rafah Crossing, replenishing the food supplies; these convoys and will continue indefinitely. Israel has raised no objection to these truckloads of food and other supplies. As for the claim that Gaza is “running out of water,” this is nonsense. Before the war, Gaza received only 7% of its water from Israel, so that Israel could not possibly have “cut off” all of Gaza’s water.

Finally, the Palestinians and the NGOs that parrot their lies claim that the Gazans are “running out of fuel” that they need to run their hospital generators, that “people will die” if fuel is not supplied to the hospitals. Fuel is also needed for the desalination plants that supply much of Gaza’s water. What the world does not know is that there is plenty of fuel In Gaza, in the possession of Hamas, that refuses to release any to the hospitals or for any other civilian use. More on Hamas’ half-million liters of fuel that it Is keeping for war-making purposes, rather than providing it to help the people of Gaza, including hospital patients, can be found here: “Israeli Military Says Hamas Stockpiling 500,000 Liters of Fuel While Aid Agencies Decry Shortage,” by Andrew Bernard, Algemeiner, October 24, 2023:

Israel on Tuesday released satellite images depicting what it described as stockpiles of half a million liters of diesel fuel controlled by Hamas as UN agencies claimed that their operations were on the verge of ceasing for lack of power.

“There’s fuel in Gaza to run hospitals and pump water,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Conricus posted on X/Twitter. “But Hamas prefers to use the fuel to continue fighting Israel. All those who claim otherwise are whitewashing Hamas crimes against their own.”

Conricus shared a post from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in the Israeli Defense Ministry, showing the purported fuel tanks.

The IDF also posted a similar message from its own X/Twitter account showing fuel tanks in Hamas-controlled Gaza, suggesting the UN ask the Palestinian terrorist group for the fuel it needs….

“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries,” UNRWA said in a statement. “Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance. No fuel will further strangle the children, women, and people of Gaza … Without fuel, we will fail the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour, under our watch.”…

“Without fuel,” all sorts of dire things will happen. But there is plenty of fuel in Gaza, half a million liters of it, just sitting in tanks controlled by Hamas. Why doesn’t UNRWA, or the UN, or the Arab League, call on Hamas to release that fuel for the use of civilians in Gaza?

UNRWA last week issued a statement saying that “the de facto authorities” in Gaza — meaning Hamas — had seized fuel and medical supplies from UNRWA’s evacuated headquarters in Gaza City. UNRWA then deleted its own statement and claimed that Hamas’ seizure of the supplies was a routine transfer.

“UNRWA would like to confirm that no looting has taken place in any of its warehouses in the Gaza Strip,” UNRWA said in its follow-up statement. “The images circulating on social media were of a movement of basic medical supplies from the UNRWA warehouse to health partners.”

UNRWA first told the truth, about Hamas seizing fuel and medical supplies from UNRWA’s Gaza City headquarters. At that point, Hamas must have threatened UNRWA, which then had to post a “correction” that explained that the Hamas appropriation of UNRWA’s supply of fuel and medicine was not theft but, in fact, merely a “routine transfer” to “health partners.” UNRWA needs to hold Hamas blameless…or else.

This is the truth: Hamas has in the recent past stolen both fuel and medical supplies from UNRWA headquarters. UNRWA had at first complained of this state of affairs, then was threatened by Hamas, and changed its story, now claiming that the fuel and medical supplies had merely been moved in a “routine transfer.” The Gazans are not fooled; they know what Hamas did in order to appropriate such a vast amount of diesel fuel.

Now Israel has shown the world photographs of the fuel storage tanks Hamas controls, that contain 500,000 liters of fuel. Will UNWRA, or the UN, or the Arab League, call on Hamas to release that enormous supply of fuel, in order to run hospital generators and thereby to “save the lives of patients” and also to allow the desalination plants that are running low on fuel to continue operating? You know the answer to that.